Post by rj on Mar 1, 2015 13:12:56 GMT
here is a potted histort of the civil era from 1947-60 to compliment flyboys RAF era history. Full history will be in my free ebook later in the year
01/01/1947 ofically handed over to Ministry Of Civil Aviation but not sufficient staff to open until 15th February, the final RAF personnel leaving on 31st March. There was no opening ceremony, no ribbon cutting and not even a mention in the local newspaper ,the Camberley News. The new airport was under the control of Commandant Mr G. Winn
Initial tenants were Airwork, British Aviation Services (including Silver City), Westminster Airways ,and a little later Air Contractors.
On March 19th Airwork staged a low key press day to show some of the aircraft that were available for charter and to show off the new airport. Aircraft present consisted of Bristol 170 G-AHJF Bristol’s demonstrator, G-AHIA DH Rapide of Morton Air Services, Airspeed Consul G-AIOS, Miles Gemini G-AIHI and Vickers Viking G-AGRW leased from BEA pending delivery of Airwork’s own aircraft. Poor weather prevented all but a low flyby from those aircraft.
September 1947 The Indo-Pakistan airlift was the independent operator’s first big operation. From Blackbushe came Silver City, Air Contractors and Westminster Airways. The airlift involved transporting thousands of people caught on the wrong side of the new border between India and Pakistan. For these short trips the DC-3’s were authorized to carry 52 passengers and the Bristol 170 carried 117 standing passengers on one occasion. The aircraft were based in Delhi and operated ad-hoc charters in addition to the repatriation flights. Air Contractors carried some 6000 refugees during this airlift and covered over 100,000 miles. One flight carried a total of 65 passengers, more than twice the DC-3’s normal load
During 1947 there were several immigrant flights to Australia using the Stirlings of Belgian airline Air Transport and Lockheed Hudson VH-ASV and Lockheed Lodestar G-AGBU of Intercontinental Air Tours. This aircraft visited Croydon and Blackbushe several times from July 1947 to March 1948. There was also Guinea Air Traders who purchased a pair of British registered Dakotas (G-AGHN and G-AKNB) that continued to, illegally, wear British marking on these flights, a couple of these flights started at Blackbushe. Indeed G-AKNB was returned to Blackbushe in October 1949 after the company’s demise.
In its first year the airport handled 1493 arriving civil aircraft and 1490 departing civil aircraft. This included some 30 aircraft diverted from Heathrow. Military movements amounted to some 76 arrivals and 94 departures. Between September 1947 and March 1948 there were 1986 inbound international passengers and some 2975 outbound
1948
1948 was to be an important year for the independents and Blackbushe. The airport was now open 18 hours a day, 7 days a week with full customs facilities. There was also a newly opened briefing unit to provide weather details for pilots. An aircraft weight limit had been imposed at 48,000 lb (21772kg), which allowed the Viking and DC-3 to operate. Larger aircraft weighing over 60000lb (27215 kg) such as the Handley Page Halifax and the Avro Lancastrian were allowed two movements per day.
Air Contractors continued with their regular livestock flights. Typical of these was one on 6th April 1948 when a DC-3 departed for Nairobi. On the long ,and probably smelly, flight were 22 calf’s and 6 dogs. Later in the month 20 pigs were transported to Florence. The next day a cargo of 9 pigs, 3 sheep and 26 chickens were taken to the Milan Cattle show. In May 1948 Air Contractors moved its base again, this time to Bovingdon.
Of course the big news of the year 1948 was the Berlin Airlift. The Russians blockaded all surface transport into the allied part of the city in June after several weeks of disruption. The agreed air corridors from the Allied zones of Germany remained open and it was decided to try and supply the city by air. Initially this was a RAF and USAF operation but it was soon seen that all available help was needed, including the civilian airlines. The civil airlift commenced on the 4th August 1948 with BEA contracting many independent airlines to take part in the airlift. This was a shot in the arm for the charter airlines such as Westminster Airways and Silver City as the hourly pay rates were excellent. Initially the companies mainly used their Dakotas and Bristol 170’s carrying conventional cargo. But there became a severe liquid fuel shortage and initially Flight Refuelling used its Lancastrian tankers in this role. More companies were urged to bring in tankers, with a much higher rate being paid.
