Aviation Traders Carvair
Encyclopedia
The Aviation Traders ATL-98 Carvair was a large piston-engine transport aircraft. It was a Douglas DC-4
-based air ferry
developed by Freddie Laker's Aviation Traders (Engineering) Limited
(ATL), with a capacity of 25 passengers and five cars, loaded at the front.
/Superfreighter
, the car ferry airlines' mainstay since the late-1940s.
The Bristol Freighter/Superfreighter's main drawback was its limited payload, in terms of the number of cars that fitted into a single aircraft. Even the "long-nosed" Superfreighter was only able to accommodate three cars (in addition to 20 passengers). This made carrying cars by air a very tricky business. If a booked car failed to turn up, the flight instantly became unprofitable as a result of the one-third cut in payload. This situation was made worse by the increasing average length of British cars during the 1950s. The average UK car in 1959 was 10 inches longer than in 1950. The extreme seasonality of the car ferry business furthermore resulted in poor aircraft utilization outside peak periods. Moreover, repeated takeoffs and landings on short cross-Channel
flights in turbulent air at lower altitudes with tight turn-rounds of as little as 20 minutes made the aircraft prone to structural fatigue
problems. These necessitated rigorous and costly modification programmes, thereby further increasing the aircraft's operating cost
s on what were essentially low-yield
routes.
When the major airlines replaced their obsolete piston airliner
s with new Boeing 707
and Douglas DC-8
jet
s on their prestige long-haul routes, the unit price of second-hand DC-4s dropped to as little as £
50,000. The conversion of each of these airframe
s into car-passenger carriers cost about £80,000. This was easily affordable by smaller airlines, such as the car ferry companies. Freddie Laker's cardboard model of a converted DC-4 featuring a door in the nose and a flight deck raised "above" the fuselage
had shown that its payload was superior to the Bristol Freighter/Superfreighter. The aircraft was designed to accommodate five average-sized British cars plus 25 passengers as a result of the DC-4's longer and wider fuselage. (British Air Ferries (BAF), for example, operated its Carvairs in a flexible configuration, either accommodating five cars and 22 passengers or 2-3 cars and 55 passengers, permitting it to change over from one configuration to the other in about 40 minutes.) In addition, the DC-4's lack of pressurisation
made it ideal for low-altitude cross-Channel flights that did not go high enough to require a pressurised cabin. This made the proposed structural conversion straightforward. The result was a new aircraft christened Carvair (derived from car-via-air).
Initially, it was thought that second-hand, pressurised DC-6 and DC-7 airframes could be converted into larger, "second generation" Carvairs within 15 years of the original DC-4-based Carvair's entry into service.
The actual conversion of the original aircraft entailed replacing the nose cone
with one 8 ft 8 inches longer, the flightdeck
being raised to allow a sideways hinged nose door. It also entailed more powerful wheel brakes and an enlarged tail
, often thought to be a Douglas DC-7
unit, but actually a completely new design. The engines were four Pratt & Whitney R-2000
Twin Wasp radial engine
s.
The prototype
conversion first flew on 21 June 1961. Twenty-one Carvairs were produced in the UK, with production of aircraft 1, 11 and 21 at Southend Airport
and the balance at Stansted Airport
. The final three aircraft were delivered to Ansett Australia
, which supplied its own DC-4s to ATL for conversion, unlike the previous 18 aircraft that were purchased by ATL and either sold on or transferred to associate company British United Air Ferries
(BUAF). One of the two aircraft still flying in June 2007 was an ex-Ansett airframe. A second Ansett aircraft was abandoned at Phnom-Penh in 1975. The first flight of the last conversion, number 21, for Ansett, was on 12 July 1968.
, BUAF and BAF among others, and was used in Congo-Kinshasa
during 1960-1964, under contract to the United Nations
. Aircraft for Aer Lingus were quickly convertible between 55 seats and 22 seats with five cars. Some aircraft were pure freighters with only nine seats. One aircraft had 55 high-density seats and room for three cars. BAF were the last operator in Europe of the aircraft, keeping them flying into the 1970s.
British United Carvairs made appearances in the 1964 James Bond
movie Goldfinger
, seen in the background as James Bond boarding an airplane for Switzerland, and in The Prisoner
in the episode "The Chimes of Big Ben", where it is seen loading through the nose, taking off and then landing again.
