42 replies to this topic

[Jager]

We take it for granted that F1 cars and other racing machinery are transported these days by plane, but when did the practice start ?

There are some great photo's on the internet of road cars in the 1950's being transported for presumably wealthy owners in things like the Bristol Freightliner below :



But how often was machinery like the one above used in this period to transport racing cars ? I'd love to see some pictures if they exist or hear some stories from this period.

[wdm]

I believe the Argentine Air Force carried Raph's Ecurie Naphtra Course cars to Argentina one year in the late 1940s... I'd have to check my notes (if I find them!) to find the precise year and circumstances.

[RS2000]

Originally posted by Jager
How often was machinery like the one above used in this period to transport racing cars ? I'd love to see some pictures if they exist or hear some stories from this period.

Quite often I think - motorsport organisations were the only ones who could afford to use it!
The works Minis after the Monte Carlo Rally lighting "scandal" came back on Silver City to appear on stage at
the London Palladium?

BOAC flew UK club spec cars to Guyana, Barbados etc for the Anglo-Caribbean race series and some cars were moved around locally by air. I have seen photos of racing cars being manhandled into a DC3 and an ex-F2 Brabham was moved form Antigua to Guyana that way.

[Odseybod]

At the risk of repeating myself, here's the pic I posted in another thread of the main two air ferry aircraft:



The Carvair is on the left and earlier Bristol 170/Freighter on the right. Though the Carvair had a larger capacity for cars (the Bristol only held three or four) and was more plushy for its passengers, it had a higher load bay, so that its cargoes/cars needed to be loaded via a hoist, rather than driven aboard as with the earlier Bristol Freighter, which made loading/unloading significantly slower with the later aircraft.

I remember on at least one occasion arriving early at Callais airport on the way home and the loaders practically grabbing the ignition key to drive the car onto the previous flight to fill a gap on the Bristol Freighter (my cunning father always chose a short car for that very reason ). With the Carvair, everything had to be much more pre-meditated, so your pre-booked flight was generally the one you actually flew on, but it was still much faster than Le Shuttle today (not a huge journey from Southend airport to our North London home, either, even without any M25 Motorway).

As for travel further afield, I seem to remember Grand Prix cars and equipment being loaded onto a Short Belfast at Heathrow for a South African GP in the mid-60s - perhaps the first time that happened, as there was quite a stir about it at the time, plus some cheery muttering about what would happen to the rest of the GP season if the aircraft crashed with all those valuable people and equipment 'in one basket'.

[Allan Lupton]

Silver City wasn't that much more expensive than the ferry to France - they were not cheap, and the airline could match them for the car but had to charge IATA fares for the passengers. I used Silver City when I was still a de Havilland apprentice, so not well-paid (nor rich).

[terry mcgrath]

you will have seen the post of jaguar C type in plane on the Rolt thread listing but just in case

Major Rolt MC

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by Jager

A Bristol in a Bristol... how appropriate. Is it at Bristol?

There was quite a bit written in the BRM book (Mays & Roberts) about the preparations to send the BRMs to Caen, I think that would have been 1957. The story related that they were given dimensions of the aircraft and made elaborate preparations, condensing everything so it would fit.

Then they found the 'plane was much bigger and they needn't have bothered.

The main point being that the story wouldn't have had any purpose if they were used to air travel, would it?

[Leigh Trevail]

I showed the Bristol photo to Steve Wyatt; who knows about this stuff, it was a publicity shot taken at Bristol. He also came up with this....

"Working at Southend Airport in the '60's the BMC Rally cars from Healeys to Paddy Hopkirks Mini and the Austin A105 service barge's were regulars as well as Formula 5000's and a Lotus 30/40 flying out. I met David Hobbs and Mike Hailwood on their way to races in Europe with JW Automotive in the GT40 days. By that time they were going on the Carvair, a local drastic modification of the Douglas DC4."

[Bjorn Kjer]

I will keep this thread in mind , when I need a sidestep to my roadtransporters. I do however have seen some pics and read about plane transport. Regular started early in the 50s (to me) especially to the American races , and hordes of F1 cars was also flown over and back. Jaguar and Lister etc. delivered in early and late 50s that way , at least to Cunningham. Jaguar also flew "to" Le Mans as others did. I do have in my mind even earlier flights ,but have to find....oh yes after the GBGP in 49 Toulo's Maser was flown to Sweden , and without getting off topic and can tell you there are train stories too , allthough they really started fading in the late twenties , still in the fifties it was used ! Ships could also make a nice thread. Unfortunately as I do mostly in road transporter(and their teams) , I do not have the time right now !

