Bristol Super Freighter update!!!

[Bridon Bear]

Like you Dave....I also have this set..... :roll:

Anyway, It is a 170 Mk 32 in Silver, Blue & white livery on episode 2 called 'Racist 1553' Reggie looks like it is F-BPIM French operator CAT (Cie Air Transport) and the airport is Lydd.

Nice close up of the cars reversing into the hold though.....plus the doors closing, they appear to be manually closed as the operative appears to be turning a handle at great speed visible until the doors close...keeps him fit no doubt.. ;-)

Regards.

Bridon Bear

[DaveB]

Ah yes.. tks Brian. I remember the title of the episode and am reacquainting myself with it at this very moment

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[Garry Russell]

Thanks Brain

F-BPIM will be the BUA two tone overpainted in Silver City Blue, one of two that went to CIA at the end of their careers.

F-BPIN was flown back to the scrapman but 'PIM restored to BAF as G-ANWM flew another year in that livery with BAF titles.

Unusual about the cars.they were usually driven in and reversed out.

There was a handle stowed on the wall near the ladder which was placed over a shaft to wind the door open

I don't know if this was the norm or a back up.

I do remember them winding away.

A couple more of the prototype




Test flying with the stripe now extended over the nose....At this stage she still did no have the rear cabin.



Delivery livery.....

The extra pax cabin windows have now been added to the back as was standard on the 32 and fitted to a few Mk.31

Garry

[Bridon Bear]

Looking great Garry.......deffo had the cars reversing up to the hold in the film....perhaps someone decided reversing out after the flight was a bit hairy with the added complication of gravity down the ramp... :o

Regards.

Bridon Bear

[ferryman]

Is the "Strange Report" BF actually 2 different aircraft? The loading shot shows "Air Ferry" logo inside the doors, and the letter "H" inside both doors and in front of the cockpit on the port side, but doen't seem to have any other lettering visible on the port side, whereas the takeoff sequence has the blue stripe interrupted by "CAT" below the cockpit, and "Cie Air Transport" on the lower fuselage. My wife, who's eyes are much better than mine, also reckons that the aircraft in the takeoff sequence doesn't have the white/blue pinstrip outline to the stripe.

[Garry Russell]

Hi Ferryman

The 'H' will be F-BLHH

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d6/Ga ... 062035.jpg

That is basically the last Silver City livery

'N' will be F-BPIN

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d6/Ga ... 062117.jpg

In an overpainted BUA

Garry

[markw]

On "The Man in the Sky" film, it's an excellent, typically Ealing production high in detail, accuracy and production values. What's more, the slushy family lovey-dovey stuff doesn't affect the flow of the film too much. There's lots of aircraft action and quite a few nice little in-jokes which will appeal to aircraft enthusiasts, like the fictional aircraft manufacturer being called "Conway", and the airline executive trying out the aircraft with a view to purchase mentioning his board were keen to go with the "proven Bristol aircraft", seemingly ignorant of the fact he's "flying" in one of them...There's no attempt to disguise the fact it's filmed at Wolverhampton, the aircraft is called the "Wolverhampton Freighter", callsign "Wolf"(!), Jack Hawkins calls up "Wolverhampton Tower" and Wolverhampton Fire Brigade and Ambulance Service do their best to get a BAFTA for Best Supporting Use of Lots of Bells in a rather snazzy Bedford fire engine, and Austin-Morris Ambulance. Considering the fire in the engine and technical problems, and Donald Pleasance, Victor Madern and others bale out by Parachute as a consequence, quite early on in the film, the suspense and engagement is kept going for the whole film quite well, Charles Crichton (an Ealing stalwart) doing a very good job of direction considering a fair bit of the "action" is in a studio based mock up of the "Wolverhampton Frightener". Ealing had a reputation for getting technical details correct, they were rumoured to have at least one railway enthusiast on staff who advised on railway sequences (which is why the early Ealing portmanteau disaster movie "Train of Events" doesn't suffer the kind of continuity errors many such films have) and I suspect they also had some very good technical advice in this case. The aerial sequences and flying displays are top notch, there's a good shot of a rocket assisted take off, and there are brief glimpses of regular Pendeford resident Dragon Rapides and Percival Prentices, as well as the obligatory Classic Car parade such films turn up. The "domestic" sequencesd are also interesting in it looks like they were filmed locally to Pendeford, there's a frustratingly brief glimpse of a Corporation trolleybus at one point, and the housing looks like it is the new estate that was being developed around the airport which ultimately led to it's closure. It's also interesting to see how kitchen development has moved on since the early 50's and how basic even up-market middle class housing was back then!

All in all a good all round film which frustratingly seems to have avoided UK TV airings.

Soory to dive slightly off topic a bit but there's good news for fans of the Bristol Frightener and classic British movies - the Man in the Sky has finally made it to UK dvd release! It came out stealth like in about April this year on the "Ealing Studios Collection" and is available from Movie Mail and Amazon amongst others. I hadn't realised it had been released until last week when looking for something completely different. For those who read these forums from other countries, it's a Region 2 DVD, so you will need a European or multi-region DVD player to play the dvd.

Just thought I'd post the news in case you fancy getting a copy, there's loads of Bristol action and some rather nice classic cars and fire kit too.

[Garry Russell]

Thanks for the HU Mike