ianwoodward9Thank you for the colour photos, longshot. It would indeed be good to see more of them. My contribution is of much lower quality, I’m afraid, but may be of interest
I found the picture below of Yankee Clipper at Southampton on 4 April 1939. It arrived at 2.30 pm from Marseilles. It was due to leave for Foynes at 7.00 am the following day. I believe that adverse weather delayed its departure. Pan Am was going to inspect Foynes as a possible landing place for Clipper flights.
After my previous ’dig’ at American hyperbole, I feel duty-bound to quote Clipper Captain Gray upon his arrival in Britain: “It was another part of a routine flight. As on all our flights, we started when we said we would, flew over the ocean and landed. There is nothing interesting to report”. Obviously, this was a conscious attempt to reassure potential customers but, in its own way, is quite revealing.
Almost half the article was about the transmission of the photographs. You may have noticed the credit to “Western Union Cablephoto”. There is an outline of the 4215-mile route to the WU office in Hudson Street, New York, of the revolving cylinder that allows the original to be “scanned” by a beam of light (“scanned”, presumably a new use of the word, is in inverted commas in the article) and of the role played by relay stations in boosting the signal along the route – by 15, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000 times (yes, that’s a 15 followed by fifteen zeros). A 6” x 7” photo took 20 minutes to transmit by this method.
ianwoodward9This is an American newspaper clipping from January 1939 reporting the agreement to allow Pan Am (and any other airlines) to start transatlantic air services. There is quite a bit about the soon-to-be-available Boeing 314s
ianwoodward9Thanks, longshot, for all the Clipper images.
A friend who used to work for a photo agency rescued a bunch of photographs about to be ‘RTP’ after digitisation and gave me a few of old New York and the like. One, as I recall, showed a Clipper flying over the Statue of Liberty. I can’t think where they are at this moment but, if a lightbulb goes off in my head, I’ll extract it, scan it and post it here. The Clipper was quite small in the photograph but it’s an unusual shot, I think.
The Statue of Liberty with the Clipper behind (a drawing and with the Clipper much, much bigger than in the photo I mentioned) formed part of Pan Am’s advertising of its Atlantic service. There were two versions; one had the top strapline “WINGS TO EUROPE” and the other, “WINGS TO AMERICA”. They had the same bottom strapline, “Via PAN AMERCAN“. The designer was Paul George Lawler and they were in use around 1940.
This poster (the Clipper above the symbol of liberty) was quite subtle compared with some of Pan Am’s other wartime posters. There was one featuring a Stratoliner flying over a globe of the world with Pan Am’s route network shown; it was headed “Vital to Victory” with the sub-heading, “These World Air-Transport Routes – which are hastening Victory – were pioneered by Pan American [U]before Pearl Harbor[/U]” – their underlining! (Can I have the trowel back, please!).
The full name of the New York end is given, in one book, as the International Marine Air Terminal at New York’s Municipal Airport No.2 at North Beach – quite where the name ends and the location begins, I’m not too sure. The first scheduled transatlantic Clipper service, in May 1939, left from Port Washington – was this the same or a different place? It was a mail flight
Their Atlantic route included a refuelling stop at Horta in the Azores before Lisbon and the Clipper then flew on to Marseille – for a while, at least.
In March-April 1938, there was a proving flight to Lisbon and Marseille that then flew on to Southampton and Yankee Clipper stayed here a week. Are there any photos of the Clipper in Southampton, I wonder. I’m sure there must be.
ianwoodward9In late-1943, John Yoxall wrote an article for FLIGHT about a journey he made in a series of Dakotas, from Britain to North Africa, then to Italy, down to Malta, returning west over North Africa and back to Britain. Most of the time, he travelled in a military Dakota. It isn’t quite clear if the final two or three legs back home were by military or civil aircraft but the first part of the journey was by BOAC to Lisbon and then from Lisbon to Rabat, also by BOAC.
I’m not sure if this will work but I’ve clipped those parts of the article that relate to travelling by BOAC (you may have to click and then click again to make them large enough to read).
ianwoodward9It’s great photo. I wonder if he took any other shots.
