viscountNot sure what you found on the Internet regarding the history of this aircraft, there are many unverified statements and research red herrings out there!
From a usually reliable paper based source ‘Turbo Prop Aircraft Production List’, TAHS, Roach & Eastwood, 2007, with additional notes from 1995 & 2004/05 British enthusiast magazine ‘North West Air News’:
BAe. Jetstream 4100, c/no. 41041, first flight 9.11.94, marked as G-4-041. Retained ‘B conditions’ registration with British Aerospace for test flying at Prestwick (no full British civil registration allocated). Ferried Prestwick to East Midlands 13.12.94 in primer as G-4-041 and returned EMA to PIK 30.12.94 now painted in full United Express colour scheme. Departed Prestwick 14.1.95 for Reykjavik and onto Narssarssuaq (arrived 15th) then onward to USA on delivery flight to Atlantic Coast Airlines, based at Washington-Dullas who operated as part of the United Express network. Seems to be their 18th J41 (of 33 ultimately operated – which includes one that crashed soon after delivery and was replaced by another with the same registration). The 41st J41 built (including prototypes) of the 104 completed and flown.
N318UE Jetstream Aircraft Inc (of Stirling, Virgina) ownership transferred 14.1.95, Atlantic Coast Airlines (ACA) del 14.1.95. Same day sold to Coventry Aircraft and leased back by Atlantic Coast Airlines. Wfu & stored 7.04. Independence Air, new name 4.8.04. Returned off lease to Coventry Aircraft 18.02.05. Noted recently arrived into storage at Loring, Maine 26.7.04 in United Express colours – never a part of the new Independence Air operation. Moved to Galgary 10.1.07 and a further period of storage. Ferried Calgary to Inverness 19-20.3.08 still as N318UE in United Express colours with titles removed.
At which stage, the problem with paper based sources, that they date quickly concludes what I can offer immediately. But with a gap, the ownership story is taken up mostly from CAA G-INFO website:
Registered G-TEXA with Highland Airways Ltd (of Edinburgh) 2.4.08. During summer 2008 entered a period of overhaul at Inverness, but was not flown again, before entering storage. Highland Airways ceased trading 24.3.10. Sold and registered to Bravo Aviation Ltd (of Jersey) 20.8.10. Aircraft moved (when?) to a scrap dealer’s yard in Elgin for parting-out and cutting-up. De-registered with the CAA as “sold in Sweden” 16.5.11, although she never actually left Britain.
While from ‘Wrecks & Relics-23’, Ken Ellis, Crecy (2012) gather it was at initially at Inverness on return to the UK, then a scrap yard at Elgin before just the nose section being noted 3.12 with Retro Aviation, Market Drayton, Shropshire, and as noted on the OP, moved again 12.4.14 into private ownership for restoration of the nose section as a mobile display.
While this short airframe story is strong on owners, it is weak on when and where actually operated, where stored and in which commuter colours it operated. For background on ACA have a look at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Coast_Airlines although the entry helps little here. ACA cancelled its agreement late 2003 with United Airways to operate as a United Express company due to UA wishing to attempt to renegotiate the contract as part of their coming out of Chapter 11, which explains why the ACA Jetstream 41 fleet were all withdrawn together into store around July 2004 as the United Express operating agreement terminated.
That is as much as I can easily discover. Anyone with Air Britain News fill in the gap from 2006 using the ‘Aircraft Production’ section – especially her circa late 2007/early 2008 return to the UK?
“Pully 113” requested a ‘concise’ version of the history in his OP, this is perhaps more accurately a ‘long-winded history with gaps’ version – anyone able to fill in how/when she re-crossed the Atlantic back to the UK (whole aircraft or just fuselage?) and where she has been subsequently? Thanks.
viscountOn the LH side of Photo 2, I see in the distance a BEA Vanguard, with a British Eagle Britannia this side of it, then another aircraft parallel to the Britannia on the nearside of it. Likely a Britannia or possibly Viscount, but with a straight cabin top, not gracefully curved as a Constellation was. “Charliehunt” who originally ‘saw’ a Constellation in one of the shots, has already edited into a subsequent post stating he accepts it is a Britannia.
