The plane enthusiasts thread

[CanucksTraveller]

Harleston Engineering,Ellough Ind Estate, Beccles, Suffolk, NR34 7TD.

Can easily get more pics if you want ?

It's the upper deck of an Aviation Traders Carvair, they were a weird conversion of the Douglas DC-4 with the flight deck moved on top in a hump and with a hinged nose cone, all to accommodate up to 5 cars in the forward fuselage.

Pretty rare, there were only 21 of that conversion made.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_Traders_Carvair

 

[Jameshow]

It's the upper deck of an Aviation Traders Carvair, they were a weird conversion of the Douglas DC-4 with the flight deck moved on top in a hump and with a hinged nose cone, all to accommodate up to 5 cars in the forward fuselage.

Pretty rare, there were only 21 of that conversion made.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_Traders_Carvair

View attachment 676590

Good work detective!!

What a mad aircraft!

8/21 crashed!!

 

[Oldhippy]

@ianrauk it was in Rochester.

 

[CanucksTraveller]

Good work detective!!

What a mad aircraft!

8/21 crashed!!

They were pretty nutty weren't they. That's Freddie Laker for you.
So with only 13 having not crashed, this could be quite a desirable thing, potentially. Depends what's inside, if it's an intact flight deck it could well be of interest to a museum. If it's just the shell, then in effect it's just some aluminium scrap.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

Not my bag as such. But my Bosses are huge Military fans / collectors etc. Some time (Years !) ago we agreed to store this in our yard at work for a guy temporarily. A guy who is now uncontactable: and we haven’t seen since !

This pic is taken this Morning out of my Office window…..

Carvair

eta - beaten to it by @CanucksTraveller

 

[sevenfourate]

Carvair

View attachment 676659

eta - beaten to it by @CanucksTraveller

Thanks to you and @CanucksTraveller for your expertise…..

Not the prettiest looking thing to take flight is it 😳

 

[Cycleops]

I seem to remember there was a bit of a craze for cargo planes around that time that could carry cars. Mainly to Europe I think.
Can anyone remember the others? Didn't Bristol make one?

 

[Jameshow]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Freighter

Bristol freighter!

 

[DaveReading]

So with only 13 having not crashed, this could be quite a desirable thing, potentially. Depends what's inside, if it's an intact flight deck it could well be of interest to a museum. If it's just the shell, then in effect it's just some aluminium scrap.

I'd be very surprised if there is much of the flight deck left.

This particular Carvair flew with Aer Lingus and then in Canada with Eastern Provincial, before being bought by British Air Ferries and returning to the UK, where it was probably cannibalised before being broken up.

The nose section spent several years on display outdoors at the Halesworth Aviation Museum, hence its poor condition.

 

[Jameshow]

I'd be very surprised if there is much of the flight deck left.

This particular Carvair flew with Aer Lingus and then in Canada with Eastern Provincial, before being bought by British Air Ferries and returning to the UK, where it was probably cannibalised before being broken up.

The nose section spent several years on display outdoors at the Halesworth Aviation Museum, hence its poor condition.

Will it fly again?!🤔🤔🤔✈️✈️🤣🤣🤣

 

[Illaveago]

There is a Carvair in the James Bond film Goldfinger.

 

[a.twiddler]

From looking at Wikipedia, the original Bristol Freighter in all its variants doesn't seem to have had a great safety record either. Out of 214 built, 68 were destroyed in accidents or crashed. Then again, they were designed for short haul intensive use, so the number of take off/landing cycles, the time of greatest risk, would have been greater than for the average airliner. Plus military use, often in regions with basic airfield facilities. Perhaps by the standards of that time, it was within accepable limits. It does seem that compared with safety standards in modern air travel, the post WWII period up to the early sixties could give a pretty hairy experience for the air traveller.

 

[DaveReading]

From looking at Wikipedia, the original Bristol Freighter in all its variants doesn't seem to have had a great safety record either. Out of 214 built, 68 were destroyed in accidents or crashed. Then again, they were designed for short haul intensive use, so the number of take off/landing cycles, the time of greatest risk, would have been greater than for the average airliner. Plus military use, often in regions with basic airfield facilities. Perhaps by the standards of that time, it was within accepable limits. It does seem that compared with safety standards in modern air travel, the post WWII period up to the early sixties could give a pretty hairy experience for the air traveller.

Most piston-engined transport aircraft of that era, particularly those with only 2 engines, has a safety record that would raise eyebrows nowadays.

 

[a.twiddler]

As a small boy, flying back from the far east in 1959 in an Airwork Handley Page Hermes, we had an engine failure en route. We'd survived Singapore-Bangkok-Calcutta-Karachi-Ankara, staying in a succession of nondescript hotels between hops. On the leg from Ankara to Rome we had a laconic announcement from the captain. "Ladies and gentlemen... due to technical issues... we are diverting to Brindisi...no cause for alarm...anticipate touch down... in about 45 minutes."

We spent an extra day waiting for a spare engine to be flown out and installed before we continued our journey. Probably this sort of thing was common then, and maybe "technical issues" would still have been the term used even if all four engines had been merrily blazing away out there on the wings. We sat at the end of the runway for quite some time with the engines roaring, as we had done before each leg of the journey. "Checking for mag drop", my father calmly explained.

The engines continued to function until we reached London. We circled steeply above the uncomfortably close London lights for what seemed an age before descending to a smooth landing at Blackbushe airport.

 

[Cycleops]

Blimey, how old are you @a.twiddler ?
Did you witness the Kaiser signing the armistice?