Carvair Fleet History

Victor 45
You will be able to read a comprehensive history of the Carvair and the proposed DC-6 and -7 models and view drawings plus a list of potential buyers in my book. The release date has slipped until the end of summer
2008. However, a glimpse of the cover and a brief description is available at http://www.mcfarlandpub.com
Click on Aviation under the Transportation heading.

The history and development of the Car-Ferry concept is covered beginning with Commodore ‘Taffy’ Powell who conceived the car-ferry idea. It is carried through Freddie Laker and Mike Keegan. All twenty-one ships are profiled from roll-out at Douglas as DC-4s through Carvair conversion to crash, break-up or current status.

Regards to all,
Patrick

Carvair 16, F-BOSU

Gentlemen’

I am pleased to report that the book is progressing well and in the final stages. We are currently selecting photos and illustrations.

Does anyone have a contact for John Simms? He has a photo of F-BOSU being broken up at Nimes, which we would like a copy.

Also if anyone has photos of or knows someone who can help we would like to locate the following.

Crash of G-APNH at Le Touquet 18 March 1971

Crash of F-BMHU at Karachi 08 March 1967

Mockup of PH-DBZ at Southend

G-ASKN in ‘CB Flying Showcase’ titles.

Attention Old Stick

I’m looking for contacts with / for Patrick Dean; I have info and material for him. My email address is viewable to members.

Denny,
I could not access your email so I sent you a private message. I would like very much to talk to you about PAX. Please send me a private message with your email.
Patrick

Carvair Book

Gentlemen,
Thanks for all the encouragement and support. I received email this morning that a contract for the book is being sent for signing. As soon as it arrives and is reviewed I will update everyone.
I will be contacting a number of you who have provided data and photos to secure a release to publish items constributed. Also I would still like to locate a few photos. Crash at Le Touquet of G-APNH, LN-NAA derelict at Bangkok, mock-up photos of PH-DBZ, and crash of F-BMHU at Karachi. I am always interested in additional photos that I don’t currently have. We will be using at least 175 in the book.

Carvair Incidents

Gentlemen,

Does anyone recall or have knowledge of the two following incidents. I know they both occured but have little facts.

Carvair G-AOFW over ran the runway at Coventry pre 1967. It came to stop with the main gear in a drain culvert and the nose in the road. I would like to know the date and any details.

In 1971 an unidentified Carvair arrived at Southampton to pick up cargo and had an engine failure. It already had a car on board. Another Carvair was dispatched to pick up the load. Southampton did not have a car loader so the two aircraft were positioned nose to nose and the car transferred. I would like to know the aircraft involved and details.

Any additional facts or photos would be greatly appreciated.

Carvair Model

Jamie and Ronald,
Here is a 1/72 model I have of G-ASKN.

Carvair Book

Gentlemen;
All of your suggestions are greatly appreciated. I have considered a softback book however there are limits. I have collected data and photographs for 40 years to complete the fleet history of the Carvair. A softback book is only practical up to a certain number of pages. A complete work with five to seven hundred photos and 165,000 words cannot be produced in softback.

For those of you not aware a softback abreviated history of the Carvair was produced a few years ago. A much better approach would be a complete work. A good example is the recent book on the Caravelle by John Wegg. This work covers the complete history of a type in detail. The volume of data is impressive. Two other books which are not quite as large as the Caravelle book but do give a good type accounting are the CL-44 story by Malcolm Porter and Magnesium Overcast (B-36) by Dennis Jenkins. It has been my intent to produce a quality historical accounting of the entrie Carvair fleet with photos of each ship in every livery and registration. The photos show each ship from DC-4 through Carvair conversion to crash scene or breakup. This will be complemented with factory production photos, drawings, advertising material, memeorabilia, etc.

Simply put, I am not yet ready to compromise the content, scope and size just to get a Carvair book published. I have followed these unique aircraft all over the world since I first saw them in the 1960s. I have compiled a quality data base which is possibly one of the most complete accountings that exist. I have attempted to combine all the historical, anecdotal, humorous, and tragic stories into one flowing account. I have interviewed crews, owners, mechanics, passengers, etc. and found all of them to become nostalgic and talk about the Carvair with affection and fondness like it is and old friend. The Carvair truly has a place in aviation history. From my point of view it has been underated and the impact not realized. Anything less than a full accounting should not be considered.

I am very appreciative to all of your interest and support and hopefully a book will eventually become reality.

Patrick Dean

Cockpit and AB

Gentlemen, Kartman, RPSmith,

The Cockpit is relatively complete. The seats are rotted and torn, many gauges are still in place. The overhead is complete and untouched. The yokes are complete and center console throttles, etc. There are no radios. The radio rack had a poster with DC-4 photos and description of military DC-4 service. This is what I felt was misleading since none of this part of the airframe was ever a DC-4 but the ATEL manufactured nose. It was being presented as a relic with history from WW-2.

Now as for publishers and the possiblity of a book. Yes my manuscript was sent to AB several years ago for editing and the possiblity of being published,
however it has not progressed. Now it is true that non-military and commercial aircraft books do not fair well in the market. Many of you may be AB members with better inside contacts than I have. My feelings which should not be quoted as fact are, AB has to make decisions on what is economically best. I believe that past monographs on certain types have not faired well leaving unsold volumes which would affect the decision to take on the Carvair as a book. I would be delighted if AB were interested and if anyone has influence I would be most greatful.

It is somewhat depressing that 40 years of data collection (manuals, press releases, advertising material, memorabilia, etc.) plus a collection of thousands of photos showing all 21 ships in every livery and registration will never be available in book form. I have compiled a 165,000 word text of not only the events and history that created the Carvair but the story of each individual ship from roll-out as DC-4 through conversion to last resting place as a Carvair.

Although we are all Carvair enthusiast, there are less than 10,000 people world wide that even could identify it. Only about half would be interested in a book and probably only half of those would actually cough up $60-70 that it would most like cost.

I am entertaining all suggestions and ideas,

Patrick