Westminster Airways- the company quickly sent its two DC-3’s onto the airlift. The first, G-AJAY, arrived in Hamburg on 4th August and these carried out 44 sorties. It was then replaced by in November 1948 by G-AJAZ that carried out 184 sorties. Westminster then also acquired four Handley Page Halifax’s to replace the Dakotas . Three of the were actually ex BOAC Haltons, and a single ex RAF Halifax MK8 (G-AJNW) these were initially used as freighters but then converted to tankers At the end of January the Halton fleet moved operations to Schleswigland, Tegel continued as the normal Berlin airport. These aircraft were G-AHDL( 10 tanker sorties),G-AHDM (176 freight, 106 tanker sorties),G-AHDV(136 tanker sorties), G-AJNW (116 tanker sorties). By the end of the airlift the company had flown 776 sorties.
Airwork- was involved in the Airlift with its newly arrived Bristol 170 Freighter. It flew 74 flights with large cargo that the other aircraft couldn’t accommodate but the Bristol’s slower cruise speed caused difficulty in keeping up with others in the stream so it was reluctantly withdrawn. The aircraft involved were Bristol 170’s G-AHJD (58 sorties) and G-AICS (16 sorties).
Silver City- the airline suffered a similar problem with its Bristol 170’s but its four aircraft managed a total of 213 sorties carrying vital outsize cargo that other aircraft could not handle. Aircraft involved were G-AGVB (65 sorties), G-AGVC (73 sorties), G-AHJC (38 sorties),G-AHJO (37 sorties)
In May 1948 the South African DC-3 operator Mercury Airways began flights. The first of these carried 23 passengers on the marathon trip from Cape Town via Salisbury, N’dola, Entebbe, Juba, Khartoum, Cairo, Athens, and Rome and onwards to Paris. The single fare was £30, with the return set at £50, a bargain compared to BOAC’s fares. The airline held a licence for flights from Johannesburg to Paris but could not obtain one to the destination where the demand laid, London. It therefore introduced an onward flight to Blackbushe without a licence.
An unusual arrival on 7th August 1948 was the arrival of a Pan-American Airways Douglas DC-4 freighter, a rare enough arrival in its self. Newspapers of the time revealed that it was supposedly carrying £250, 0000 worth of diamonds en-route to Israel protected by three armed guards. August 29th also saw another first time visitor to Blackbushe in the shape of the Duke of Edinburgh. The Duke departed Aberdeen in a Kings Flight Vickers Viking arriving at Blackbushe just before 2pm after which he was whisked off to London. The Duke once again made use of Blackbushe on May 24th 1949, this time he was accompanied by, the then, Princess Elizabeth on a similar trip from Aberdeen. The Royal Family were to be occasional users of Blackbushe in future years as it avoided the press at Heathrow and was handy for Windsor Castle.
September 1948 saw the first of the air shows, organized by the SBAC, at nearby Farnborough. Blackbushe was the designated airport for visiting aircraft and the airport operations were taken over by the SBAC for the week of the air show. Officially only show visitors and based operators allowed to operate from Blackbushe for the duration. For the first of many times Blackbushe was swamped with visitors to the show. This still takes pace although at a tiny fraction of the then level. In those far off days the airport was packed with aircraft from all over the world bringing in passengers to attend the show. The RAF used countless Ansons, Devon’s, Dakotas, Meteors, Vampires and Canberras. Military Dakotas from all over Europe as well as the US and as far away as India attended. Civil aircraft made up am small amount of visitors and these were mainly Ansons, Consuls and Rapides from the UK and the near continent.
A number of foreign airlines began to use Blackbushe particularly with much of the home fleet ties up in supplying Berlin. One example was French operator Societe Aero Cargo a Lyon based operator Halifax and Dakota operator. A number of flights were operated with cargos of fruit, mainly clementine’s from Tunis during October and November 1948. A new local operator formed in November 1948 was William Dempster. The company initially operated with a pair of de Havilland Rapides on small scale ad-hoc charters and it would take until 1950 for the company to grow further.
November and December 1948 saw prolonged periods of poor visibility in the London area. This saw the one and only civil use of the FIDO apparatus on the afternoon of November 29th. The visibility was 30 yards in fog at 16:12 and this was increased to between 600 and 800 yards after a 22-minute burn. This enabled Vickers Viking G-AJFS belonging to Airwork, and piloted by Capt. Harding, to take off for Accra now in Ghana. Crown Agents for the Colonies had chartered the Viking to fly a consignment of urgently required newly printed currency to West Africa via Gibraltar. The use of FIDO was said to have cost around £1400 for this single flight.
The year of 1948 movements total was just shy of the 5000 mark. January 1949’s movements total were 73 charter flights, 373 other movements, 1153 passengers travelled through the airport, and 24356lb of cargo was handled.
