old airfreight discussion

Sponge Bob

Don't forget that Aer Lingus used to ferry cars ....by plane

They ran a Carvair between about 1963 and 1965 when the first car ferry appeared at Dun Laoghaire from Holyhead. Here she is in Bristol from the wiki.

Judgement Day

And just in case anyone thinks Sponge Bob is kidding here is the Carvair Aer Lingus model 1:400 scale for sale: http://www.replicaminiatures.com/PH2EIN027.jpg

Sponge's post got me thinking laterally and I remembered that just as Aer Lingus were involved in flying cars CIE had their own air arm Aerlod Teoranta - can you believe it? As with so many other CIE divisions it was flogged off and the only references that Google bring up is to privatised company ending up in one of the Ansbacher reports! Good old CIE - always the Midas touch in reverse.

Sponge Bob

Aerlod Teoranta did airfreight and passengers did not fly with a car if they actually carried any cars that is. Somebody used to fly horses to races too, nahhh not CIE

The Aer Lingus service ( until 1966 rather than 1965) was advertised as a "Car Ferry" and the car passengers flew upstairs on the Carvair with their cars downstairs.

Calina

hope this is okay with the mods in Aviation/this turned up in Commuting & Transport today - think you guys might find it interesting and I think it might be more appropriate here.

FlutterinBantam

5 cars and 22 passengers I'm told was the configuration.

pclancy

Googling to find out how much tickets were and i found this old Flightglobal article about one of the Carvairs delivery flights. I wonder how much it cost in those days to fly yourself and your car around.

Also look at this lovely example, photo taken in 2006 but sadly this aircraft crashed and was written off in 2007.

Davidth88

I remember British Air Ferries used to operate out of Southend ( IIRC )

Indeed the museum there used to have a Carvair , although I think it's gone now ( I am going back to the late 70s - 80's )

Did Aerlod Teoranta used to operate a DC8 , or a Britannia ?

I sort of recall seeing a DC8 with a Shamrock in Cambridge which was delivering horses to Newmarket ( again I am talking 70-80s )

FlutterinBantam

Aer Turas perhaps??

FlutterinBantam

pclancy

That livery didnt take long to dream up did it

I do kind of like to see shiny steel though, the American livery is actually quite cool in that sense and it woiuld be nice if more airlines used it.

lord lucan

Anyone know what insignia is on the engines?,looks interesting.

FunkyDa

lord lucan wrote: »

Anyone know what insignia is on the engines?,looks interesting.

http://www.pratt-whitney.com/About+Us/History/Evolution+of+the+Eagle


Back to the Carvair - how did the flight crew get up to the flight deck? - an internal staircase, or a ladder mounted on the sidewall?

EchoIndia

pclancy wrote: »

That livery didnt take long to dream up did it

I do kind of like to see shiny steel though, the American livery is actually quite cool in that sense and it woiuld be nice if more airlines used it.

That Aer Turas scheme was based on that of the aircraft's previous operator, Cargolux. In this photo you can also see the remains of its original Flying Tigers titles: http://www.airliners.net/photo/Aer-Turas/McDonnell-Douglas-DC-8-63CF/1069406/L/

And of course the aircraft skin is aluminium rather than steel - otherwise it would be strictly a land vehicle!

FlutterinBantam

FunkyDa wrote: »

http://www.pratt-whitney.com/About+Us/History/Evolution+of+the+Eagle


Back to the Carvair - how did the flight crew get up to the flight deck? - an internal staircase, or a ladder mounted on the sidewall?

Internal ladder.

Steyr

Damn i absolutely hate steel body paintjobs on aircraft, it looks so boring almost to the point of laziness.

Davidth88

Yep Aer Turas .. thats the one

Always thought the stretched DC8 was a wonderful looking machine , I remember the Alitalia ones in LHR.

Geez Flying Tigers , that takes me back !!!

diverdriver

lord lucan wrote: »

Anyone know what insignia is on the engines?,looks interesting.

Yep the Pratt & Whitney eagle. Each engine has a metal badge bolted to the gearbox. Actually they last about as long as the first Engineer gets his hands on it. They are a popular collectors item. In the 80s they tried to replace it with a new 'modern' eagle. There was uproar, Aer Lingus refused the new badges. Eventually they relented and brought back the eagle.

Pratt & Whitney do a nice line in merchandising. They'll sell you some. Check out their website. As I sit here a nice metal version wings it way across my disc storage box. I have a couple floating around, freebees and no you can't have any.

Aer Turas also operated the a CL44 not a Brittania, although based on it. Long gone now. I never really appreciated when I saw it regularly. Those were the days.

View Profile

My uncle used to fly the DC8 for Aer Turas.

Lovely smokey old birds....:D

diverdriver

A friend of mine was a Flight Engineer on the DC8. He offered to jump seat me to Chicago once. In the end I never got around to it. What a pity now:(

FlutterinBantam

diverdriver wrote: »

Yep the Pratt & Whitney eagle. Each engine has a metal badge bolted to the gearbox. Actually they last about as long as the first Engineer gets his hands on it. They are a popular collectors item. In the 80s they tried to replace it with a new 'modern' eagle. There was uproar, Aer Lingus refused the new badges. Eventually they relented and brought back the eagle.

Pratt & Whitney do a nice line in merchandising. They'll sell you some. Check out their website. As I sit here a nice metal version wings it way across my disc storage box. I have a couple floating around, freebees and no you can't have any.

Aer Turas also operated the a CL44 not a Brittania, although based on it. Long gone now. I never really appreciated when I saw it regularly. Those were the days.

The old swing tail??

mad DIY

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Aerlod Teoranta did airfreight and passengers did not fly with a car if they actually carried any cars that is. Somebody used to fly horses to races too, nahhh not CIE

The Aer Lingus service ( until 1966 rather than 1965) was advertised as a "Car Ferry" and the car passengers flew upstairs on the Carvair with their cars downstairs.

You sure ? Looking at that OP photo, there's no windows rear of the cockpit on that level, but there does seem to be some passenger cabin windows on the lower level towards the tail, rear of the boarding stairs.

Although it would probably have been better from a safety point of view to have the passengers upstairs rather than rear of the cargo hold.

FlutterinBantam

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Aerlod Teoranta did airfreight and passengers did not fly with a car if they actually carried any cars that is. Somebody used to fly horses to races too, nahhh not CIE

The Aer Lingus service ( until 1966 rather than 1965) was advertised as a "Car Ferry" and the car passengers flew upstairs on the Carvair with their cars downstairs.

Not correct Spongy.... all on the same level,with a bulkhead seperating the passengers from the cars.


Only accomodation upstairs was the flight crew.

EchoIndia

diverdriver wrote: »

Aer Turas also operated the a CL44 not a Brittania, although based on it. Long gone now. I never really appreciated when I saw it regularly. Those were the days.

Aer Turas operated Britannias for several years before acquiring their first CL-44. The registrations of the two permanent members of the fleet were EI-BAA and EI-BBH, and on a short-term basis they also operated EI-BCI and EI-BDC. The last three of these were all ex-RAF aircraft. The release of these immaculate machines onto the civil market in about 1975 led to a temporary surge in the amount of Britannia activity in Europe, but by the early 1980s most had been withdrawn from use or had been sold to other operators such as Aerocaribbean (Cuba) or some of small carriers in Zaire. The last Irish "Brit" was EI-BBH, which was withdrawn from use in November 1981 and sold by Aer Turas in spring 1982.