Silver City Airways
| Silver City Airways | |
|---|---|
|
|
| IATA code : | SS |
| ICAO code : | SS |
| Call sign : | (unknown) |
| Founding: | 1946 |
| Operation stopped: | 1962 |
| Seat: |
London , UK
|
| Turnstile : | |
| Home airport : | London Gatwick |
| Fleet size: | 21 (October 1962) |
| Aims: | international |
| Silver City Airways ceased operations in 1962. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation. | |
Silver City Airways was a British airline that primarily used its machines in ferry traffic to transport passenger cars across the English Channel . In addition, she carried out civil and military charter orders and, from the summer of 1957 , regular passenger transports on international scheduled flights via a company division based in Newcastle . The company was merged at the end of 1962 with Channel Air Bridge , which was also active in ferry traffic , from which the airline British United Air Ferries emerged .
history
1940s
Silver City Airways was founded on November 25, 1946 by the British mining company Zinc Corporation and other private investors as a charter airline. Its name was derived from the Australian town of Broken Hill , known as "Silver City" , where the British mining company mined mineral resources. The owners hired British Aviation Services , which originally had a 10% stake in Silver City Airways , to manage the company as well as to carry out operational flight operations. The initial fleet consisted of three Avro Lancastrians and two Douglas C-47s (DC-3s), with which the Langley Aerodrome in Berkshire began operations in December 1946 . The first charter flights led via Johannesburg ( South Africa ) to Sydney (Australia), to Karachi ( Pakistan ) and to Malta . In early 1947, Blackbushe Airport became the company's new home base.
After Pakistan had gained its independence from Great Britain, Silver City Airways transferred a Douglas C-47 to Karachi in October 1947, which was used to relocate Hindus to India and Muslims in the opposite direction. In order to be able to carry more people on these flights, the company leased a Bristol 170 from the manufacturer on a long-term basis in the same year . After the end of the contract service in Pakistan, the Bristol 170 was operated from June 15, 1948 on a trial basis for three months on a charter basis between Lympne and Le Touquet (France) to transport cars across the English Channel . Silver City Airways stationed the aircraft at Wunstorf Air Base in October 1948 and took part in the Berlin Airlift on behalf of the Royal Air Force . At the same time, the company used several Douglas C-47s and a De Havilland Dove for civil charter orders.
British Aviation Services (BAS) took a majority stake in the airline at the end of 1948 and bought it completely in the following year. In the course of the takeover, BAS changed to the holding company Britavia in June 1949 , when its subsidiary Silver City Airways remained. The company was on May 2, 1949 line rights for Fährflüge between Lympne and Le Touquet, which she recorded as scheduled on 14 July 1949th In order to obtain approval from the French government, a French subsidiary called Société Commerciale Aérienne du Littoral (SCAL) was founded in February 1949 , which was to fly this route in parallel. Initially, Silver City Airways used two Bristol 170s in scheduled service across the English Channel, each of which could transport two cars. Another Bristol 170 was operated by the French subsidiary SCAL. The drivers traveled on the flights in a passenger compartment that was in the rear of the aircraft. In parallel to the ferry operations, Silver City Airways continued to carry out civilian passenger and cargo transports on a charter basis.
1950s
In 1950 the company transported around 3,850 cars, 1,000 motorcycles and 15,000 passengers across the English Channel. The transport performance increased to 13,000 vehicles in the following year. At that time, the company operated up to six Bristol 170s at the same time in ferry traffic, with the individual machines completing up to 42 flight operations per day during the main season. On December 9, 1951, a second ferry service was established between Southampton and Cherbourg . In the spring of 1952, Silver City Airways also took ferry flights between Southend and Ostend (Belgium) and passenger flights between London Gatwick and Le Touquet. In addition to the ferry flights, the company carried out numerous charter flights with racehorses, breeding cattle, ship crews, machines or chemicals, including to Sudan . Until the beginning of 1954, there were regular supply flights from Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel to Tempelhof Airport in West Berlin , where the large French Breguet 763 aircraft was tested for three months in the winter of 1952/53 . In the same year, the company also participated in the founding of the short-lived Libyan Airways , for which it used two Bristol 170s between Tripoli and Benghazi and on weekends to Malta until 1953 .
