76 THE AVIATION HISTORIAN Issue No 21
hauled aboard a ferry, after which reams of
paperwork had to be completed.
Having had experience of Bristol’s capacious
Type 170 during Silver City operations in India
during 1947–48 — when the company borrowed
Wayfarer G-AHJC from Bristol to help in the
airlift of members of the Muslim population
to their prospective new home in Pakistan —
Powell saw an opportunity to slash car-ferry
travel times to the Continent. The Bristol 170
(passenger-only versions without the distinctive
clamshell nose-doors were Wayfarers; the
predominantly cargo versions with the door
were Freighters) had already demonstrated its
ability to carry cars during a publicity tour of the
USA, during which automobiles were frequently
loaded aboard a Freighter and flown round the
circuit. Powell had found the perfect machine for
his air ferry concept and set about acquiring a
fleet of Freighters for Silver City.
By the summer of 1948 Silver City had three
Bristol Freighters on strength, Mk I G-AGVC
joining Mk IIs G-AHJC and G-AHJG that July
(with G-AHJO supplementing the fleet the
following month), all three examples initially
being leased rather than purchased outright.
On June 15, 1948 (not July as sometimes stated),
Powell’s Lancaster saloon was loaded aboard
G-AGVC at Silver City’s base at Lympne on the
Kent coast and flown the 47 miles (75km) to
Le Touquet, near Boulogne in northern France,
technically the closest French civil airport
to the UK. On arrival 20min after departure
from Lympne the car was rolled through the
Freighter ’s clamshell doors and down the
specially-fabricated loading ramp brought along
with the aircraft. This trial flight had proved
a roaring success, and plans were put in place
to establish what would initially have to be a
charter service, the provisions of the 1946 Civil
Aviation Act reserving scheduled-service route
allocations to the “big three” state-run airlines
— British European Airways (BEA), British
Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and
British South American Airways (BSAA).
To circumvent this obstacle, Silver City
brokered an arrangement with the two big
motoring organisations, the Automobile
Association (AA) and the Royal Automobile
Club (RAC), which would effectively block-
book the service as a regular charter, thus neatly
sidestepping the scheduled-service issue. The
fare was set at £27 0s 0d for a medium-sized car
and four passengers, and £32 0s 0d for a large car
and its passengers.
With the paperwork in place and a healthy
bookings list, Silver City flew its official
inaugural Channel air ferry flight on July 14,
1948, in the hands of Capt “Storm” Clarke and
copilot Jerry Rosser. Despite the privations
experienced at both ends of the operation —
Lympne was still rather primitive and the once-
fashionable but now war-weary Le Touquet was
a shadow of the glittering fleshpot it had been
in the 1930s — the service gained momentum
throughout the summer of 1948. After three
months of continuous air ferry operations,
Silver City closed the service for the winter in
October, having carried some 170 cars and their
passengers to and from the Continent.Seasons in the sun
Deemed a great success, the venture led to per-
mission being sought from the Ministry of Civil
Aviation to establish the service on a regular
footing, and an “Associate Agreement” with
BEA to cover operations the following year was
put in place. The 1949 season would commence
in mid-April with four services a day in each
direction, the fare being held at the 1948 rate.Putting the “car” into “cargo” — the
Darracq is driven up the ramp at Lympne,
while the Alvis TA21 awaits its turn. Just
visible in the background is an Avro
Anson of the Kenley-based No 61 Group
Communicattions Flight, coded RCE-F.