aviation - the past, present and future of flight

A

t the end of World War Two

there were a signi cant number

of military aircraft surplus to

requirements, machines with

only a few  ying hours ‘on the clock’ that

were heading to the melting pot. Was

there potential for the bomber types to be

adapted for passenger or freight duties?

Several entrepreneurs thought so and

started buying up some of the redundant

war horses to begin independent airline/air

transport operations.

One such person was Harold Bamberg,

a former RAF pilot who, using capital of just

£100, established what was then known as

Eagle Aviation. It was founded on April 14,

1948 and had pressed into service a couple

of Handley Page Halifax VIIIs, converted for

civilian use. This was the time of the Berlin

Airlift, when numerous transport aircraft were

required by the Western powers to supply the

besieged city, so Eagle had customers.

Harold’s aircraft also  ew fruit and

vegetables – commodities in short supply

in Britain after the war – to the UK from

Italy and Spain. The merchants in Covent

Garden were eager to have such items and

later that year the  rm acquired another

carrier, Air Freight, which was also operating

Halifaxes, bringing the  eet to  ve. The

following year, Eagle snapped up three Avro

Yorks, and later a further eight of the type,

which were used until early 1955.

Originally the  ights had been operating

from Bovingdon in Hertfordshire, but in

1949 the airline brie y moved to the former

RAF station at Aldermaston, Berkshire,

until it closed in 1950. Eagle relocated

to Luton, Bedfordshire and by 1952 had

moved again, this time to Blackbushe in

Hampshire. This coincided with it having

been granted a trooping contract to carry

military personnel between Britain and

Singapore. A maintenance base was set

up at the air eld, so prospects were really

looking up for Harold and his team.

LIVING THE DREAM

Bamberg’s dream was to bring affordable

air travel to everyone and to achieve it he

needed more aircraft. He searched around

and discovered a carrier called Crewsair

had gone out of business and he was

able to purchase two Vickers Vikings from

them. Additional aeroplanes were acquired

from British European Airways, eventually

bringing the total Viking  eet up to 29.

This signalled the start of an important

decade-long growth phase for the company.

The Vikings were given class names –

those used on regular passenger services,

notably from Blackbushe to Belgrade via

Munich, followed by other routes to Aalborg

and Gothenburg were called Mayfairs.

Others, serving the trooping operations,

were called, appropriately, Troopmasters.

Military  ights were also carried out by the

converted Halifaxes and then Avro Yorks.

All of this transformed Eagle from an ad

hoc carrier to a major European airline,

 ying scheduled, charter and trooping

 ights across the world.

In 1949, the British government had

passed the ‘Air Corporation Act’ (ACA) which

essentially gave the state airlines, BEA and

BRITISH EAGLE

FLYING AGAINST THE ODDS

Despite facing daunting obstacles throughout its 20 years, one of

Britain’s fi rst post-war air carriers also became one of its best loved.

Barry Lloyd examines the rise and fall of British Eagle.

78 Aviation News incorporating Jets August 2018

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