More Slides.You Asked For Them!

[Tomliner]

Hi Folks.I have looked at the original slide of BBME and it looks like the windows are blanked out.As far as I recall,BA was not a regular user of East Mids so this could have been a one off/VIP visit.TTFN EricT

[emfrat]

A google on the Reg No produced a few images, including these:
http://www.abpic.co.uk/search.php?q=G-BBME&u=reg

One shows the overwing windows 'missing' on the starboard side.
Wasn't game to post this last night, in the face of all the resident expertise here

MikeW

[TSR2]

They do look blanked out I must admit, and that was from '82. Would be good to here from someone at BA who knows what the story was.

[DaveB]

Hi Ben..

I've already asked the old boys at Brooklands if they remember what the story was with MikeEcho but unless it was a regular to LHR, they may not know. The thing with blanks is that they're not usually a 5min job to fit so it wouldn't be something that'd be done on a regular basis me thinks though to be honest, I'm not au fait with how they're fitted in the One-Eleven. We'll see what pop's up

ATB

DaveB

[NigelC]

Sure looks to me like the Cabin Windows have been removed and blanked so that would suggest the aircraft was re-roled in someway. It would be an awful lot of work for just a few flights.....

Something to do with '74/'83 General Elections? Pretty sure Maggie used a BIA 1-11 in '83 and someone used a BAF 1-11 on an election campaign.

[DaveB]

Ah.. I was hoping you'd pop-in and see this Nige

It begs the question though.. what would be the operational requirement for fitting blanks temporarily

ATB

DaveB

[NigelC]

It begs the question though.. what would be the operational requirement for fitting blanks temporarily

Most usually seen in a freighter conversion...basically where you don't need the light anymore. If you have internal equipment fitted (galley units, storage etc etc etc0 which covers the window, you don't really need it anymore. However you would associate this with a permanent conversion, temporarily, you'd just pull the blinds down.

Window arrangement on left side in the photo look like a pax/freight combi arrangement, freight at front, pax at rear so in forced landing freight doesn't break loose and squish the pax. Without the freight door though, the 1-11 isn't a good freighter, so you'd be looking at mail or newspapers. Can't see BA doing this mod for just a couple of sectors a day though, if you were going to reconfig partway through the day you'd want the windows available and you'd use side-panel protectors.

The Air Britain pic of the other side doesn't compute with that though and we're looking at a gap of 8 years between the two, so 2 seperate, reasonably long term adaptations of the aircraft.

Interested to know the answer to this one

[DaveB]

Interested to know the answer to this one

Yes mate.. me too

ATB

DaveB

[VC10]

Great pictures. A lot more interesting than today's types