_1977.jpg)
Of the 21 airframes, eight were destroyed in crashes (one each in Rotterdam
, Netherlands 1962; Karachi
, Pakistan 1967; Twin Falls, Canada 1968; Le Touquet, France 1971; and four in the USA: Miami, Florida
1969; Venetie, AK 1997; Griffin, Georgia
also in 1997; and McGrath, AK in 2007.) Perhaps the best known Carvair crash was the one at Griffin in April 1997, where on its take-off run the (fifth production) Carvair suffered catastrophic engine failure, failed to become properly airborne, and crashed into a vacant Piggly Wiggly
supermarket past the airport perimeter, killing both pilots.
n registered 9J-PAA, the 21st and final Carvair built was in South Africa with Phoebus Apollo Aviation, although now removed from the Zambian register the owner plans to return it to the skies for airshows. The second (N89FA / "Miss 1944", the 9th Carvair) is based in Denison, Texas
, and flies with Gator Global Flying Services on ad-hoc cargo
charters throughout the United States. This was the aircraft that participated in the 2005 World Freefall Convention in Rantoul, Illinois
, setting the record for the largest number of people to fly in a Carvair when it carried 80 skydivers and five crew to an altitude of 10,500 feet. Piloted by Captain John Harms and Captain Chris Rice, the climb took 38 minutes. The skydivers exited the large freight door at the rear of the aircraft.
Another Carvair (N898AT, the 20th built) had been airworthy but was written off after crashing while landing on 30 May 2007 at the airstrip at Nixon Fork Mine in Alaska.
Satellite Imagery (Google Earth) dated September 2006 and still visible in 2011 show the wreckage of the 7th Carvair on a sand and gravel bar at 67°1′16.63"N 146°31′53.51"Win the Chandalar River near Venetie, Alaska
. The cockpit section of the 8th Carvair, CF-EPV remains near the former Halesworth Airfield
in Suffolk
, England, and the 18th Carvair, ex Aviaco / Dominicana HI-172, is rumored to still exist at the Hotel El Embajador in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic
, as a bar/discothèque.
Douglas DC-4
The Douglas DC-4 is a four-engined propeller-driven airliner developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It served during World War II, in the Berlin Airlift and into the 1960s in a military role...
-based air ferry
Air ferry
An air ferry is a ferry service in which cars and passengers are transported by aircraft.-British services:The air ferry service was inaugurated by retired Royal Air Force officer Air Commodore Griffith J. Powell, who founded an airline company called Silver City in 1948. They used Bristol 170...
developed by Freddie Laker's Aviation Traders (Engineering) Limited
Aviation Traders
was a war-surplus aircraft and spares trader formed in 1947. In 1949, it began maintaining aircraft used by some of Britain's contemporary independent airlines on the Berlin Airlift. In the early 1950s, it branched out into aircraft conversions and manufacturing. During that period it also became a...
(ATL), with a capacity of 25 passengers and five cars, loaded at the front.
Design and development
Freddie Laker's idea to convert surplus DC-4/C-54s to carry cars was a relatively inexpensive solution to develop a successor to the rapidly aging and increasingly inadequate Bristol 170 FreighterBristol Freighter
The Bristol Type 170 Freighter was a British twin-engine aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company as both a freighter and airliner, although its best known use is as an air ferry to carry cars and their passengers over relatively short distances.-Design and development:The...
/Superfreighter
Bristol Superfreighter
|-References:NotesBibliography* Green, William. Macdonald Aircraft Handbook. London. Macdonald & Co. Ltd., 1964.- External links :* ] Superfreighter at Lydd Ferryfield]....
, the car ferry airlines' mainstay since the late-1940s.
The Bristol Freighter/Superfreighter's main drawback was its limited payload, in terms of the number of cars that fitted into a single aircraft. Even the "long-nosed" Superfreighter was only able to accommodate three cars (in addition to 20 passengers). This made carrying cars by air a very tricky business. If a booked car failed to turn up, the flight instantly became unprofitable as a result of the one-third cut in payload. This situation was made worse by the increasing average length of British cars during the 1950s. The average UK car in 1959 was 10 inches longer than in 1950. The extreme seasonality of the car ferry business furthermore resulted in poor aircraft utilization outside peak periods. Moreover, repeated takeoffs and landings on short cross-Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
flights in turbulent air at lower altitudes with tight turn-rounds of as little as 20 minutes made the aircraft prone to structural fatigue
Fatigue (material)
'In materials science, fatigue is the progressive and localized structural damage that occurs when a material is subjected to cyclic loading. The nominal maximum stress values are less than the ultimate tensile stress limit, and may be below the yield stress limit of the material.Fatigue occurs...
problems. These necessitated rigorous and costly modification programmes, thereby further increasing the aircraft's operating cost
Operating cost
Operating costs can be described as the expenses which are related to the operation of a business, or to the operation of a device, component, piece of equipment or facility.-Business operating costs:...
s on what were essentially low-yield
Yield (finance)
In finance, the term yield describes the amount in cash that returns to the owners of a security. Normally it does not include the price variations, at the difference of the total return...
routes.