[terry mcgrath]

from the top of my head I seem to recall jaguar sent the SS100 dual rear wheel car 18008 to Bouley bay circa 1948 for the hillclimb on Jersey by aeroplane and I know there is a pic in one of the jaguar books??
terry

[RS2000]

Didn't Rupert Keegan's father own the company that operated the Carvairs out of Southend?

Did the RAF fly cars to S.Africa then? (there were only 10 Short Belfasts built and they were all with the RAF until the late 80s/early 90s?)(and had fundamental aerodynamic problems resulting in far lower airspeed than they should have had?)

[llmaurice]

Lotus took their cars and the Ford Thames across from Kent in the late '50s on the old Bristol Freighters.
We had a dispensation to drive the transporter on instead of the Silver City people as they nearly knocked the clutch out the first time .
I remember sitting next to George Saunders the actor on one flight !
In the time it took to fly to France ,the "cabin staff" gave us a cup of coffee and sold duty free fags.
If only that miserable Ryanir lot could match that for service (5 hour delay flying back from Caragena to
Luton last Wednesday!) We went to the warmer climate so we could get our Bike team some pre season practice . Cold on first day and rained on the last two ! Might just as well gone to Snetterton .

[Allan Lupton]

Originally posted by RS2000
Didn't Rupert Keegan's father own the company that operated the Carvairs out of Southend?

Mike Keegan was the "K" in BKS Air Transport and Engineering, and later owned Trans Meridian Air Cargo and he bought British Air Ferries in about 1971, by which time it still had the Carvairs but they must have finished soon after. Quite an interesting man as were a number of the ex-Berlin airlift entrepreneurs including Freddie Laker and Harold Bamberg.

Did the RAF fly cars to S.Africa then? (there were only 10 Short Belfasts built and they were all with the RAF until the late 80s/early 90s?)(and had fundamental aerodynamic problems resulting in far lower airspeed than they should have had?)

Known to performance engineers in other aeroplane manufacturer's employ as the "Belslow" all you say about that Shorts' aeroplane is correct

[Leigh Trevail]

In the early 80's there was a series on ITV called "Airline" (I think!), it starred Roy Marsden as a frustrated
ex bomber pilot in post war Britain. I was told that the storyline was loosely based on Mike Keegan.

[Lotus23]

All this discussion of vehicles on board aircraft reminds me of Chinook helicopters in Vietnam 40 years ago. It seemed that whenever we moved (which was frequently), we ended up driving a jeep with its 2-wheeled trailer up the ramp into the Chinook.

In theory, the "book solution" was for the jeep-and-trailer to be backed into the helicopter so that on arrival, it could just be driven straight out the ramp. The problem was that very few young GIs had any expertise in backing up the close-coupled trailer into the very confined cargo bay of the Chinook. Other than a few farm boys, most of the 18- and 19-year-olds took forever to complete the backing-in process.

What predictably followed was the "field-expedient solution": just driving the rig straight into the Chinook. Then on arrival, the exit procedure invariably consisted of just hamfistedly backing out until the trailer jackknifed, then continuing crablike, with much protest from screeching tires, until the whole lot ended up outside.

After a few such trips, very few of our jeep trailers were left without battle scars from such abuse!

[scags]

After a few such trips, very few of our jeep trailers were left without battle scars from such abuse! How about the Chinooks?

[Andrew Fellowes]

Originally posted by RS2000
C flew UK club spec cars to Guyana, Barbados etc ........... an ex-F2 Brabham was moved form Antigua to Guyana that way.

can I ask if ever the Brabham photo comes your way again I would be very interested, an F2 Brabham? It might help untangle some histories, and there are some vanished chassis' and one that may not be what it's supposed to be from there.
Andrew

[Lotus23]

scags, the Chinooks were very closely attended by their pilots and crew, so they rarely suffered any damage during our loading/unloading activities.

Since the aforementioned jackknifing took place on the ramp outside the aircraft, there was no damage inflicted to the bird. (The aircrew was primarily interested in our getting on, and off, as quickly as possible: anything which minimized their ground time enhanced their odds of survival.)

