British Airways Vanguard

[Garry Russell]

A while ago I posted asking if any one knew which was the only passenger Vanguard to wear BA titles :think:

Well I found a full pic and as I guessed it was G-APEI but there was suprise in store :o

It wore British Airways Cargo titles

The aircraft itself after sitting at LHR during it's abortive lease to Silver City got quite grubby

The titles were on long clean white patches that were very obvious and may have been standard Merchantman stickers and perhaps that's all they had to cover the long area so used those. :think:

Also had smaller patches on the doors

I don't know but it was carrying pax in this variation and was not a freighter as such :think:

The paint has been uploaded to Classic British Files



The nose cone cutting into the cheatline is not an error. G-APEI was the first Vanguard to be painted in the Flying Jack livery and the others had a curve in their cheat there to stop that happening.


http://classicbritishfiles.com/index.php

Garry

[RAF_Quantum]

Hi garry,

Nice job!

Rgds

John

[Filonian]

Nice one Garry


Graham

[petermcleland]

My very first flight in Command with BEA was in G-APEI on 29th September 1973 with First Officers Hewison and Reynolds. The flight was Heathrow to Belfast and return...The aircraft was a Vanguard, not a Merchantman and curiously I never flew it again in the remaining 15 months that I was with the fleet.

I moved off the Merchantman/Vanguard fleet onto the Trident 3 in March 1975 after training that took up January and February...I see from my CAA Flight Crew Technical Examination on 29th January 1975, for the "H.S. 121 Trident Series 3B-101", that we were now called British Airways (E.D.) :flying:

[DaveB]

Peter..

How about the S-111's?? I thought you moved off Vanguard/Merchantmen onto them :o :think:

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[Garry Russell]

HI Peter
Nice to hear of your personal involvement with G-APEI

Really odd this one. It had Silver City tirles applied but was never delivered. When returned to service for about three months at most, it needed retitling and they gave it these British Airways Cargo titles even though it was a passenger aircraft. There were no other Vanguards that wore BA titles and it was planned to retire the type about take over time so perhaps that's all they had (Merchantman titles) and used the whole lot to cover the long Silver City roof titles.

It was sold to Merpati Nusantara along with G-APEH and G-APEN. The other two surviving pax Vanguards G-APER and EU were scrapped at Heathrow.

Garry

[airboatr]

fine job Garry

[petermcleland]

Peter..

How about the S-111's?? I thought you moved off Vanguard/Merchantmen onto them :o :think:

Nearly right Dave...As a First Officer, I flew the Vanguards for about 8 years (The Merchantman didn't exist then).Then, still as a First Officer, I moved from the Vanguards to the S111s mainly on German Tours. After about 18 months I got my Command Course back on Vanguards/Merchantmen (the Merchantman had now arrived and the Freight Centre was built and in service...My first flight in command on EI then after about 15 months moved over to the Trident 3 still as Captain.

So I flew Vanguards as both First Officer and Captain. S111's only as First Officer; and Tridents and Merchantmen only as Captain...That lot took 22 years :flying:

[DaveB]

Ah.. cheers Peter. That all makes sense now ;-) I was certain S-111's were in there somewhere and hadn't realised the emphasis of your post. Not a bad way to spend 22years if I may be so bold!

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[Trev Clark]

Apart from the Harvard Peter, it seems you have spent your entire (and very long) flying career on British types alone! I suppose it could only have happened in that rather narrow band of time, the true Golden Era of British Aviation!