This photo below is nowhere as good in quality. It is from an April 1940 edition of FLIGHT and shows a Pan Am Clipper moving away from the La Guardia terminal heading for Lisbon:
ianwoodward9Thank you, longshot, for the link to Capt. Wilson’s lecture; I’ve printed it and will read it later today.
ianwoodward9I have started to look at the link that longshot posted to a previous discussion about the BOAC special in AEROPLANE MONTHLY in 2015. I was particularly struck by the 1940 advert for BOAC’s wartime Lisbon service – or should I say BOA, as that was the nomenclature used. I’ve seen “B.O.A.” in quite a few articles written around that time.
The top strapline in the BOA advert is: Os vehlos amigos sao os melhores [Old friends are the best] – a reference, I guess, to a treaty going back to the late 1300s and still in force at the time
The principal contact address is not BOA(C)’s but the local Royal Mail agents, as the airline did not have its own They opened their own office there around October 1942. It was in the Avenida de Liberdade and the headline in FLIGHT magazine was “B.O.A. IN PORTUGAL” but the sign above the door in the accompanying photograph said, more simply, “BRITISH AIRWAYS” (no ‘OVERSEAS’ at all). I seem to have read very recently that an edict went out from on high that all signs of “BRITISH AIRWAYS” (pun intended) should be expunged in favour of the longer name
ianwoodward9I found this on a webpage by Geoff Goodall about Australian civil Catalinas:
In June 1944 the British authorities released to Qantas two RAF Consolidated LB.30 Liberators then being operated by BOAC, to supplement the Catalinas on the Indian ocean route. G-AGKT and G-AGKU had overhauls by Qantas at Archerfield Aerodrome, Brisbane before being delivered to Perth on 18 October and 24 September 1944 repectively in Perth. They were based at the newly-built Guildford Aerodrome (now Perth Airport), using the Australian National Airways hangar just built for their DC-3 services from the Eastern States. The Liberators which refuelled at Exmouth WA to reduce the ocean crossing, brought an increased payload of 3,800 lbs which allowed 8 passengers in airline seats, plus baggage and the essential diplomatic and priority mail. Two more BOAC Liberators joined Qantas for the Indian Ocean service, G-AGTI and G-AGTJ, allowing the Catalinas to be retired. The final Catalina service landed on the Swan River at Perth on 18 July 1945, marking a total of 271 Qantas Catalina services across the Indian Ocean.
When Avro Lancastrians became available during 1945, the Liberators were retired and flown to Sydney. The original two were scrapped, but G-AGTI and G-AGTJ remained with Qantas as freighters VH-EAI and VH-EAJ, mostly used to carry engines to Qantas airliners across the growing postwar route network.
From something else I read, the replacement engines were mostly for the QANTAS Constellations.
The photograph below is of G-AGKT and is credited to QANTAS; this is the caption:
Qantas Liberator G-AGKT at Guildford Aerodrome, Perth in late 1944. The ANA hangar had just been built and was still at Perth Airport used by Ansett Air Freight until the 1990s.
ianwoodward9This was a complete coincidence. I decided to look through a small bundle of AEROPLANE SPOTTERs and the second one I opened (#159, 6 April 1946) had this photo. It’s a bit ropey in quality (the original image is only 3″ x 1″, a touch yellowed and on newsprint-quality paper) and the photo had no caption nor any reference in the text that I could find.
ianwoodward9An early morning scoot around the internet quickly found this lovely image of VH-EAI (credited to the E.A.Crome collection via the National Library of Australia). The seven rectangular windows can be seen (though not the ‘picture’ window). The heading described it as a Liberator C-87 but the c/n was given as 39.
ianwoodward9Below is a Scottish Aviation photo of G-AHZR (AL522) clearly showing the seven rectangular cabin windows, not to mention the ‘picture window’ that I mentioned earlier.
This aircraft went on to become SX-DAB and in Post # 140, longshot posted a colour picture of its sister, SX-DAA (the former G-AGZI/AL557), with the same window configuration. I will now (well, tomorrow or the day after) seek a photo of a QANTAS Liberator to check their windows.
