A postcard from Paris - BEA Viking 1951

[TobyV]

Over the Christmas break, my mother showed me this postcard sent by my great grandfather to his daughter (my grandmother), seemingly written in flight from London to Paris in 1951. Assuming the postcard was purchased on board, the aircraft would be a Vickers Viking and I believe in 1951, the route would have been operated from RAF Northolt to Le Bourget. I know that it was his first flight (aged at the time 56 I think). Today (actually yesterday), I completed my 220th flight, having first flown aged not quite five. It took mum and I a few minutes to decipher the handwriting, made worse I suspect, by the vibration of the aircraft (the address, which I have obscured for privacy reasons), probably written at Le Bourget before posting, is much clearer. I've only flown in two radial engined aircraft (DC3 and Ju-52) and certainly the latter really shook about a lot.

Just started off the ground. Above cloud, sun shining. Seems to move very slowly. Sky very blue. In cloud, like fog all round. Clear, can see the ground. Looks like patchwork. Now going over the coast. Sea calm. It is Rye. 3500 feet up, speed 215MPH. Passing Dieppe on right. Over France, fine view. Just finished dinner. Coming into Paris.

Trying to imagine how flying would feel, if I were never to have done it until I were about 20 years older than I am now! According to Wikipedia, the Viking had a ceiling of 25,000ft, but being unpressurised, I assume that wasn't really usable for civilian/transport operations, even so, 3,500ft seems a little low for that stage of the flight? I wonder what was for dinner. My BA flight to Zurich yesterday provided me only an apple juice and a bag of popcorn, although admittedly, we did get here faster than if I were in a Viking .

[Airspeed]

Thanks for sharing that, Toby!
One of my favourite aircraft from my nearest ever airport. Lived so close, we could hear the old props taking off.

[Tomliner]

Very interesting Toby. From my chilhood I seem to remember that one of my aeroplane spotters books referred to the Viking as ‘This tubby little airliner’ I ought to drag the Viking out of the hangar again in FS9. I never flew in one but when in the ATC I did get a 65 minute flight over Northern Ireland in a Varsity whilst at summer camp at RAF Ballykelly in about 1959/1960. EricT

[Paul K]

Very interesting Toby, thanks for posting.

[Dev One]

I don't remember being vibrated badly on my Viking flight back in the '50's when I went on a post inspection test flight with my father who was Airwork Ltd Chief Inspector at the time. I just remember being a bit disorientated whist standing in the cockpit doorway looking down at the cloud cover - we must have been about 8 - 9000 ft? Pilot I think was the legendary 'All Weather Mac'.
I was probably used to flying in my fathers Proctor vibration wise, but altitude was never that high, always in sight of ground.
Big step for a little boy getting over the Vikings main spar, especially on the ground with the tail down.
Had some flights whilst in the ATC in a Valetta, Chipmunk & a Canberra on the jump seat too!!!
Happy days.
Keith

[Okami]

Thank you for sharing that wonderful gem, Toby!

According to the 1951 timetables, there would have been three flights from London to Paris on which dinner was served: Bealine 345, departing London (Heathrow) for Paris-Le Bourget at 1930 local time; and Bealine flights 347 & 349, departing RAF Northolt for Paris-Le Bourget at respectively 1936 and 2000 local time. Bealine 349 would have been the last Paris-bound flight out of Northolt for the day; it departed at the same time an Air France Languedoc (Air France 119T) departed for Paris out of Heathrow.

http://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages ... 514-02.jpg

3500 feet sounds a bit low, but this was in more 'unregulated' times, when crews were allowed at their own discretion to select an altitude at which they could offer their passengers a marvelous view; also, on a short stage such as London-Paris, there wasn't that much advantage to be gained from flying at higher altitudes. Some of the independents on the shorter routes went even lower - there used to be a video on Youtube (now sadly removed) showing some of the British United Superfreighters buzzing the old Maunsell forts below deck level on their cross-channel flights...

[Dev One]

3500 ft, - also remember altitude could depend on current cloudbase as it would not be good to be incloud & preferable to be VFR.
I remember returning from Le Touquet in my fathers Proctor at 250 feet, just under cloud in 1952.
Keith

[TobyV]

Thank you for sharing that wonderful gem, Toby!

According to the 1951 timetables, there would have been three flights from London to Paris on which dinner was served: Bealine 345, departing London (Heathrow) for Paris-Le Bourget at 1930 local time; and Bealine flights 347 & 349, departing RAF Northolt for Paris-Le Bourget at respectively 1936 and 2000 local time. Bealine 349 would have been the last Paris-bound flight out of Northolt for the day; it departed at the same time an Air France Languedoc (Air France 119T) departed for Paris out of Heathrow.

http://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages ... 514-02.jpg

Excellent find, Okami! Now the thing that puzzles me, is that it appears from both the hand written date and the postal stamp, that this was posted on 6/1/1951, and if it were any of those times in the evening, it ought to have been completely dark - no blue sky, no clouds, certainly no views of Rye or the sea or Dieppe or patchwork fields to be seen . So then I wonder if he was using the word "dinner" where he ought to have been using "lunch", or whether I am misreading the date? Somewhere there's another photo showing him at the company dinner party in Paris. That might have a date on it.

[Airspeed]

Perhaps the terminology, Toby.
We used to have school dinners, not school lunches.
There are still people around who insist that the midday meal is "dinner", and the evening is "tea."
I well remember that in the 1950s, the evening meal was usually a shared plate of sandwiches with a pot of tea.

These days, I certainly have lunch in the middle of the day, and dinner (main meal) in the evening.

All the same, you're right about the time of day; 1950s December/January it got dark mid to late afternoon. I remember waiting for the bus home from school in the dark. I doubt that things are different now.

[Archer]

I agree that dinner could just refer to the main meal of the day and not a specific time. On a related note, 3500 feet doesn't sound odd to me, it is a correct VFR level for an eastbound flight. The next one would be 5500 feet but that could have taken them into clouds, or perhaps the wind at that level provided less tailwind/more headwind. Also, for a piston-engined type, the performance does not increase (or not as much, depending on the engines) with altitude as it does for gasturbine powered types. Because of this, flying lower could be better for timekeeping purposes.

It is a great item to have by the way, thanks for sharing it!