[gilby]

I remember , in the fifties , seeing the D TYPE coming out of the SILVER CITY BRISTOL SUPERFREIGHTER in LE TOUQUET airport . One of the airport employe starting the engine was fired by a JAGUAR mechanic :they were just allowed to push the Jag out of the BRISTOL ! I was a little fan and don't remember if they were going by road to LE MANS or on trailers.
I also remember sitting in brand new MORGAN waiting dispatching to Jacques SAVOYE and later in "HERTZ" 350 GT mustang waiting "express auto" trailer company . Good old time.

[Scuderia SSS]

From the Stanguellini website. photocopyrighted to them.

[scags]

good thing they did'nt try that with a Blower Bentley

[Thundersports]

Mike Keegans company was British Air Ferries (BAF on the Heskeths). I think they ran out of Lydd or Manston in the 70's.

[Bonde]

Wasn´t the official presentation of the BAF-sponsored Hawke F3 car to be driven by Rupert Keegan launched in flight on one of Dad Mike's BAF aircraft? It would've been in 1977 or thereabouts, IIRC...

[Bjorn Kjer]

Pegaso drove their big cod to the airfield to get their goods on a "SilverCity".

[David Lawson]

Originally posted by RS2000
Didn't Rupert Keegan's father own the company that operated the Carvairs out of Southend?

I live in Southend and back in the 1970s and 80s I would frequently fly out of the airport in light aircraft, here is a picture I took of Keegan's Carvairs' around 1980.

David

[Mallory Dan]

Originally posted by Bonde
Wasn´t the official presentation of the BAF-sponsored Hawke F3 car to be driven by Rupert Keegan launched in flight on one of Dad Mike's BAF aircraft? It would've been in 1977 or thereabouts, IIRC...

I recall this too Bonde, it was 1976, and the plan, as reported, was to launch it onboard one of the BAF Heralds, presumably minus seats... Is that TWA freighter a Connie?

[ian senior]

Originally posted by Bonde
Wasn´t the official presentation of the BAF-sponsored Hawke F3 car to be driven by Rupert Keegan launched in flight on one of Dad Mike's BAF aircraft? It would've been in 1977 or thereabouts, IIRC...

Yes, it happened alright, and was probably the most notable thing (apart from a bizarre rear wing) about the Hawke F3 car, which didn't exactly cover itself in glory when it appeared on the track. On www.f3history.co.uk there is a picture of the car at Le Touquet airport. All part of the general male bovine excrement that surrounded Rupert Keegan at the time.

[TonyCotton]

Originally posted by Mallory Dan

Is that TWA freighter a Connie?

~Yes, it's a Connie.

2 other pictures in books I have (which copyright says I can't scan) are:


Cooper Cars,by Doug Nye, p143 Fordson Van towing a Bobtail on a trailer (open, 2 wheeled, obviously) into a Silver City Bristol Freighter on the way to LeMans 1957

Reg Parnell, by Graham Gould, P123 15 F1 cars (out of 19 total) shown being loaded into a BOAC liveried Canadair CL44 swing tail freighter. Unlike the the old Bristol this looks modern high tech stuff - 4 big turboprops. The Canadair was a license built Bristol Britannia.

I have a question too. I have in the back of my mind that one of the more stylish hillclimbers of the 1950's used a Miles Aerovan (a tiny little freighter) to transport his hillclimb car to an offshore (Channel Isles or Craigantlet) round - does anybody else think this is possible?

[Macca]

Here is a link to a site about the Carvair, which was a modified Douglas DC4:

http://www.geocities.com/anjapaul/

Airfix did a kit of the Bristol Freighter, which was the right size for loading Matchbox toy cars when I was 6! There was a photo printed in MS a couple of years ago of most of the 1963 GP field including, oddly, the ATSs about to be loaded into a CL44 to go to the USA.

Paul M

[RS2000]

Even a book;
http://www.mcfarland...8-0-7864-3670-5

[Jager]

I found this picture of a Ford GT40 being loaded into a plane, possibly on the way to Le Mans in 1964 based on the source website.