Meanwhile, here’s G-AHZR in flight:
ianwoodward9Thanks for the reply, Lazy8.
In posing those first two questions, which are indeed similar, I was trying to distinguish between [A] BOAC crews flying RAF aircraft on BOAC routes and [B] RAF crews flying RAF aircraft on BOAC routes – evidently, not successfully.
My third question was posed because I was unclear as to whether there were any ‘lines’ between the BOAC and the RAF operations.
Your explanation clarifies that the lines, even if they might appear clear-cut on paper or in intention, were rather blurred in practice but the extent of the blurring varied from time to time in extent and frequency, according to operational resources and requirements. Is that fair (if rather bland) summary?
As to that drawing in Post #152, it looked like AL544 in the original but it does look more like AL541 on-screen here; the poor registration of the printed colours doesn’t help clarity here. AL544 was not allocated to BOAC but AL541 was, so that makes a more logical subject for the book’s illustrations . That said, it just doesn’t look “right”, does it?
I don’t recall any photo of a BOAC Liberator in such a paint scheme (I’d be very pleased to be disabused of this notion, preferably with photographic evidence).
The registration document that you linked shows G-AGTI/AL541 as a Liberator Mk.II.
As a side issue, the printed page preceding the pdf of the actual document gives its ‘serial number’ (which I take to mean construction number in my parlance) as “39“, Is this congruent with other information?
Getting back on track, AJ Jackson says that QANTAS had devised a particular form of civilianisation for Liberators G-AGKT and G-AGKU and that Scottish Aviation carried this further by fitting “seven rectangular windows in each side of the cabin“. Jackson goes on to add that “G-AGTI and ‘TJ were converted to this standard for QANTAS” – not the seven round windows in that drawing which look more like a Mk.VII, I think (was that the equivalent of the C-87 ?).
As ever, there are more questions (than answers?). Do we know whether AL541 ever bore this military serial number at all? On delivery, perhaps? And, if so, in what paint scheme? Was it delivered from North America direct to SAL at Prestwick and there converted (immediately without any ‘true’ RAF service) for QANTAS use? And what do we know of its journey to Perth from Prestwick?
ianwoodward9Thanks for the above two replies.
I have found another copy of the G-AFCK photo shown in that long google thread (Post # 42) and the caption reads, “Short S.26 G-AFCK, Golden Horn just airborne at Cabo Ruivo, Lisbon, in April 1942“. I’m not sure about the ‘just airborne’ descriptor (maybe a tongue-in-cheek comment – who knows?) and we can’t see the port wing to establish whether the float has been refitted or not. The photo may therefore show G-AFCK coming ashore for repair. For me, though, the crowds make it look as though it’s about to be relaunched, in which case (as per lazy8‘s reply), it would be May 1942.
I look forward to reading the previous thread on the BOAC issue of AEROPLANE, longshot, but it won’t be tonight, I’m afraid. A quick glance shows it to be a very detailed thread and I look forward to reading/absorbing it.
ianwoodward9Maybe this photo should go in the ‘Liberator’ thread but the caption says, “Liberator III G-AGFP, alias FL917, flew on the BOAC routes from Lyneham to Lisbon and West Africa until it reverted to RAF ownership in January 1945“, so I thought I’d put it here.
ianwoodward9I thought it looked like a Liberator but was a bit thrown by the white colour. The photo is dated to 1944, well after the formation of Transport Command and it being based at Lyneham. “Did Transport Command operate white-painted Liberators?”, I wondered. Then, in the book on BA’s history, I came across this drawing below. Again, it is in the chapter on BOAC in WWII which perhaps offered some kind of insight, as I understand that BOAC ran services from Lyneham.
At the same time, the Liberator shown appears to be AL544 and this was not listed by Peter Moss as being allocated to BOAC, so that just raised a series of questions in my mind:
2. Did RAF Transport Command Liberators operate services on behalf of BOAC?
3. Were any non-allocated Liberators actually under BOAC control at any time?
4. If not, why would a book covering BOAC’s history display this image?
Here’s the drawing and, as with a previous drawing, the registration of the colours is inexact, giving an unnecessarily blurred image. Sorry.
Sign In
