Short 340/360
 

These two used to be the backbone of Aer Lingus's domestic fleet, and as such I flew in them often. They also used to fly BRS-DUB and BRS-ORK. Being unpressurised, they flew through the weather, which being Irish weather, was often interesting. I never had a problem with this, but some of my work colleagues developed a delicate shade of green in the face. One in particular used to get distinctly queasy when the engines were running at different speeds, giving rise to a cyclic drone throughout the cabin.

I still had both lungs back in those days, so the lack of pressurisation wasn't a problem.

What was it like to fly, as opposed to fly in? Uplinker?

The Shed and Super Shed if I recall.😁

These aircraft had lots of names. The vomit comet. The box it came in. Those were just two.

330, not 340.

Saab had a 340, but it wasn't as good. :O

Well yeah, it had defects like pressurization.
Both the Shorts and the Saab saw service as contracted feeders in the US for the majors.
Imagine connecting from a long-haul flight from wherever and then spending your last couple of hundred miles in a Shed.

I never flew in it, or the Saab 2000. Wasn't one or the other the first to use active noise cancellation to keep the cabin noise down to an acceptable level?

Saabs delivered starting in 1994 did have active noise reduction.
I never flew in one either so I have no idea if or how well this worked.

Did many a trip USA or Europe to Brisbane then onto the 330 (Irish Concord) or 360 (Irish Super Concord) and sometimes even a Bandit or Twotter for the trip to Hervey Bay. From what I remember, our Engineers loved 330/360, on delivery they just opened the box, took out the wings, nailed them to top of box, stapled engines to the wing and it was good for 'service.' Never had a pressurisation problem with them as difficult to have a problem with something that wasn't there. When flying was fun I remember.

I only did one trip in a shed from Edinburgh to Leeds Bradford on a very cold winters Thursday night, in around 1995 (It was for an evening interview). The return was the following morning at some ungodly hour, and the Shed was freezing, with a large air blower piping warm air into Pax cabin. Both flight were in cold stable air, and at relatively low level, so nice views of cars on M6 on the way down and early sun rise over Lake District / Borders on return. Had to drive back South following evening, but got the job so hence my clear memory of my Shed experience, but can not remember the carrier, but it was an odd one maybe Gill Airlines I am not sure, and a Wiki search did not help either.
Cheers
Mr Mac

I only flew a Short 330 once, in the 80's - MME to BHD with Jersey European. I didn't really know much about aircraft types back then so I probably didn't know what to expect....... But I was amused, subsequently, to hear it described as a garden shed with wings.

It was a clear summer day and I don't remember much about the flight itself other than the great views of the Lake District.

Probably Capital

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_Airlines_(UK)

I did a couple of jumpseat rides on both the 330 and the 360. The seat was to the left of the captain, which made the perspective when you came to land look very odd!

Did that quite a few times in the US.

Much better view. :O

SWBKCB
I thought maybe Capital as well, but unfortunately they went bust in 1990 apparently, and I didn’t join that business until mid 90,s, so unless Wiki wrong then Capital ruled out.

However Capital was formed from Brown Air who I flew to Oslo with from LBA a number of times in 1984 I think, and that was a quite unique carrier, more 633 Squadron than an airline, but great fun with very happy crew. Still no idea re Short carrier though.
Cheers
Mr Mac

I recall Brown Air had a fleet of Gulfstream 1s to start with?

fdcg27.
I once flew to JFK on the early morning Concorde flight and then onwards to Buffalo on a Shed.
Can't remember if it was a 330 or 360, but was quite a sight waiting for take-off watching a B747 touching down right next to you.

Concorde to Shed - that could be some sort of record. Sublime to corblimey.

I flew the the SD330 and SD 360 for about a year in 2003 for a night freight company amusingly called "Streamline". The P&W PT6 was a pretty reliable engine. The flight deck was surprisingly spacious with individual crewmember doors which made us laugh.
The aircraft itself was very cold to operate in winter as it being non pressurised, it leaked like a sieve in wet weather and a lot of the insulation was taken out. Boxes don't care.
The cargo fire ex system was basic. The antiskid system were maxarets, same as the Hawker 800 I later flew.
Good first job.

As a pax, you knew you were flying in a different class of aircraft from the sign fitted to the bulkhead at the front of the cabin which declared "Lavatory at Back".

Given that it was un-pressurised, surely it would have sufficed to say "For matters lavatorial, please open the main door carefully..."

EDI-LBA
 

I worked for Air UK at EDI in the early 90's, we did EDI-LBA with a shed, usually G-DASI, if that helps?
Cheers
Iain

I could tell you a story about an unfortunate product support engineer who had the squitters on board a (toilet-less) Skyvan during a demo tour, but I won't ... :O

Iain
I don't think it was Air UK as I did use you on some other routes and I was swayed with Capital or something like that however I cannot remember. My Diaries are in the garage at home (sad thing that I am) so maybe able to check next week when back.
Cheers
Mr Mac

I'd have gone for Air UK; I recall meeting a colleague off Leeds to Edinburgh around that time off one with them. Such a route was a hangover from their predecessor Air Anglia. It was a stormy winter morning and they had to make a medical diversion into Newcastle on the way up. All through the meeting they were bemoaning the return trip. As it was at a time when I was in a skydiving club, my jocular comments about how they should try stepping out at 12.000 ft in such conditions just added to their discomfort.

The Aer Lingus commuter fleet worked through a whole range of types for their smaller routes, none of which lasted that long. After their last Viscount went in 1970 they were all-jet, until 1984 when they got a fleet of Shorts 360s for minor routes, proudly announced as Irish. But these were replaced by Fokker 50s, then again by Saab 340s, then they subcontracted such routes out to Aer Arann with ATRs. By the late 1990s they had developed quite an internal network, Dublin to Cork was a significant business travel route, all of which has now disappeared.

Whenever I went through Belfast City in the 1990s-2000s I always looked across at Shorts for what might be back parked outside, at the Shorts MRO. At first even a Skyvan, then maybe one or two 330/360, which slowly fell away. Eventually there were none.

I remember that part of that deal stipulated that whenever Shorts' London-based staff, myself included, needed to travel to the USA they would do so in future on EI via DUB.

That didn't last long, :O

Gillair probably - I flew them once from NCL-ABZ early January 1995. Quite why I can't remember - it was damn cold tho'

Since we brought up the subject of the Saab 340… Back in the good ol’ days of Northwest, we flew a work crew Ft Myers to Detroit on a 757, and onward to Traverse City on a S340. Halfway into the 340 flight, we lost an engine. No mechanics at Traverse, so we turned back to Detroit. A young lady on my team was looking a little worried, and it gave me to opportunity to go “full Ron White” mode on her.

She: “How far can we go on one engine?”
Me: “All the way to the scene of the crash. I bet we beat the paramedics there by a half hour…”
She: “>Wail!<“
Me: “Oh, don’t worry. Our company life insurance is pretty solid. Our funerals will be fully covered.”

The rest of the team was sublimely amused.