Shorts topic (not the trousers)

Military users would rather suffer higher operating costs on the missions where a small aircraft could do the job than buy another airlift type.

Well, the RAF have just bought a number of second hand 146s for last-mile transport.

The main drawback of course being side-loading only.

Seeing the American Eagle 360s reminds me of a sight I saw in Abilene, Texas in the late 90s. There were 25-30 AE 360s parked after being wfs.
They all eventually flew out to parts unknown.

I read somewhere that there was a scheme to convert 360s into 3-30s…don’t know if that ever happened.

Awhile back I saw a Skyvan on Flying Wild Alaska TV series. I did a FAA check and was surprised to see that just five were on the US register..most in Alaska. Seemed like a handy thing to have for longer loads that can be fitted in a DHC-6 or Cessna Caravan. I don’t know if they’re wide enough to haul a small truck (something larger than a Land Rover or Jeep).

I agree with Amiga500..you’d think there would be a market for a rear load aircraft smaller than a C-27/G222.
Perhaps the problem is once you make it big enough to haul a vehicle, your price is too high (near C-130, CN 235, or G22 prices). And since everyone has C-130s, there’s no military market. Military users would rather suffer higher operating costs on the missions where a small aircraft could do the job than buy another airlift type.

And without military buys to keep prices down (or provide surplus aircraft) they’re too expensive for pure civil use.

You gotta wonder is there a market for a skyvan type today.

Particularly in meeting military, last-mile, transport requirements.

One more of this one at Church Fenton early 90s..

Nice shots! I never knew Brittany Ferries operated aircraft in the past.

Shorts mixture

A little contribution of mini and big sheds:)
1. Air Ecosse 330 G BKSU framed by VC10 XV103 Edinburgh 1988.
2. 360 N163DD AM Eagle (Simmons AL), Albany NY March 1991.
3. 360 N829BE Business Express at Boston Logan Nov 1991.
4. Skyvan VH WGG BAC Eng Hangar Edinburgh Aug 1996.

Looks like that Air UK is one one of the ‘side stands’ at STN. They usually only parked there at the weekends, when Air UK used to operate only the morning STN-AMS-STN flight on the Saturday, and the late afternoon STN-AMS-STN flight on a Sunday. Weekends, especially Saturdays, were the favourite days for local circuit and approach training, and also conversion training flts on the 360 for the guys that were flying the 330s at the time. If we were not on shift, or just finishing one, we could often ‘ride shotgun’ on the circuits jobs…great fun. Happy days.:) Eventually, the 330s and 360s were replaced with F27s, although the 360s would put in an appearance on some flts. We even had a Peters Aviation Heron stand in for a 330 on the AMS flight once!

Shorts !

Here are some more..sorry about the quality…they are scans of some pretty poor photos,but history !

Some very nice pictures (and stories) coming out of the cupboard here.
That Air Seychelles is a very great catch.

some more from my side

Dusseldorf

Manchester

Dusseldorf

Rotterdam Sun Air

Rotterdam, more recent

Ft Lauderdale

keep em coming 🙂

rgds
EC

Air Ecosse

No thats no problem ..help yourself..only pleased to help to renew your memories:)

Uzzy. Thanks for doing that. It’s great to see them. I guess it could be that I remember my days with Air Ecosse using rose coloured specs, but it was my first aviation job, and it was a lotta fun. G-DASI went on to become part of the Air UK fleet? Would you have any objection to me downloading them to my PC?

Great to see the Air Ecosse photos.

They operated a daily flight to East Midlands. It left at about 0700 for Edinburgh, going on to Aberdeen and Wick. The aircraft would then spend the day in Scotland before retracing its route and would arrive back at EMA at about 8pm, meaning you could only see it in the middle of the summer.

Air Ecosse

There you go…not the best photos…taken at MCR in the 1980s..:o

Do any of you lovely photographers have a pic of an Air Ecosse 330 or 360 by any chance? They gave me my first job in aviation back in 1981. Due to several moves, I have lost a good many photos. We used to operate both EMB110s and SD360s in the Royal Mail livery. In fact, one of our EMB110s was the first aircraft painted in the Royal Mail colours, it also carried ‘Datapost’ titles, which was their then new, high priority mail service.

Great set there 🙂

A great thread on a great aircraft.

Particularly good to see the photos of G-BMHX – I made many happy trips on HX bouncing along between East Midlands and Heathrow.

Here are some of my photos, starting with Air Europe Express G-BJFK 3-30 at Exeter:-

G-BJFK by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr

FK spent a few years plying the East Midlands – Heathrow route during its time with British Midland.

Speaking of East Midlands, here is Capital 3-60 G-OLBA:-

G-OLBA by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr

Capital were a rare visitor to East Midlands, being based at Leeds Bradford. BA was carrying out a charter flight to Le Bourget.

Britsh Air Ferries will always be associated with the Viscount, but they also operated the Shorts 3-30 for a while. Here G-BEEO is arriving at Southampton following a flight from Jersey.

G-BEEO by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr

Guernsey Airlines operated a fleet of Shorts 3-30s and Viscounts in addition to the Shorts 3-60. Here G-RMSS is arriving at Southampton in 1987 to operate a service to Paris on behalf of parent company British Air Ferries:-

G-RMSS by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr

Air UK had used to base a couple of F-27s at Southampton to operate services to the Channel Islands, but in this 1986 shot, Shorts SD3-60 G-BLZT is briefly resting at Southampton after arriving from Exeter to pick up more passengers for a flight to Amsterdam:-

G-BLZT by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr

To finish it is back to East Midlands. British Midland operated two 3-60s – one flew between the airport and Heathrow, the other served the capital from Birmingham. At the weekend, flights were reduced, and in this photo G-BMHY came over from Birmingham for some circuit bashing while HX watched from the apron:-

G-BMHX by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr

I hope the photos are of interest – apologies as I have posted some of them before.

Neil

S7-PRI at Guernsey Airport last year for maintenance.

S7-PRI Short 360-300 by Guernsey Airport Photography, on Flickr

Lovely!
Certainly miss seeing the old Shorts planes!

I think Coventry sees D-CRAS each night still but thats around 11pm or so.

i flew Gill air Newcastle to Abberdeen in 1992
just loved the gin and tonic
hostess came and gave me a glass with ice and a tin of tonic
and then started pour a full size gordon’s gin bottle and asked ” just say when”
whoops no room for the tonic!!!!! was my reply:)

More “Sheds”

A few from me taken over the years