When the major airlines replaced their obsolete piston airliner
Airliner
An airliner is a large fixed-wing aircraft for transporting passengers and cargo. Such aircraft are operated by airlines. Although the definition of an airliner can vary from country to country, an airliner is typically defined as an aircraft intended for carrying multiple passengers in commercial...
s with new Boeing 707
Boeing 707
The Boeing 707 is a four-engine narrow-body commercial passenger jet airliner developed by Boeing in the early 1950s. Its name is most commonly pronounced as "Seven Oh Seven". The first airline to operate the 707 was Pan American World Airways, inaugurating the type's first commercial flight on...
and Douglas DC-8
Douglas DC-8
The Douglas DC-8 is a four-engined narrow-body passenger commercial jet airliner, manufactured from 1958 to 1972 by the Douglas Aircraft Company...
jet
Jet aircraft
A jet aircraft is an aircraft propelled by jet engines. Jet aircraft generally fly much faster than propeller-powered aircraft and at higher altitudes – as high as . At these altitudes, jet engines achieve maximum efficiency over long distances. The engines in propeller-powered aircraft...
s on their prestige long-haul routes, the unit price of second-hand DC-4s dropped to as little as £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
50,000. The conversion of each of these airframe
Airframe
The airframe of an aircraft is its mechanical structure. It is typically considered to include fuselage, wings and undercarriage and exclude the propulsion system...
s into car-passenger carriers cost about £80,000. This was easily affordable by smaller airlines, such as the car ferry companies. Freddie Laker's cardboard model of a converted DC-4 featuring a door in the nose and a flight deck raised "above" the fuselage
Fuselage
The fuselage is an aircraft's main body section that holds crew and passengers or cargo. In single-engine aircraft it will usually contain an engine, although in some amphibious aircraft the single engine is mounted on a pylon attached to the fuselage which in turn is used as a floating hull...
had shown that its payload was superior to the Bristol Freighter/Superfreighter. The aircraft was designed to accommodate five average-sized British cars plus 25 passengers as a result of the DC-4's longer and wider fuselage. (British Air Ferries (BAF), for example, operated its Carvairs in a flexible configuration, either accommodating five cars and 22 passengers or 2-3 cars and 55 passengers, permitting it to change over from one configuration to the other in about 40 minutes.) In addition, the DC-4's lack of pressurisation
Cabin pressurization
Cabin pressurization is the pumping of compressed air into an aircraft cabin to maintain a safe and comfortable environment for crew and passengers when flying at altitude.-Need for cabin pressurization:...
made it ideal for low-altitude cross-Channel flights that did not go high enough to require a pressurised cabin. This made the proposed structural conversion straightforward. The result was a new aircraft christened Carvair (derived from car-via-air).
Initially, it was thought that second-hand, pressurised DC-6 and DC-7 airframes could be converted into larger, "second generation" Carvairs within 15 years of the original DC-4-based Carvair's entry into service.
The actual conversion of the original aircraft entailed replacing the nose cone
Nose cone
The term nose cone is used to refer to the forwardmost section of a rocket, guided missile or aircraft. The cone is shaped to offer minimum aerodynamic resistance...
with one 8 ft 8 inches longer, the flightdeck
Cockpit
A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft, from which a pilot controls the aircraft. Most modern cockpits are enclosed, except on some small aircraft, and cockpits on large airliners are also physically separated from the cabin...
being raised to allow a sideways hinged nose door. It also entailed more powerful wheel brakes and an enlarged tail
Empennage
The empennage , also known as the tail or tail assembly, of most aircraft gives stability to the aircraft, in a similar way to the feathers on an arrow...
, often thought to be a Douglas DC-7
Douglas DC-7
The Douglas DC-7 is an American transport aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1953 to 1958. It was the last major piston engine powered transport made by Douglas, coming just a few years before the advent of jet aircraft such as the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8.-Design and...
unit, but actually a completely new design. The engines were four Pratt & Whitney R-2000
Pratt & Whitney R-2000
|-See also:-Bibliography:...
