Hi Paul, you did give me some info on the other site not so long a go. I had a look on the PPRu site, which did have a lot of info. However, just when you think something useful turns up some one puts a spanner in the works and it’s back to the beginning. A lot have mentioned British Eagle but I have never heard of them or seem to recall seeing their colours on the AC. Some of the routes and stop offs are pretty close as well but as I was only almost 3 on the way out and 6 on the return trip things didn’t register as well as they should have. I do believe the departure point was Stanstead. and stop offs were Rome Kuwait and Bombay but not necessarily all in the same direction. What would be ideal is to find someone else that did the same trip. However, needle in a haystack springs to mind. I even tried the Army historical branch but they didn’t really seem to think that the info I required would be kept on record. I suppose.
BUA does spring to mind but I also did a flight to Germany in the 60s so the BUA flight could have been that one. I also remember going on to the Aircraft up through the centre of the rear. Similar to the Tridents. (I think)
Its fascinating that despite the above facts you are still convinced that your Far East tour involved RAF Britannia’s from and to LAP/ Heathrow. It would be very interesting to know more about these unusual flights especially as they took RAF aircraft away from their usual routes – could they have been VIP or aeromedical flights?
As you may or may not know, RAF Lyneham went through a huge rebuilding programme in the late 50’s and early 60’s to become the UK’s Air Trooping Centre, with a new Terminal and Hotel for the thousands of passengers passing through each year. Brand new modern facilities were also constructed for the RAF staff. To use Heathrow with the added London expenses of landing, customs, and passenger handling fees on a regular basis would have made no sense at all.
I also note that you remember the aircraft having a defective nose-wheel before landing which resulted in you flying around in circles for a while. Given these circumstances I would have thought that the RAF captain might have elected for a landing at Lyneham, a short flying distance away, where the aircraft’s regular engineers were based, instead of relying on expensive British Eagle or BOAC engineers at Heathrow to have a look at the problem. A British Eagle captain on the other hand would definitely want to land amongst his own engineers at Heathrow. Just a thought!
The RAF routes to the Far East were purposely set-up (as previously described) to enable RAF aircraft to hop from one RAF overseas base to another thereby avoiding those countries unsympathetic to the British cause. Unlike civilian airlines, the RAF, being a military organisation, would also have needed to have the necessary diplomatic clearances to overfly foreign countries. An admin nightmare!
As I mentioned recently on another site, as well as the RAF and British Eagle operating troopers to Singapore, British United Airways also flew troopers with Britannias from the beginning of the 1960’s. Their route to Singapore (Paya Lebar) included stops both ways at Istanbul and Bombay. Their UK departure and arrival airfield was Stansted now known as LONDON Stansted. Could this be the answer?
Finally, I fully understand that you have complete faith in your father’s version of events, but I must add that just because someone was in the RAF it does not always mean that they know much about aeroplanes. A few of my RAF acquaintances would freely admit not knowing a Varsity from a Vulcan, they only joined after seeing the recruiting adverts inviting young men to play lots of sport and see the world. The last thing they were interested in was noisy smelly aeroplanes!
Anyway, interesting stuff and a nice reminder of some good old days’.
Regards….Paul
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