In order to be able to carry more vehicles per flight and thus reduce operating costs, Silver City Airways ordered six aircraft of the extended version Bristol 170 Mk.32 in 1952, which were delivered from the end of March 1953. The capacities of the Lympne airfield, which only had a grass runway and an unpaved apron , were no longer sufficient at that time, so that the parent company Britavia decided in the summer of 1953 to build a new airport near the town of Lydd . When it opened on July 13, 1954, the airport known as "Ferryfield" became the new starting point for ferry flights to Le Touquet.
At the beginning of 1954, the entire group of companies including Silver City Airways was bought up by the General Steam Navigation Company , which operated in the English Channel ferry traffic and belonged to the British shipping company P&O . As a result of the takeover, the new holding British Aviation Services (BAS) was created, as its subsidiary Silver City Airways remained. In addition to ferry and charter flights, from 1957 the company also carried out commissioned flights for mineral oil companies via a subsidiary in Libya . In February 1957 bought the BAS on the Newcastle Airport -based Dragon Airways to and graduated the following month with Silver City Airways together, from which their "Northern Division" was born. Silver City Airways offered international scheduled flights from Blackpool and Newcastle to, among others, Amsterdam , Düsseldorf and Hamburg via this non-independent company division . At the end of 1957 the BAS subsidiary Lancashire Aircraft Corporation went into the "Northern Division", followed by Manx Airlines the following year. The BAS subsidiary Air Kruise , based in Lympne, was also merged with Silver City Airways in 1958 and formed their new “Passenger Division”, which was responsible for the transport of passengers between Great Britain and France. On June 15, 1959, the charter flight sister Britavia ceased operations so that Silver City Airways was the last company in the BAS group. The earlier by Britavia used Handley Page Hermes were taken from her and on the Manston Airport stationed, from where they came from on scheduled flights to Le Touquet and on charter flights are used, among others, troops transport on routes to Germany.
1960s
The cooperation with the French Compagnie Air Transport , which has been active in the same segment since 1949, was intensified in 1961 by a pool agreement, including the exchange of aircraft, and also after Silver City's transition to British United Air Ferries (BUAF) and later renaming to British Air Ferries (BAF) continued.
At the beginning of the 1960s, the P&O shipping company (owner of the BAS Holding) and the British United Airways (BUA) decided to cooperate. The latter was the owner of the Channel Air Bridge , which also used its machines to transport vehicles across the English Channel, competing with Silver City Airways . In order to merge the two companies active in ferry traffic, P&O and BUA founded a joint parent company called Air Holdings Limited , in which BAS together with Silver City Airways and Channel Air Bridge were merged in January 1962. Under the changed ownership, Silver City Airways and Channel Air Bridge continued operations until the end of 1962 under their old brands. On November 1, 1962, through a merger with Jersey Airlines, British United (Channel Island) Airways , abbreviated to BUA (CI), was founded as a new subsidiary and took over the DC-3 fleet. This in turn merged with British United Island Airways (BUIA) in November 1968 and British Island Airways (BIA) in July 1970, only to disappear into Air UK on January 1, 1980 .
At the beginning of 1963, Silver City Airways and Channel Air Bridge were merged to form British United Air Ferries .
fleet
Silver City Airways has used the following aircraft in the course of its existence:
In October 1962 the fleet consisted of 21 aircraft: two Bristol 170 Mk.21, one Bristol 170 Mk.21E, ten Bristol 170 Mk.32, one De Havilland DH104 Dove 1, two Douglas C-47B, one Douglas C-47D and four Handley Page HP81 Hermes 4.
Incidents
- On January 19, 1953, a Bristol 170 Mk.21 ( aircraft registration G-AICM ) ran out of fuel. Since a landing at the destination airport Berlin-Tempelhof was not possible due to fog, a crash landing occurred nearby. Both pilots survived the total write-off, which came about due to insufficient fuel reserves.
- On February 27, 1958, a Bristol 170 Mk.21E (G-AICS) of Silver City Airways leased to the sister company Manx Airlines was on a charter flight from Ronaldsway Airport to Manchester when it became a " controlled flight into terrain " (CFIT) came. Since the wrong NDB radio beacon had been selected on the radio compass , a navigation error occurred which resulted in the aircraft being flown 35 kilometers north-northwest of the destination airport in Manchester into the 450 meter high Winter Hill. 35 of the 42 inmates died; four passengers and all three crew members survived. This was the second worst accident involving a Bristol 170 based on the number of fatalities.
- On November 1, 1961, a by fell Airport Cherbourg-Maupertus coming Bristol 170 Mk.32 (G-ANWL) the go-attempt at Guernsey Airport, out of control, hit the ground with the right wing and overturned. The loss of control was caused by a failure of the propeller adjustment of the right engine. Of the ten occupants, two crew members perished, all others survived.