Twin Wasp radial engine
Radial engine
The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders point outward from a central crankshaft like the spokes on a wheel...
s.
The prototype
Prototype
A prototype is an early sample or model built to test a concept or process or to act as a thing to be replicated or learned from.The word prototype derives from the Greek πρωτότυπον , "primitive form", neutral of πρωτότυπος , "original, primitive", from πρῶτος , "first" and τύπος ,...
conversion first flew on 21 June 1961. Twenty-one Carvairs were produced in the UK, with production of aircraft 1, 11 and 21 at Southend Airport
London Southend Airport
London Southend Airport or Southend Airport is a regional airport in the district of Rochford within Essex, England.During the 1960s, Southend was the third-busiest airport in the United Kingdom. It remained London's third-busiest airport in terms of passengers handled until the end of the 1970s,...
and the balance at Stansted Airport
London Stansted Airport
-Cargo:-Statistics:-Infrastructure:-Terminal and satellite buildings:Stansted is the newest passenger airport of all the main London airports. The terminal is an oblong glass building, and is separated in to three areas: Check-in concourse, arrivals and departures...
. The final three aircraft were delivered to Ansett Australia
Ansett Australia
Ansett Australia, Ansett, Ansett Airlines of Australia, or ANSETT-ANA as it was commonly known in earlier years, was a major Australian airline group, based in Melbourne. The airlines flew domestically within Australia and to destinations in Asia during its operation in 1996...
, which supplied its own DC-4s to ATL for conversion, unlike the previous 18 aircraft that were purchased by ATL and either sold on or transferred to associate company British United Air Ferries
British United Air Ferries
British United Air Ferries was a wholly private, British independentindependent from government-owned corporations car and passenger ferry airline based in the United Kingdom during the 1960s. It specialised in cross-Channel ferry flights carrying cars and their owners between its numerous bases...
(BUAF). One of the two aircraft still flying in June 2007 was an ex-Ansett airframe. A second Ansett aircraft was abandoned at Phnom-Penh in 1975. The first flight of the last conversion, number 21, for Ansett, was on 12 July 1968.
Service
The Carvair was used by Aer LingusAer Lingus
Aer Lingus Group Plc is the flag carrier of Ireland. It operates a fleet of Airbus aircraft serving Europe and North America. It is Ireland's oldest extant airline, and its second largest after low-cost rival Ryanair...
, BUAF and BAF among others, and was used in Congo-Kinshasa
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...
during 1960-1964, under contract to the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
. Aircraft for Aer Lingus were quickly convertible between 55 seats and 22 seats with five cars. Some aircraft were pure freighters with only nine seats. One aircraft had 55 high-density seats and room for three cars. BAF were the last operator in Europe of the aircraft, keeping them flying into the 1970s.
British United Carvairs made appearances in the 1964 James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
movie Goldfinger
Goldfinger (film)
Goldfinger is the third spy film in the James Bond series and the third to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Released in 1964, it is based on the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. The film also stars Honor Blackman as Bond girl Pussy Galore and Gert Fröbe as the title...
, seen in the background as James Bond boarding an airplane for Switzerland, and in The Prisoner
The Prisoner
The Prisoner is a 17-episode British television series first broadcast in the UK from 29 September 1967 to 1 February 1968. Starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan, it combined spy fiction with elements of science fiction, allegory and psychological drama.The series follows a British former...
in the episode "The Chimes of Big Ben", where it is seen loading through the nose, taking off and then landing again.
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
, Netherlands 1962; Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
, Pakistan 1967; Twin Falls, Canada 1968; Le Touquet, France 1971; and four in the USA: Miami, Florida
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
1969; Venetie, AK 1997; Griffin, Georgia
Griffin, Georgia
Griffin is a city in and the county seat of Spalding County in the U.S. state of Georgia. It is part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 23,643.-Geography:Griffin is located at ....
also in 1997; and McGrath, AK in 2007.) Perhaps the best known Carvair crash was the one at Griffin in April 1997, where on its take-off run the (fifth production) Carvair suffered catastrophic engine failure, failed to become properly airborne, and crashed into a vacant Piggly Wiggly
Piggly Wiggly
Piggly Wiggly is a supermarket chain operating in the Midwestern and Southern regions of the United States, run by Piggly Wiggly, LLC, an affiliate of C&S Wholesale Grocers. The current company headquarters is in Keene, New Hampshire....
supermarket past the airport perimeter, killing both pilots.
