Images from the past Page 5

DH Comet G-ARCP BEA Airtours,first delivered in April 61 to BEA, it joined Airtours in May 1970 until Oct 73, when it was sold to DanAir to become G-BBUV, it remained in service until Oct 78, when it was flown to Lasham and scrapped in Oct 79. It made it's one and only visit in this guise on 19 May 1972 op KT 346 Gatwick to Lourdes.

Vickers 953 Vanguard G-APEJ BEA Cargo, first delivered in Aug 61 to BEA as a passenger aircraft, it was converted to a freighter in July 73 and remained with BEA Cargo until Dec 79 when it was sold to Air Bridge Carriers, it was broken up in 1995, however it's nose section is preserved at the Brooklands museum, Weybridge. First visiting, Vanguard G-APEJ of BEA op f/t Manchester on both 25 and 26 May 1972 in the course of three 3 hour training session.

Sikorsky S-61N G-ASNM BEA, first delivered in 1963 it remained with them until Jan 1969, after spending a short time on the Dutch register as PH-SBC it returned to BEA on 2 Jan 1970, sadly the aircraft ditched and sank in the North sea 52 miles NE of Aberdeen on 15 Nov 1970. This S61 recorded its only visit to MME on 31 July 1967 making a refuelling stop en route Beccles - Aberdeen

Hawker Siddeley Trident 1E G-AVYD BKS, delivered to BKS 5 March 69, it transferred to Northeast Airlines at some point then was written off at Bilbao in 15 September 1975 G-AVYD was a freqent visitor with both BKS and Northeast but is believed to have made its first visit with BKS on 18 April 1969 with a familiarisation flight f/t Ncl. It made at least another 7 flights thru' Teesside that year including I Ts f/t Palma, a pattern continued throughout 1970

Boeing 707-338 G-BFLE British Midland, this ex Qantas aircraft VH-EBT was delivered in Jan 67, it joined ITEL (leasing company) as G-BFLE on 17 May 78 and leased to British Midland eight times in its life, having spent the rest of its time with Kuwait Airways, PIA, Air Algerie, Gulf Air, Delta, LAM, Ariana, and Somali Airlines. It was transfered to USA in Aug 85 as N861BX, it was then sold to the USAF and fully refurbished between Jun 94 and Apr 96 and converted to an E-8C JSTARS it operates from Warner Robins, GA as 94-0284 hopefully for many years to come. It first visited on 21 March 1983 from Dusseldorf, night stopping for two nights before departing back on the 23rd. It then arrived from Frankfurt on the 25th night stopping again before leaving for LGW the next morning.

Douglas DC-9-15 N48075 British Midland, first delivered to KLM in Nov 66 as PH-DNF it was sold to Southern Airways in Jan 78 and leased to British Midland the following month remaining only for a short time until 14 Jun 78 when it returned to the States. It was scrapped at Sherman-Grayson,TX sometime after August 92. It first visited Teesside was on 20 February 1978, it made its first Heathrow service the following day. BMA's first DC-9, N65358 was in Amsterdam for some certification work prior to allocation of its British reg G-BFIH. N48075 op all subsequent Heathrow flights except weekends which were Viscounts, until 9 April 78.

Douglas DC-9-14 OH-LYB British Midland, delivered in Jan 66 to Air Canada as CF-TLC, in Feb 71 it was sold to Finnair, British Midland leased it it in Sep 77 and remained with them until Dec 79. It then returned to BMA in Jun 83 for a longer spell until Dec 95 and took up the reg G-BMAH. It ended life as HK-4056X and was broken up at Bogota Sept 03.

BAC 1-11-401AK G-AXCP British Midland, it was logged at Teesside by AW on 1/11/79, the shot may have been taken on that date. It originally delivered to American Airlines as N5041 in Nov 66, it was bought by Dan Air in Mar 69. BMA leased it from 20 Oct 82 until 10 Jan 83. It was sold to Florida Express in Dec 86 as N173FE until Aug 89 when it was converted into a corporate jet as N162W it still flies out of Baltimore-Washington today.

Fokker F-27-500 9Q-CBD on lease to Jersey European, one of the last F-27's built it was delivered in July 86 and remained as this reg until Aug 90, it ended up with NEPC Airlines as VT-NEK, and is currently stored WFU in Madras.

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