Mind you that was frequent at Heathrow as a teenager spotting from the Queens Building – the ‘locals’ could always see something exotic out over on the far side that us strangers from the north could not just quite see. But we would say we could, log it anyway and let them have their little joke, crossing it out later (or just very rarely ticking it when whatever it was taxied out to take-off!). Great times, good memories.
viscountThe ‘Austrian’ Viscounts are Cambrian Airways Viscount 701s. Note the former BEA red wings colour retained. This dates the photo to after March 1963, the British Eagle (not just Eagle) Viscount likely to after January 1964, the presence of a Trident to after entry into service March 1964; the British Eagle aircraft have to be before November 1968, the BEA aircraft all in the same scheme points to before late ’68 also. However, the general lack of Tridents in the wider ramp shots make me think spring/early summer 1964 as the likely time-frame for this set of nostalgia.
In slide 2 the 4 prop nose-on with a white nose I take to be an IL-18, likely Malev?
viscount73-1590/DM EC-130H 355th Wing, so not an MC-130E.
viscountClearly British Eagle’s Britannia 312F, G-AOVF “Friendship” undergoing large freight door installation as already identified.
Although I did not recognise the hangar at first, looking at my notes and at other photos, the location is quite certainly in Liverpool Speke’s Hangar No.1. G-AOVF arrived for freight door installation on 28th February 1968, flew an air test 12th August and returned to Heathrow for service 15th August – which presumably puts a date on the photograph circa April/May ’68. Some sources state that British Eagle’s freighter conversions were all undertaken at Heathrow are wrong – indeed G-AOVM was also converted at Speke before ‘VF. Only seen one other photo of a Britannia undergoing freighter conversion with British Eagle Engineering at Liverpool, so can you go through the pile of junk again? Good find despite the creases.
viscount‘Trolly Aux’ identifies the problem correctly, the trouble is that these strong gales are from the south (rather than the regular south-west or west) which is why Heathrow and Gatwick have been struggling with the massive cross-winds and diverting so many flights north, and why the Dorset and South Devon coastline has taken such an unusual battering, rather than the west coast.
viscountWhile this thread has made us well aware of the two Avians in Britain, and some in Australia, just how many are in Australia/New Zealand, or indeed elsewhere, and of what status?
viscountSpotted this one in my collection and recalled this thread.
A Keith Price photo, taken at Manchester, early 1978, of one of two former Omani Viscounts in storage pending sale on the Fairey hangars Apron.
Slipper tank is evident, but not clear as on some of the links earlier on this thread.
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viscountThe monoplane G-AAJK is the Clark Cheetah Biplane – OK, that must rank as the oddest statement I’ve ever made on this forum! I’ll explain by copying out the entry for G-AAJK in Air Britain’s ‘the British Civil Aircraft Registers G-AAAA to G-AAZZ, published early ’70s? Peter Moss.
Built as a bi-plane using main components from a DH.53 and the struts and lower mainplane from the Halton Mayfly G-EBOO.
Registered 21.6.29 to F/O John Clark. First C of A issued on 17.9.29.
After Clarke’s death on 11.10.29 the Cheetah passed through several hands:
Lord Malcolm Douglas Hamilton from 3.30
A.C.Thomas and partners and partners of No.600 Squadron at Hendon from 9.30 who modified it to a high-wing monoplane.
Withdrawn when it’s C of A expired on 3.7.34.
It was last owned by Richard A. Hopkinson at R.A.F. Abingdon from 12.5.36.
Sold as scrap in 1937 and the registration marks cancelled in 6.37.
The remains of the Cheetah were rescued from a scrap yard near Watford and used to help construction of the Martin Monoplane G-AEYY.
In typing the entry out in full, I hope that a name or location may fall into place as other career details become clearer. Are the hangars behind the photo Hendon or Abingdon, or indeed elsewhere – a question I cannot answer.
viscountSurely the RAF Museum at Hendon and Cosford should be there, along with the frequently overlooked amazing Brussels collection too. Aviation collections in Germany could qualify for world status too with Concorde and Tu-144 exhibited. There is the Air Force Museum in Madrid too to consider. Totally agree with Krakow being included.
While on the other side of the coin is Palm Springs a world class aviation museum, ahead of say the USS Intrepid museum or Lone Star Museum., or EAA Museum or CAF (sorry old title) Museum? Does the entry for Washington, attached to the Boeing plant tours at Washington even count as a museum based on their short write-up, let alone placed 4th? Don’t know too much about the Ukraine Museum, so cannot comment there.
How few of these Museums have active historic aircraft flying from the attached airfield. How fortunate we are with Duxford.
