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usual rate.July 2018
Volume 80 No 7.
Founded in 1939 as
Air Defence Cadet
Corps Gazette.
EDITOR: Dino Carrara
E-mail: [email protected]
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR:
Nigel Price
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charter ights. In
innovative fashion
Silver City established
the ‘Silver Arrow’
service between
Manston in Kent and
Le Touquet, France,
where a fast train
carried passengers
straight on into Paris.
It was inaugurated
by G-ALDP on June
15, 1961. But Silver City’s Hermes did not last
much longer and were all scrapped by the
end of 1962.
In October 1959 Falcon Airways purchased
two Hermes: G-ALDA and G-ALDC. On
October 9, 1960 the latter was landing at
Southend after a ight from Barcelona when
it aquaplaned and ran off the runway onto the
London to Southend railway line. After this
event, Falcon lost its operating licence and
G-ALDA was then sold to Air Safaris.
In November 1960 there were still 15
Hermes in operation, despite the number of
accidents that befell the type. Silver City had
four, Air Safaris three and Skyways eight.Short-lived Air Safaris began operating
with just one Hermes in November 1959 but
soon added more to its eet, which were
mainly employed on charters. It ceased
operations in October 1961 and its ve
Hermes either returned to Skyways or were
broken up.
The nal new operator of the Hermes
was Air Links, which started operations in1959 with a DC-3
and re-equipped in
1962 with Hermes,
registrations G-ALDA
and G-ALDL. The
latter was broken up
for spares while the
nal Hermes service
was completed by
G-ALDA when it
landed at Gatwick on
December 13, 1964.
G-ALDA was scrapped just nine days later.
No complete Hermes was preserved
but the fuselage of G-ALDG, once used
as a cabin crew trainer at Gatwick, is on
display in the AirSpace hangar at Duxford in
Cambridgeshire.
In its 14 years of passenger and trooping
service the Hermes offered a high standard
of comfort owing to its pressurisation system
but was let down by being overweight and
comparatively under-powered. Had there
been further production beyond the 25
Hermes IVs, some of these problems would
have been addressed and a greater number
of sales may have been achieved.82 Aviation News incorporating Jets July 2018After BOAC service, G-ALDG ew with
Airwork and then Silver City, in whose livery
it is pictured. Subsequently, it brie y ew
with Falcon Airways, Silver City again and
was then withdrawn from use. Its fuselage is
preserved at Duxford. HPA CollectionAir Safaris operated ve Hermes IVs, G-ALDM is shown at Gatwick in 1962. AirTeamImages.com/ATI Collection78-82_hermesDC.mfDC.indd 82 06/06/2018 11:09