I'm unsure of what can and can't be posted, so I'll simply provide the link :

http://www.les24heur...tid,44/id,5397/

[B Squared]

Logo & photo: Courtesy of & permission by Larry Wheat, Sumar Racing Team Historian

Larry always sends out the neatest photos from Sumar with his annual Christmas greeting. I called to thank him and asked him if I could share this. He agreed without hesitation. Larry's father-in-law was John H. Blouch, chief mechanic for the Sumar Team. (except for Ray Nichels with Pat O'Connor). He gave me this info on the photo: The date is April 8th, 1955. The Streamliner had been built for Chapman S. Root by Frank Kurtis in Los Angeles. This is the pick up of the car in Chicago after it was flown there by the "Flying Tigers." With the late Mr. Blouch (left) is assistant mechanic, Bill DeJournett. The Sumar truck & trailer can also be seen in the background. From here it was off to Terre Haute, IN. to continue final detailing of the car.

I posted this on the USAC, CART, and Champ Car history thread some time ago. I thought it would also be appropriately placed here. Thanks,

Brian

[ZOOOM]

The plane in the background of the Sumar is a Curtis C-46 Commando. Big brother to the venerable C-47 by Douglas...
ZOOOM

[Jean L]

I found this picture of a Ford GT40 being loaded into a plane, possibly on the way to Le Mans in 1964 based on the source website.

I'm unsure of what can and can't be posted, so I'll simply provide the link :

http://www.les24heur...tid,44/id,5397/

I think it is 2 april 64,New York airport where the first GT40 was presented to Henry Ford.

[D-Type]

If I remember correctly, one of the first benefits that Bernie's FOCA offered members was the opportunity to share in a bulk charter to far-flung places. Because places were limited, priority was given to those who had finished highest in the previous year's Manufacturers' Championship.

[Jager]

I think it is 2 april 64,New York airport where the first GT40 was presented to Henry Ford.

Possibly, but the picture is part of a group that shows a very similar car undergoing scruntineering at Le Mans. The main difference I can see is the car being loaded into the plane doesn't have the small light on the door to illiminate the race number, but this could have been added at the track.

Another picture of the car being loaded on the plane :

http://www.les24heur...tid,44/id,5403/

From the same group, the same/similar car at scrutineering :

http://www.les24heur...tid,44/id,5406/

[thierry_strasbourg]

Possibly, but the picture is part of a group that shows a very similar car undergoing scruntineering at Le Mans. The main difference I can see is the car being loaded into the plane doesn't have the small light on the door to illiminate the race number, but this could have been added at the track.

Another picture of the car being loaded on the plane :

http://www.les24heur...tid,44/id,5403/

From the same group, the same/similar car at scrutineering :

http://www.les24heur...tid,44/id,5406/

Hi,

The first picture is
New York, 1964. A Ford GT 40 Mark I at a New York airport. One of the first 2 GT 40's, built by Lola, was flown to New York for inspection by Ford executives. Upon approval, it was immediately returned to England to be prepared for LeMans Practice on 4/16/1964.

The second picture is
LeMans, France, 1964. The McLaren/Hill Ford GT40 undergoes pre race inspection.

Thierry

[Bjorn Kjer]

After the GBGP in 1949 , the Plate 4CLT's were flown to Sweden for the SGP , Stockholm . A picture shows what looks like a rather small plane with the name ATC on it s tail.

From the book : Toulo de Graffenried by Pierre Fouquet-Hatevilain/Editions SPE-Barthelemy

[Jean L]

"Another picture of the car being loaded on the plane :

http://www.les24heur...tid,44/id,5403/
"

This photo,in the François Hurel 's book "Ford au Mans"is describe as
"Heathrow,1er avril;la GT40 s'apprête a s'envoler vers son pays d'origine !"

[Bjorn Kjer]

When I started my search & research 3 years ago in ernest , I stumbled over some non road transports , but did not pay much attention , 'cause it was cars I really was after.

I remember seeing somewhere a series of pictures from a Britsh airfiled/port where all/or most F1 cars were lined up ready for loading on a plane/or more for the USGP of 1963. Anyonone know of this ?

[HDonaldCapps]

MotoRacing, 24-31 January 1958, page 5

[Bjorn Kjer]

Jaguar .....to 1953 by Andrew Whyte/Haynes show a picture on p.65 with "the last appearance of the 3,5 litre SS100 as a works car at Bouley Bay 1947 , plus the plane that brought it to Jersey airport. Anyone have the book and know what type plane ?

[Bjorn Kjer]

In Dick Salmon/Veloce great book "BRM a mechanics tale" are some pictures from Stanstead-Cacablanca 57 and Berlin Tempelhof- Blackbushe on BRM.