An interesting thought provoking listing for a cold, wet, grey day (well is here). Bet there will be more opinion to follow, this one will run and run … with interesting comment too, I hope.
viscountMy notes around G-ABEE are sketchy as the aircraft never had a Liverpool connection. Seems it was discovered, late 1963 at Selhurst Grammar School in a very bad state and purchased reputedly for £5. G-ABEE is an Avro 594 Avian IVM, a metal version. Jon details above the move north to Manchester. After donating parts to G-EZBM’s rebuild the remains were stored for some time at a number of locations, including Stockport (noted there early 70s). The frame was in store at Wigan, when sold and exported during 1978 to Australia apparently as a restoration project.
With a departure date to limit my search, I have been through enthusiast logs for the annual PFA Rally at Sywell for right through the 70s to 1979, looking for an appearance. I could find no entry – but that does not mean that the frame was not there one year, just simply not recognised for what it was and recorded!
Changing tack slightly. The references to no flying Avian in Britain struck a memory chord, as I felt sure I had seen one at a Woodford Air Show in the ’90s. Sure enough I had, on 6th June 1998 – but it was an Australian example VH-UFZ.
viscountThe ‘rescue’ of the Avro 594 Avian III G-EZBM could be considered the first act of the ‘amateur’ preservation movement in Britain, although is not too often acknowledged as such. The story actually goes back before the photo on the OP of this thread. Although not involved personally, I am in a position to tell the story as related by some who were.
The aircraft was rescued from the fire dump at Ringway (Manchester Airport) shortly before it was to be burnt when members of the ‘Merseyside Group of Aviation Enthusiasts’ (MGAE) at Liverpool realised its historic significance having operated with Merseyside Aero & Sports Ltd at Hooton Park from early 1929 and then as a joy-riding mount with Giro Aviation at Southport Beach from 1932 until retirement in 1938, and stored dismantled by Giro at Hesketh Park throughout the war and beyond. In the ’50s purchased by Bernard Murphy an engineer with Eagle’s maintenance base on Ringway’s South side. When Eagle suddenly closed their base in 1958, Murphy transferred to either Bermuda or The Bahamas; so he and a partner gave their dismantled aircraft to the fire service, although the refuse department got there first and removed Fleet 7C G-AEJY and bits of G-EBZM to a local tip. However, the Avian fuselage and two wings were taken over by the Fire Service and dumped in some old firing butts pending incineration. MGAE member Alan Madden was an ATCO at Ringway and talked the Airport Fire Officer into parting with it.
Around April 1959 G-EBZM was rescued from the Ringway Fire Service and loaded by sheer youthful muscle power (Phil Dale, Bryan Heatley, Peter Schofield, Ian Keast, Phil Butler and 3 or 4 further MGAE members) onto a borrowed flat-bed truck and transported to Bryan Heatley’s father’s garage off Tarbock Road in Huyton, near Liverpool. After a year or so, Heatley senior got fed up avoiding the Avian whenever he needed his car, so it had to move on! As some MGAE members were involved with the ‘Double Alfa Flying Group’ operating Proctor G-AIAA, the Avian moved to Speke Airport (Liverpool) to share Hangar No.50 around June 1960. For a while the MGAE paid the Airport monthly for storage space until it got more than the group’s finances could manage. During February 1961 it was moved from Speke’s Hangar 50 to Lymm Grammar School where MGAE member Peter Schofield was teaching and able to provide storage until workshop space could be found. At this stage concern for the future restoration and funding of Avian G-EBZM provided the spark for some MGAE members and others to form the Northern Aircraft Preservation Society (NAPS) in late October 1962, with G-EBZM their initial aircraft. Ownership transferred from the MGAE to NAPS November 1962. The photo on the OP link would have been subsequently moving it from Lymm Grammar School to be more accessible in a garage in Moss Road, Stretford November 1962 (thanks Jon for providing the month), so was actually the 4th road move following rescue!
NAPS, later to become The Aeroplane Collection (TAC), undertook the long term rebuild to display condition in the Manchester area, mainly at their premises in Peel Green and Wigan. The restoration being aided by using parts of another Avian G-ABEE found by the group in November 1962. After much work ‘ZM was suitable for display and made some brief appearances at local air displays around Manchester eg Woodford RAeS Garden Party June 1966 (less wings), LAC’s 50th Anniv Show at Barton Sept 1972 (complete), before going out on long-term loan for display with the Torbay Aircraft Museum from June 1973. It returned to Manchester 9th December 1982 and then loan to Manchester Museum of Science and Industry (MoSI) where it has been on display since the opening 30th March 1983, to the present day. Very few of the public seeing it there looking pristine will have very little idea of its local history and significant part played in the very early days of the aircraft preservation movement in Britain.