01/01/1947 ofically handed over to Ministry Of Civil Aviation but not sufficient staff to open until 15th February, the final RAF personnel leaving on 31st March. There was no opening ceremony, no ribbon cutting and not even a mention in the local newspaper ,the Camberley News. The new airport was under the control of Commandant Mr G. Winn
Initial tenants were Airwork, British Aviation Services (including Silver City), Westminster Airways ,and a little later Air Contractors.
On March 19th Airwork staged a low key press day to show some of the aircraft that were available for charter and to show off the new airport. Aircraft present consisted of Bristol 170 G-AHJF Bristol’s demonstrator, G-AHIA DH Rapide of Morton Air Services, Airspeed Consul G-AIOS, Miles Gemini G-AIHI and Vickers Viking G-AGRW leased from BEA pending delivery of Airwork’s own aircraft. Poor weather prevented all but a low flyby from those aircraft.
September 1947 The Indo-Pakistan airlift was the independent operator’s first big operation. From Blackbushe came Silver City, Air Contractors and Westminster Airways. The airlift involved transporting thousands of people caught on the wrong side of the new border between India and Pakistan. For these short trips the DC-3’s were authorized to carry 52 passengers and the Bristol 170 carried 117 standing passengers on one occasion. The aircraft were based in Delhi and operated ad-hoc charters in addition to the repatriation flights. Air Contractors carried some 6000 refugees during this airlift and covered over 100,000 miles. One flight carried a total of 65 passengers, more than twice the DC-3’s normal load
During 1947 there were several immigrant flights to Australia using the Stirlings of Belgian airline Air Transport and Lockheed Hudson VH-ASV and Lockheed Lodestar G-AGBU of Intercontinental Air Tours. This aircraft visited Croydon and Blackbushe several times from July 1947 to March 1948. There was also Guinea Air Traders who purchased a pair of British registered Dakotas (G-AGHN and G-AKNB) that continued to, illegally, wear British marking on these flights, a couple of these flights started at Blackbushe. Indeed G-AKNB was returned to Blackbushe in October 1949 after the company’s demise.
In its first year the airport handled 1493 arriving civil aircraft and 1490 departing civil aircraft. This included some 30 aircraft diverted from Heathrow. Military movements amounted to some 76 arrivals and 94 departures. Between September 1947 and March 1948 there were 1986 inbound international passengers and some 2975 outbound
1948
1948 was to be an important year for the independents and Blackbushe. The airport was now open 18 hours a day, 7 days a week with full customs facilities. There was also a newly opened briefing unit to provide weather details for pilots. An aircraft weight limit had been imposed at 48,000 lb (21772kg), which allowed the Viking and DC-3 to operate. Larger aircraft weighing over 60000lb (27215 kg) such as the Handley Page Halifax and the Avro Lancastrian were allowed two movements per day.
Air Contractors continued with their regular livestock flights. Typical of these was one on 6th April 1948 when a DC-3 departed for Nairobi. On the long ,and probably smelly, flight were 22 calf’s and 6 dogs. Later in the month 20 pigs were transported to Florence. The next day a cargo of 9 pigs, 3 sheep and 26 chickens were taken to the Milan Cattle show. In May 1948 Air Contractors moved its base again, this time to Bovingdon.
Of course the big news of the year 1948 was the Berlin Airlift. The Russians blockaded all surface transport into the allied part of the city in June after several weeks of disruption. The agreed air corridors from the Allied zones of Germany remained open and it was decided to try and supply the city by air. Initially this was a RAF and USAF operation but it was soon seen that all available help was needed, including the civilian airlines. The civil airlift commenced on the 4th August 1948 with BEA contracting many independent airlines to take part in the airlift. This was a shot in the arm for the charter airlines such as Westminster Airways and Silver City as the hourly pay rates were excellent. Initially the companies mainly used their Dakotas and Bristol 170’s carrying conventional cargo. But there became a severe liquid fuel shortage and initially Flight Refuelling used its Lancastrian tankers in this role. More companies were urged to bring in tankers, with a much higher rate being paid.
