London Airport in the 50s & 60s - Part 1

[ianhind]

Were any of the pinstripe Viscounts painted that silver grey in service? Never saw any since red square with the tiny registration at the top of the tail was when I first became interested.

[Garry Russell]

Hi Ian

Nope..The grey was purely the museum repaints.

On the early red Square they maintained the natural bottom and it was about 1965.6 they were repainted in grey.

One comet never received the grey as it went into Flying Jack Air tours still natural


This is what I believe was the case with the blue and the link to a Vanguard..I am unable to prove any of it, apart from the reports which were supposedly based on witnessed fact by the authors.

It was reported at the time this Viscount was flying around that a Vanguard was in the blue bottom too, although none had been completed then

It has also been reported the G-AOYW wore the BEA pinstripe livery...no picture ever seen by me and it was rolled out in Vickers livery.

There is a pic of G-APEA looking blue on the Vanguard site but that is a colour cast on the pic...G-APEA was always grey

During construction the livery was abandoned.

The only thing I can think of ifs that G-AOYW was over painted in Vickers blue whilst still on the line.

This would account for 'OYW not being in a standard Vickers livery, which it was soon repainted into....except for the blue under surfaces and also why it was blue

This would explain the actual style of 'OYW's initial livery and also account for the reports of G-AOYW in BEA livery and the existence of a blue BEA Vanguard.

That would also confirm the blue on G-AOYW was the same as on G-AORD ...which is supposedly was and it does reproduce in black and white at about the same shade as similar black and white pics I have of G-AORD.

I would love to have this long term mystery solved.

[VC10]

Fortunately I saw the pics before they were removed - excellent. Recalls the time when it was worth going to LHR, before everything started to look the same