Air Anglia

Definitely very dark blue on the F-27s – almost black. I worked on the BIA rebrand in the late 70s. That used chocolate brown as well as orange. When BIA returned as a charter airline it used 1-11-400s and then MD-80s. Never DC-9s.

Christ, that photo brings back some memories, that hangar was practicaly my home for about 13 years of my life! Oh to be young and (even more) stupid again!!

Hi Anecdotage and welcome to the Forum.

Interesting thread – even if is 6 years since the last contribution!

I assume your comments relate only to the turbine and jet types later operated by Air Anglia – their DC-3s all had a natural metal lower fuselage. Attached is an example – I took this shot when the aircraft was in the Fields hangar at East Midlands undergoing overhaul.

Tim

The lower fuselage of Air Anglia aircraft was dark (i.e. Navy) blue and never ever brown. I was with the Company and had direct sight of all AQ aircraft.

Fascinating thread. Everyone convinced (but not quite) that they recall the colours.

And you wonder that juries get confused by eye-witness evidence.

Having searched the stuff currently available on ebay I would tend towards dark blue as being the colour for the lower hull.

Moggy

ex air anglia

The Air Anglia colours were yellow white and black.with a graphic yellow A on the tail. When the airline became Air UK the new paint scheme was changed to two shades of blue and white.

DBW is probably right if he worked there,this photo was taken in the 70’s looks black on the original photo but my photo skills were[are] not the best!

At some point they also owned a Cessna U206A (or at least used it as a company hack when it wasn’t being used at North Denes for pleasure flying). It wasn’t however painted in the AA colours, being red and white at that time (70s through to the early 80s). Also had a Bell 47J for a while according to this thread on PPrune, or at least one of the directors did.

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=179851

Hi,

Photos can be very deceptive. Having been up close and personal with all the Air Anglia fleet aircraft I can assure you it is blue. Here ius a pic of a first day cover that was for sale and the colour scheme has been accentuated to a much paler blue.

http://shop.coversoftheworld.com/index.asp?function=DISPLAYPRODUCT&productid=805

Timetable images also show a more accentuated blue.

Rgds

John

DBW as you were there you are probably right but looking at the photo’s that’s the funniest shade of blue i have ever seen. Even as a kid i thought it was Brown.
Just goes to show !

In this shot the shade looks far more brown than blue – compare with the blue on the distant BA Trident and the black of the anti dazzle panel on the F28.

http://www.airplane-pictures.net/image815.html

I remember the navajo chieftans coming into fairwood (swansea) in the 70’s quite regularly. i even have a pic somewhere of it sat on the apron.

Very dark blue, almost black. From someone who worked there in those days.

Ditto 🙂

DBW as you were there you are probably right but looking at the photo’s that’s the funniest shade of blue i have ever seen. Even as a kid i thought it was Brown.
Just goes to show !

Very dark blue, almost black. From someone who worked there in those days.

I would have said very dark brown as well. That’s certainly how it appeared when the Navajo’s used to fly in to BHX.

Regards,

kev35

They were merged with British Island Airways into AirUK, now KLMuk.

Found the list below on Wikipedia

Air Anglia operated the following aircraft types at one point or another during its ten-year existence:

Britten-Norman BN-2A “Islander”
Cessna 404
Douglas DC-3 “Dakota”
Fokker F-27 “Friendship” 100/200 series
Fokker F-28 “Fellowship” 1000/4000 series
Piper PA-23 “Aztec”
Piper PA-31 “Navajo Chieftain”
Piper “Twin Comanche”.

They also operated an Argosy, which was leased from Air Bridge Carriers.

http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1025260/

I always thought it was brown as well.

This later became the very 70s scheme of dark chocolate brown/yellow/white ——————————-I can assure you that is brown, not blue.

Hi WebPilot,

Sorry to have to inform you but the Air Anglia scheme was blue. It occasionally gets mistaken as black as it is a very dark midnight/inky blue but I’ve never heard it described as brown before. The first aircraft to have the scheme applied to was the F.27. It was also on the Herald, F.28, Argosy (sort of) and Navajo Chieftains.

Rgds

John

Air Anglia was a relatively short lived organisation lasting from 1970 to 1980, being formed by the merger of Anglian Air Charter, Norfolk Airways and Rig Air before merging with BIA, Air Westward and Air Wales in 1980 to form Air UK.

The early scheme on the DC3 was a yellow cheat line over a basic natural metal/white base: http://cdn-www.airliners.net/photos/middle/6/9/2/1157296.jpg

This later became the very 70s scheme of dark chocolate brown/yellow/white – http://cdn-www.airliners.net/photos/middle/2/7/3/0725372.jpg

http://www.airanglia.co.uk/

I can assure you that is brown, not blue. This lasted through to the formation of Air UK and the introduction of the overall blue with a “bent” white/red/white cheat line. There were a few aircraft that appeared in interim schemes of Air UK titles over AA colours as is usual after a merger.

The Red/White/Blue scheme was really an Air UK scheme.

BIA itself was formed when British United Airways merged with Caledonian in 1970 to form British Caledonian. BUA’s subsidiary, British United Island Airways, was not included in the merger and became an independent airline with a new name and colour scheme – BIA.

The ironic thing about the merger between BIA and Air Anglia was that the new airline ended up with a fleet of both Fokker Friendships (Air Anglia) and Handley Page Heralds (BIA).

After a few years, the name BIA re-emerged from the AIr UK merger as an independent charter airline initially using BAC 1-11s and later DC-9s/MD-80s.