Westminster Airways- the company quickly sent its two DC-3’s onto the airlift. The first, G-AJAY, arrived in Hamburg on 4th August and these carried out 44 sorties. It was then replaced by in November 1948 by G-AJAZ that carried out 184 sorties. Westminster then also acquired four Handley Page Halifax’s to replace the Dakotas . Three of the were actually ex BOAC Haltons, and a single ex RAF Halifax MK8 (G-AJNW) these were initially used as freighters but then converted to tankers At the end of January the Halton fleet moved operations to Schleswigland, Tegel continued as the normal Berlin airport. These aircraft were G-AHDL( 10 tanker sorties),G-AHDM (176 freight, 106 tanker sorties),G-AHDV(136 tanker sorties), G-AJNW (116 tanker sorties). By the end of the airlift the company had flown 776 sorties.
Airwork- was involved in the Airlift with its newly arrived Bristol 170 Freighter. It flew 74 flights with large cargo that the other aircraft couldn’t accommodate but the Bristol’s slower cruise speed caused difficulty in keeping up with others in the stream so it was reluctantly withdrawn. The aircraft involved were Bristol 170’s G-AHJD (58 sorties) and G-AICS (16 sorties).
Silver City- the airline suffered a similar problem with its Bristol 170’s but its four aircraft managed a total of 213 sorties carrying vital outsize cargo that other aircraft could not handle. Aircraft involved were G-AGVB (65 sorties), G-AGVC (73 sorties), G-AHJC (38 sorties),G-AHJO (37 sorties)
In May 1948 the South African DC-3 operator Mercury Airways began flights. The first of these carried 23 passengers on the marathon trip from Cape Town via Salisbury, N’dola, Entebbe, Juba, Khartoum, Cairo, Athens, and Rome and onwards to Paris. The single fare was £30, with the return set at £50, a bargain compared to BOAC’s fares. The airline held a licence for flights from Johannesburg to Paris but could not obtain one to the destination where the demand laid, London. It therefore introduced an onward flight to Blackbushe without a licence.
An unusual arrival on 7th August 1948 was the arrival of a Pan-American Airways Douglas DC-4 freighter, a rare enough arrival in its self. Newspapers of the time revealed that it was supposedly carrying £250, 0000 worth of diamonds en-route to Israel protected by three armed guards. August 29th also saw another first time visitor to Blackbushe in the shape of the Duke of Edinburgh. The Duke departed Aberdeen in a Kings Flight Vickers Viking arriving at Blackbushe just before 2pm after which he was whisked off to London. The Duke once again made use of Blackbushe on May 24th 1949, this time he was accompanied by, the then, Princess Elizabeth on a similar trip from Aberdeen. The Royal Family were to be occasional users of Blackbushe in future years as it avoided the press at Heathrow and was handy for Windsor Castle.
September 1948 saw the first of the air shows, organized by the SBAC, at nearby Farnborough. Blackbushe was the designated airport for visiting aircraft and the airport operations were taken over by the SBAC for the week of the air show. Officially only show visitors and based operators allowed to operate from Blackbushe for the duration. For the first of many times Blackbushe was swamped with visitors to the show. This still takes pace although at a tiny fraction of the then level. In those far off days the airport was packed with aircraft from all over the world bringing in passengers to attend the show. The RAF used countless Ansons, Devon’s, Dakotas, Meteors, Vampires and Canberras. Military Dakotas from all over Europe as well as the US and as far away as India attended. Civil aircraft made up am small amount of visitors and these were mainly Ansons, Consuls and Rapides from the UK and the near continent.
A number of foreign airlines began to use Blackbushe particularly with much of the home fleet ties up in supplying Berlin. One example was French operator Societe Aero Cargo a Lyon based operator Halifax and Dakota operator. A number of flights were operated with cargos of fruit, mainly clementine’s from Tunis during October and November 1948. A new local operator formed in November 1948 was William Dempster. The company initially operated with a pair of de Havilland Rapides on small scale ad-hoc charters and it would take until 1950 for the company to grow further.
November and December 1948 saw prolonged periods of poor visibility in the London area. This saw the one and only civil use of the FIDO apparatus on the afternoon of November 29th. The visibility was 30 yards in fog at 16:12 and this was increased to between 600 and 800 yards after a 22-minute burn. This enabled Vickers Viking G-AJFS belonging to Airwork, and piloted by Capt. Harding, to take off for Accra now in Ghana. Crown Agents for the Colonies had chartered the Viking to fly a consignment of urgently required newly printed currency to West Africa via Gibraltar. The use of FIDO was said to have cost around £1400 for this single flight.
The year of 1948 movements total was just shy of the 5000 mark. January 1949’s movements total were 73 charter flights, 373 other movements, 1153 passengers travelled through the airport, and 24356lb of cargo was handled.