Survivors
The ZambiaZambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
n registered 9J-PAA, the 21st and final Carvair built was in South Africa with Phoebus Apollo Aviation, although now removed from the Zambian register the owner plans to return it to the skies for airshows. The second (N89FA / "Miss 1944", the 9th Carvair) is based in Denison, Texas
Denison, Texas
Denison is a city in Grayson County, Texas, United States. The population was 22,773 at the 2000 census; it is estimated to have grown to 24,127 in 2009. Denison is one of two principal cities in the Sherman-Denison Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
, and flies with Gator Global Flying Services on ad-hoc cargo
Cargo
Cargo is goods or produce transported, generally for commercial gain, by ship, aircraft, train, van or truck. In modern times, containers are used in most intermodal long-haul cargo transport.-Marine:...
charters throughout the United States. This was the aircraft that participated in the 2005 World Freefall Convention in Rantoul, Illinois
Rantoul, Illinois
Rantoul is a village in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 13,674 at the 2010 census. The present mayor is Neal Williams, who was re-elected in 2009...
, setting the record for the largest number of people to fly in a Carvair when it carried 80 skydivers and five crew to an altitude of 10,500 feet. Piloted by Captain John Harms and Captain Chris Rice, the climb took 38 minutes. The skydivers exited the large freight door at the rear of the aircraft.
Another Carvair (N898AT, the 20th built) had been airworthy but was written off after crashing while landing on 30 May 2007 at the airstrip at Nixon Fork Mine in Alaska.
Satellite Imagery (Google Earth) dated September 2006 and still visible in 2011 show the wreckage of the 7th Carvair on a sand and gravel bar at 67°1′16.63"N 146°31′53.51"Win the Chandalar River near Venetie, Alaska
Venetie, Alaska
Venetie , pronounced VEEN-ih-tye, is a census-designated place in Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, United States...
. The cockpit section of the 8th Carvair, CF-EPV remains near the former Halesworth Airfield
RAF Halesworth
RAF Halesworth is a former World War II airfield in England. The field is west of Southwold in Suffolk.-USAAF use:Halesworth was built in 1942–1943 and was intended for use as a bomber station. It was built as a bomber station, with a 6,000 ft. main runway and two secondary runways of...
in Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, England, and the 18th Carvair, ex Aviaco / Dominicana HI-172, is rumored to still exist at the Hotel El Embajador in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
, as a bar/discothèque.
Past Operators
- AviacoAviacoAviación y Comercio, S.A., was a Spanish airline incorporated on February 18, 1948. It was founded when the National Institute of Industry proposed that the national carrier of Spain, Iberia, could not meet the domestic demand. This had been caused by the heavy commitment of Iberia to the lucrative...
- Aer LingusAer LingusAer Lingus Group Plc is the flag carrier of Ireland. It operates a fleet of Airbus aircraft serving Europe and North America. It is Ireland's oldest extant airline, and its second largest after low-cost rival Ryanair...
- Nationwide Air
- British United Air FerriesBritish United Air FerriesBritish United Air Ferries was a wholly private, British independentindependent from government-owned corporations car and passenger ferry airline based in the United Kingdom during the 1960s. It specialised in cross-Channel ferry flights carrying cars and their owners between its numerous bases...
- Channel Air BridgeChannel Air BridgeChannel Air Bridge was a private British independentindependent from government-owned corporations airline specialising in cross-Channel vehicle-cum-passenger ferry services. Freddie Laker started Channel Air Bridge as a sister airline of Air Charter on a provisional basis in 1954. Operations...
- Gator Global Flying Services
- Academy Airlines
- Phoebus Apollo AviationPhoebus Apollo AviationPhoebus Apollo Aviation is an airline based in Johannesburg, South Africa. It consists of a Schedule 1 Operator as well as a Flight School and Aircraft Maintenance Organisation and Radial Engine rebuilding Facility.-Fleet:...
Specifications
See also
External links
- www.atl.aero – ATL (Aviation Traders Ltd
- www.airliners.net – Carvair information page with photos
- www.aviationtraderscarvair.com – Carvair production list
- www.ruudleeuw.com – DC-4 to Carvair, c/n 42994 history by Gil White
- www.ruudleeuw.com – Carvair N898AT restoration photographs
- www.flyinghigher.net – Carvair N898AT photographs and history
- www.oldwings.nl – Carvair N898AT crash details and photos
- avia.russian.ee – Carvair plan view drawings
- aviation-safety.net – Aviation Traders Carvair Accident Database
- www.aerospaceweb.org – Carvair in Goldfinger movie