Ruskin Air Services…what happened next?

WOW! This takes me back a bit, remember it well, used to look forward to what happened next. The theme as I remember is of ex WW2 pilots starting their own airline business.

Sadly many failed before they got of the ground. But Ruskin was making it. They were going to hire a Lockheed Constellation as said in the thread. But the Aircraft needed maintenance, the main draw back was the cost of the fuel to fly the airoplane. Which the budget for the series would not allow.

See wiki entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redcoat_Air_Cargo/.

IIRC this was a flight from Belize and was bringing service families home who also perished.

A very sad time at Lyneham.

For a selection of the Brits:

http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?airlinesearch=Redcoat+Air+Cargo

It was essentially a cargo flight, though 2 passengers were lost as well as five crew.

Somber reading here ( accident report)

http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources.cfm?file=/3-1981%20G-BRAC.pdf

Ruskin Air Services

Nice diecast Dak on ebay! In Ruskin Air Services livery too! I have one of these !/48th daks and theyre Damned heavy! Should make a nice coffee table conversation piece.

So, here goes……..

Ruskin eventually persuades Jenny, his long suffering wife to come home from York where she took an office job. They buy a modest Semi on the outskirts of garton and jenny soon falls pregnant again.meanwhile ruskin has been busy expanding the operation at Garton and has a servicing facility down at Croydon so he can make use of their Customs dept and stay on the right side of the law. He is still doing the odd dicey runs down to Haifa and The middle east. its dirty work but it pays well, and he needs all the work he can find to fill the hold of His York and Bristol Freighter he now operates alongside two more Daks and a Halton which he snapped up cheaply after the Airlift but which has been plagued with engine and hydraulic faults since the word go. Duncan Mcevoy his Loyal and long serving engineer has a small team working round the clock to keep the fleet in the air whilst Peter Witney has taken on more of the office and administration side of things along with Jenny and also serves as front man and sales rep to the up and coming airline where his public school boy charm attracts work which the often tactless and abrupt Ruskin might otherwise lose to the bigger national carriers. various ad-hoc freight flights are flown and Ruskin still has that chip on his shoulder with the RAF which is further enflared when he repeatedly arranges for one of his pilots to land at a disused airfield in the south to take on Stolen fuel from an RAF bowser, The locals become suspicious and the plane is ambushed by police……….Shall i go on?

YES PLEASE:D

So, here goes……..

Ruskin eventually persuades Jenny, his long suffering wife to come home from York where she took an office job. They buy a modest Semi on the outskirts of garton and jenny soon falls pregnant again.meanwhile ruskin has been busy expanding the operation at Garton and has a servicing facility down at Croydon so he can make use of their Customs dept and stay on the right side of the law. He is still doing the odd dicey runs down to Haifa and The middle east. its dirty work but it pays well, and he needs all the work he can find to fill the hold of His York and Bristol Freighter he now operates alongside two more Daks and a Halton which he snapped up cheaply after the Airlift but which has been plagued with engine and hydraulic faults since the word go. Duncan Mcevoy his Loyal and long serving engineer has a small team working round the clock to keep the fleet in the air whilst Peter Witney has taken on more of the office and administration side of things along with Jenny and also serves as front man and sales rep to the up and coming airline where his public school boy charm attracts work which the often tactless and abrupt Ruskin might otherwise lose to the bigger national carriers. various ad-hoc freight flights are flown and Ruskin still has that chip on his shoulder with the RAF which is further enflared when he repeatedly arranges for one of his pilots to land at a disused airfield in the south to take on Stolen fuel from an RAF bowser, The locals become suspicious and the plane is ambushed by police……….Shall i go on?

And sadly i beleive that ‘Brit’ crashed soon after filming! so that ended that chapter!

See wiki entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redcoat_Air_Cargo/.

IIRC this was a flight from Belize and was bringing service families home who also perished.

A very sad time at Lyneham.

For a selection of the Brits:

http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?airlinesearch=Redcoat+Air+Cargo

It was a great series, but maybe it stopped at the right time….