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A Phil Butler photo, via Phil Dale of G-EBZM in storage at Hesketh Park, Southport in September 1953.
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Photo is scanned from the 1974 reprint of ‘Wrecks and Relics 1961’. Caption states taken at Speke August 1960, photographer not identified but likely George Jones.
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Photo is scanned from a 1979 MAS Flypast, taken by S.G.Jones of G-EZBM being erected at a Barton in September 1972 for Lancashire Aero Club’s 50th Anniversary Air Display event.
References: Don Stephens a founder member of MGAE, compiler of MGAE’s W&R 1 in 1961 and W&R 2 in 1963, and who remains in contact with many of the original rescuers – without whose intervention the Avian would most certainly have been ‘lost’. Also ‘British Museum Aircraft’ Ken Ellis, MAS, 1977 and MAS ‘Flypast’, Ken Ellis & Phil Butler, 1983.
Footnote: The 1956 formed MGAE became the MSAE then Merseyside Aviation Society (MAS) until 1986, then the North West Air News Group and since 2006 as nwan.co.uk website and associated forum.
viscountI’ve been in touch with Don Stephens regarding why the Mosquito TA634 was purchased by Liverpool Corporation in 1963. The answer seems to be that it was ‘a good idea at time’. There was no long-term plan for her care, just a vague plan to place her on public display in the future. Aviation enthusiast Don Stephens was the main mover in the scheme to bring the aircraft to Liverpool, incensed at the announcement that the RAF were going to scrap all the former CAACU Mosquitos without a thought of preserving at least one (remember this was well before the British aviation museum preservation movement got going). He was supported by his local MP Richard Bingham, who turn ensured the support of the Airport management and Airport Committee Councillors. I’ve added more detail on the nwan forum thread on derbosoft proboards link a few posts up.
Without Don’s persuasion and determination to see his project through to a successful conclusion, it is quite clear that the British preservation movement would be one Mosquito less today.
viscountGood question. Indeed too good a question, as I no longer know the answer! At that time Liverpool was a ‘hot bed’ of aviation enthusiast activity, the MSAE (Merseyside Society of Aviation Enthusiasts) had published the likes of the first ‘Wrecks and Relics’ in 1961 and 2nd edition in 1963 (a direct descendant of the title soon to be in its 24th edition under Ken Ellis) compiled and edited by Don Stephens. It was Don who put the Mosquito purchase idea to Liverpool Corporation and pursued the matter to a successful conclusion. I have just e-mailed him asking what the arguments he presented were and why Liverpool went ahead with the purchase. I’ll pass on his answers in a day or two all going well.
viscountMoggy is correct in stating that Liverpool Corporation purchased a Mosquito TT.35, but for the purpose of preservation, not as a gate guard. It was a ‘hangar queen’ thoughout it’s time at Liverpool Airport, bar a couple of weeks. Bruce is a little out time-frame wise, but has the aircraft identified correctly (as indeed he should).
TA634 arrived at Liverpool Speke by air, from No.23 MU, Aldergrove on 6th November 1963 and was kept indoors at several locations around the Airport’s hangars until 1968 when it was prepared for flight, registered G-AWJV and was flown during the filming of “Mosquito Squadron”. After return to Liverpool it was again hangared, but with concerns that with no further income from flying work to pay for upkeep maintenance, the airframe was deteriorating. So in 1970 it was donated to the Mosquito Museum, leaving Liverpool by road for London Colney 29th September 1970, to join the prototype Mosquito – it has been there ever since.
Fuller story of this aircraft on http://www.derbosoft.proboards.com/thread/2946 along with photos of it’s time at Liverpool. However take it from me as a ‘local’ throughout the ’60s and the author of the linked thread, Liverpool’s Mosquito is a total ‘red herring’ on this ‘gate guards’ thread as it never was one!
Of possible relevance, pre-war there were a number of time-expired Hawker biplanes serving with ATC/CCF squadrons – maybe more training/recruitment aids than gate guardians, but it is a subject covered here before. Also I wonder if the airframes that were transported and exhibited around city centres fund raising during the war years contributed to the thinking behind RAF Stations having gate guardians post war?.
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