Here a a few pics I took on two occasions visiting Hurn (Bournemouth Int Airport) during 2002 and then 2006.
European Air Lines (EAL) was/are based in the old BAC hangers where the BAC One-Eleven was built (I believe it was initially built at Wisley).
EAL not only ran a charter airline with One-Elevens, 737-200s, Airbus A300 and 747-200s but they also break aircraft and sell the parts on the airline market.
The last One Eleven jets returned to the place they were built after a lifetime of worldwide operations, only to be taken to pieces.
In 2002 they were operating and scrapping a fleet of BAC 111 jetliners from various places. The jet fleet below are minus engines and other essential systems.
Some One Elevens were still in use at this time. Here are a mixed fleet of working and dismantled One-Elevens and 737s with an A300 thrown in.
This One-Eleven series 500 was painted for a special charter.
By 2006 these were gone and replaced by aging 737-200 jets. This is a lease-out jet in basic EAL colours.
EAL operated several 747-200 jets on long-haul charters for a couple of years but these aging jets were also broken up from 2006.
Their 747s were in pretty liveries in various colours. Sadly my pictures here only show the blue livery but with two different variants of blue markings.
An EAL 747 awaits scrapping with a SABENA 737-200 in bits and a BAC 146 losing parts gradually too. The Seneca was not being scrapped!
One interesting operation based at Hurn is Flight Refuelling (FRA) which operates up to ten Dassault 10 executive jets for the British Navy. Here are two of them with special attack pods under the wings. I believe these pods can simulate an air to surface missile attack like Exocet. The jets make an attack at 100nm on a Naval ship and simulate a anti-ship missile launch giving the Royal Navy anti-air defensive practice. The Navy ordered these ten Falcons/mysteres back in the mid 1980s I believe.
Hurn is also a maintenance base for aircraft and it gets a fair few interesting customers. Here is a Canadair CL44 Super Guppy for work or to be sold. Don’t know who operates it but it was marked ‘OversizeCargo’.
By: VeeOne - 9th May 2012 at 01:54
Great set of photo’s and the 5th and 6th down say it all for me.
Thanks for posting and giving a low down on the demise of the 1_11s.
I was there years ago when Jet Heritage was looking after the classic jet collection there.Adrian Gjertsen was the main man there on the flying side.
Do the Bond helicopters still fly out of there?
Thanks for posting photos….:)JB
I don’t think I have noticed Bond Helicopters but I am not a serious airport visitor. My boyfriend and I sometimes visit an airport. He likes the big, noisy jets. There was a helicopter there when we visited in the mid 2000s – I would call it a Hughes 269 but it might be properly called a Sikorsky 300 these days. But I feel that Bond flew a fleet of high tech aircraft rather than a little beater so maybe they’ve moved elsewhere. Never seen any serious rotor wing hardware there.
There is a whole bunch of expensive executive jets in and out of there, like the Falcon 50 and lots of them have M- registrations, which I looked up on the internet and it is Isle of Mann registry.
There was at least one SABENA 737 series 200 being taken apart there (Delta Golf I believe). They semi-merged with Swissair and then Swissair went under taking SABENA along. And on the rear fuselage of this 737 was written…
‘Flying Together with Swissair’
And that didn’t do SABENA much good, with their 737s all cut up because of that ‘merger’… 🙁
By: Arabella-Cox - 8th May 2012 at 16:25
Gosh!
That brought back some memories of visiting the late and inimitable Peter Foote when he worked for British Aerospace at Hurn and I spied the hangar and office where he was based. I also recall standing on that apron talking to former Battle of Britain pilot Dave Glaser who was just off to test fly a BAC 1-11. He offered to take me with him, but my girlfriend of the day wanted to go for dinner and pleasing her seemed (then!) a better option than the flight. Big mistake.
Was it really that long ago?
Just around the corner was his hut where Peter housed his Me 109 E (W Nr 1190) and I recall a dismantled Harward outside.
Thanks for the journey down memory lane.
By: EGTC - 8th May 2012 at 14:45
Lovely shots and sad to see them planes go.
I had forgotten that European operated the A300!
By: longshot - 8th May 2012 at 13:42
Plenty of history there, VeeOne! These Dassault Fan Jet Falcons are perhaps the most interesting of all bizjets…all with freight doors converted as the launch type for Federal Express nearly 40 years ago then purchased for Royal Navy support (shuttling crew and spares for the nuclear subs wasn’t it?) They were in the static at Culdrose displayed towable target which had actually been hit in exercises.
I flew on a European BAC-111 Manchester-Pisa in the nineties….cheap as chips, that trip (with a breakfast to match! :))
By: The"Eh"Team - 8th May 2012 at 09:22
Great set of photo’s and the 5th and 6th down say it all for me.
Thanks for posting and giving a low down on the demise of the 1_11s.
I was there years ago when Jet Heritage was looking after the classic jet collection there.Adrian Gjertsen was the main man there on the flying side.
Do the Bond helicopters still fly out of there?
Thanks for posting photos….:)JB
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May 8, 2012 at 1:06 am