What might have been…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VLYpKGVBUg

As a bit of a Ruskin afficianado i can tell you that the Connie was purchased merely as a taxiable airframe for use on ground shots but that a large R/C connie was built for flying scenes and quite rightly a Bristol Freighter was due to be used and i believe producers were also looking at DC4/DC6 options too as well as mutterings of using the Fuselage of the Gatwick based Hermes for film work too! As for the future .well by episode 9 the Berlin airlift was all but ready to be wound up so that would have tightened Ruskins purse strings somewhat and no doubt he would have been in Cade’s debt again as he seemed to have the various contacts and dodgy cargoes that brought the hard earned cash in. Its interesting to compare the books storylines with the series as in the book Cade, (The Spiv) hot foots it to Israel to escape Customs snoopers and the Special branch investigating his less than honest dealings including gun running and jewish illegals! But no mention is made of Mrs Cade and his home in Surbiton.i believe the storylines were written but that W.Greatorex was less than pleased with the way his Storylines were interpreteed onto the screen, thus leading to disagreements and eventual complete breakdowns of contracts.Such a shame as i feel it would have been great viewing.I also read somewhere that the flying scenes completely hammered the original budget and with furher airframes due to be acquired it was put originally on hold and then by 1983 completely dropped.

The Connie model was never made, plans were drawn and parts cut but it was stopped when the series was cancelled. A Bristol freighter was going to be made as well along with DC4/6. Multiple’s of these were planned as with the DC3’s before them.
Such a shame that it was cancelled as it would have been great fun 🙂

I had my eye on this earlier this year
http://http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DAKOTA-DC3-INWOOD-MODELS-VINTAGE-RADIO-CONTROLLED-PLANE-10FT-WINGSPAN-/261060324997?pt=UK_ToysGames_RadioControlled_JN&hash=item3cc8686e85&nma=true&si=IIyeemUCzRHLsx8IVLomBlL3MhI%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
but sadly cash was tight at the time, i fly large R/C planes so it would have got some use………..Martin

And sadly i beleive that ‘Brit’ crashed soon after filming! so that ended that chapter!

Thanks Colin. Amazing that it was 32 years ago. Time certainly does fly.

The series with the Redcoats Britannia was called “Buccaneers” and was shown on BBC- 1 in 1980 two years before “Airline.” Bryan Marshall played the hero ,who was called “Tony Blair!”

Colin

Did the series with the Redcoats Brittania (painted up as Redair) come after the Ruskin adventures? If it did then it might have given an indication of where Ruskin would end up.

As a bit of a Ruskin afficianado i can tell you that the Connie was purchased merely as a taxiable airframe for use on ground shots but that a large R/C connie was built for flying scenes and quite rightly a Bristol Freighter was due to be used and i believe producers were also looking at DC4/DC6 options too as well as mutterings of using the Fuselage of the Gatwick based Hermes for film work too! As for the future .well by episode 9 the Berlin airlift was all but ready to be wound up so that would have tightened Ruskins purse strings somewhat and no doubt he would have been in Cade’s debt again as he seemed to have the various contacts and dodgy cargoes that brought the hard earned cash in. Its interesting to compare the books storylines with the series as in the book Cade, (The Spiv) hot foots it to Israel to escape Customs snoopers and the Special branch investigating his less than honest dealings including gun running and jewish illegals! But no mention is made of Mrs Cade and his home in Surbiton.i believe the storylines were written but that W.Greatorex was less than pleased with the way his Storylines were interpreteed onto the screen, thus leading to disagreements and eventual complete breakdowns of contracts.Such a shame as i feel it would have been great viewing.I also read somewhere that the flying scenes completely hammered the original budget and with furher airframes due to be acquired it was put originally on hold and then by 1983 completely dropped.

Always good to look back at the old thread too: :rolleyes:

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?t=74165

Wilfred Greatorex also penned two softbacks entitled ‘Take-Off’ and ‘Ruskins Berlin’ which make an interesting read.

.

There was an article about “Airline” in one of the aviation magazines a year or two back which included an interview with Roy Marsden. Apparently it was originally intended that there would be a number of series which would take the story right up to the present day (1982) . In fact they didn’t even make the complete first series of 13 as only 9 episodes were made.

I remember at the time the first series ended (1982) there were articles in the newspapers about alleged disagreements between series creator Wilfred Greatorex and Yorkshire TV which apparently led to some episodes being dropped and further series being cancelled.

I also recall that the proposed second series was to have featured not just a Constellation but a Bristol Freighter.

Colin

I believe the second series would have had Jack Ruskin flying a Constellation…

Aces High bought former N7777G which was in Dublin at the time… unfortunately the second series was never made and she ended up at Wroughton…

More details here: http://mobile.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&t=1102954&mid=0

Zeb