- On June 30, 1962, the landing gear of a Bristol 170 Mk.21 (G-AGVC) collapsed on landing at Ronaldsway Airport . The machine was irreparably damaged, the occupants remained uninjured.
See also
Web links
- Silver City Association: Silver City Airways , company history and fleet information
Individual evidence
- ^ Flight International, December 19, 1946 (in English), accessed August 26, 2017
- ↑ a b c d e Flight International, February 19, 1954 (in English), accessed September 4, 2017
- ↑ Flight International, October 7, 1947 (in English), accessed August 26, 2017
- ^ Silver City: The Company, The End of the Adventure , accessed August 9, 2019
- ^ Flight International, December 18, 1947 (in English), accessed September 4, 2017
- ^ Flight International, June 27, 1952 (in English), accessed October 16, 2017
- ^ Flight International, February 15, 1952 (in English), accessed September 4, 2017
- ^ Charles Woodley: Gatwick Airport: The First 50 Years , The History Press, 2014, ISBN 978-0-75248-807-3
- ↑ Maurice J. Wickstead: Airlines of the British Isles since 1919 . Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd., Staplefield, W Sussex 2014, ISBN 978-0-85130-456-4 , pp. 375-376.
- ↑ Worldhistory: Silver City Airways Ltd .: United Kingdom (1946-1962) , (in English), accessed June 3, 2020
- ↑ Libyan Airways, flight plan February 1953 , (in English), accessed June 3, 2020
- ↑ Maurice J. Wickstead: Airlines of the British Isles since 1919 . Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd., Staplefield, W Sussex 2014, ISBN 978-0-85130-456-4 , p. 376.
- Jump up ↑ Flight International, October 14, 1955 , accessed August 27, 2017
- ^ A b Silver City: The Company, Onwards and Upwards , accessed June 7, 2020
- ↑ Flight International, March 29, 1957 (in English), accessed August 29, 2017
- ↑ World History, Manx charter, Manx Airlines (in English), accessed on August 27, 2017
- ^ Aero Transport Data Bank, Britavia , accessed August 26, 2017
- ↑ Tony Merton Jones: British Independent Airline since 1946, Vol. 4 . Merseyside Aviation Society & LAAS International, Liverpool & Uxbridge 1977, ISBN 0-902420-10-0 , p. 395.
- ↑ Maurice J. Wickstead: Airlines of the British Isles since 1919 . Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd., Staplefield, W Sussex 2014, ISBN 978-0-85130-456-4 , p. 376.
- ↑ Flight International, February 1, 1962 (in English), accessed August 29, 2017
- ↑ Flight International, July 19, 1962 , accessed August 29, 2017
- ↑ Tony Merton Jones: British Independent Airline since 1946, Vol. 3 . Merseyside Aviation Society & LAAS International, Liverpool & Uxbridge 1976, ISBN 0 902 420 09 7 , p. 400.
- ↑ Maurice J. Wickstead: Airlines of the British Isles since 1919 . Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd., Staplefield, W Sussex 2014, ISBN 978-0-85130-456-4 , pp. 137-138.
- ↑ Tony Merton Jones: British Independent Airline since 1946, Vol. 1 . Merseyside Aviation Society & LAAS International, Liverpool & Uxbridge 1976, ISBN 0 902 420 07 0 , pp. 77-83.
- ↑ a b c Silver City Airways, Company Fleet List , accessed June 7, 2020
- ↑ a b Maurice J. Wickstead: Airlines of the British Isles since 1919 . Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd., Staplefield, W Sussex 2014, ISBN 978-0-85130-456-4 , p. 377.
- ^ Aviation Safety Network, Bristol 170 G-AICM , accessed June 6, 2020.
- ↑ Maurice J. Wickstead: Airlines of the British Isles since 1919 . Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd., Staplefield, W Sussex 2014, ISBN 978-0-85130-456-4 , p. 318.
- ↑ ICAO Aircraft Accident Digest No. 10, Circular 59-AN / 54 (English), pp. 83-92.
- ↑ Air-Britain Archive: Casualty compendium part 72 (English), March 1999, pp. 99/28.
- ^ Aviation Safety Network, Bristol 170 G-AICS , accessed June 6, 2020.
- ^ Accident report Bristol 170 G-ANWL , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on August 4, 2019.
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