Classics from 1940s -70s

[christoff]

Found this and thought you might like a look..

[rh226]

Nice one Chris!!

Bit of a memory jerker with the now defunct airlines, though.

Nice shot of Flying Tiger CL-44 N451T in there (4.24) - I think that was one of the ones that visited Heathrow on their overnight cargo run.

[graham]

Superb Chris, love the line up of United and Lufthansa 727's, those were the days.....

[davebasing]

Thanks Chris, some great memories there for us oldies who can remember the Dead Sea before it even reported sick.Particularly good to see the Trans Canada AL North Stars, or Argonauts as they were called in UK airline service. With Merlin engines the aircraft was notoriously thunderingly noisy inside. For this reason the single Canadian Air Force VIP North Star was fitted with P&W engines instead. Back in 1961 Overseas Aviation in the UK bought 15 North Stars from TCA at a job lot cost (including spares) of under £300,000 to add to the ex BOAC Argonauts they had earlier acquired. Only 11 were delivered before Overseas went bust but I was lucky enough to see them stored at Gatwick that year and graph some of them in the fog together with ex BOAC Argonaut G-ALHS. Sorry for the quality but this was nearly 60 years ago as a schoolboy with an Ilford Sportsman camera in the days before auto focus, auto exposure etc, a single basic fixed lens and pretty inconsistent printing quality from the local (but cheap) Chiswick chemist. These ex TCA aircraft never entered service in the UK, some were sold abroad while one ended its days derelict at Panshanger and 3 at Coventry. Just one North Star now survives, at the Canadian museum at Rockliffe, despite spending some 40 years in outside store there (through the harsh Canadian winters) where I first graphed her in 1998. She had finally been brought inside for some much needed TLC when I graphed her again in the restoration hangar there in 2010. Overseas’ Argonaut G-ALHS went on to fly with British Midland and was scrapped at East Midlands in 1970, the tragic Stockport crash of G-ALHG in June 1967 having effectively signalled the end of the career of the type which had first entered service with BOAC in 1949. The last surviving Argonaut was former BOAC & East African AW G-ALHJ which was used as a ground trainer at Heathrow from 1961, transferring to the Heathrow Fire Service in 1970 and not finally broken up there until 1982. Again sorry for the quality of the only picture I ever took of her. The Stansted fire school also had G-ALHI from 1966, eventually reducing her to a burnt out hulk. Argonauts of East African (poor shot of VP-KOI at Gatwick in 1964) and Aden AW were regular Heathrow visitors way back then, while Flying Enterprise (Denmark) Argonauts and Canadian Air Force North Stars were not uncommon at Gatwick. But the best Argonaut I saw was Rhodesian Air Force 181 at Heathrow in November 1960. She eventually reverted to G-ALHH with Air Links and was broken up in July 1965 (along with G-ALHC & G-ALHF) at, of all places, Redhill.

Have so far made 13 visits to Montreal over the past 30 years or so for various meetings at the ICAO HQ. The film has (at 2.10) a shot of a CP DC8 from inside my former favourite comfy viewing area at Dorval, from which I might shortly bore you with a few of my shots.

IMG_5119 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
IMG_5118 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
Image198sf by dave tompkins, on Flickr
IMG_6884 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
IMG_5126 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
IMG_5125 by dave tompkins, on Flickr

[graham]

Dave, fantastic narrative and great photos, thanks so much