British Eagle DC-6 at Luton tomorrow

From the Six ops desk:

“The famous British Eagle DC-6, G-APSA, will be returning to Luton at 1100 tomorrow, for the first time since ceasing commercial operations. En route to the type’s thrilling debut at London City Airport, where later in the day she will become the largest aircraft ever to land in the docks, G-APSA is celebrating a historic and little known link to her past.

At the very moment of British Eagle’s (Eagle) demise in 1968 a new airline began to build its reputation in the charter and scheduled market previously dominated by Eagle. Monarch Airlines, started by two of Eagle’s principal executives, took on many of Eagle’s former pilots and even aircraft to found what has become the pre-eminent independent British airline in this sector. Indeed, a senior manager for Monarch Technical Support commented last week that ‘had Eagle continued to operate the DC-6 for just four more years it is entirely plausible that Monarch would have operated the type too.’

To celebrate the link between this historic aircraft and this fine airline, G-APSA has been invited to Luton to share the tarmac with her successors for a couple of hours. As well as Monarch, the Six team want to extend their thanks to Harrods Aviation and London Luton Airport for their support on this important occasion.

See you there!!”