THE rooftops, suburban streets and rapidly-diminishing open spaces of west Middlesex provided a welcoming sight to the weary passengers on this Pan Am Boeing Stratocruiser as they peered down from the plane that had been their temporary home for more than half a day.
Despite the superb standards on board the President Class service – sleeper bunks, a cocktail lounge and large, comfortable seats, the excitement of travelling in such luxurious spaciousness would have begun to diminish long before the aircraft droned over the English coastline.
Even with the benefit of a tailwind, the flight from Idlewild, New York, would have taken at least 13 hours, with a stop at Gander in Newfoundland to replenish the tanks and keep those thirsty Pratt and Whitney Wasp Major 28-cylinder radials purring contentedly.
Now, at last, terra firma loomed ever closer as the big Strat roared across the threshold of the old runway 28 left at London Airport.
Numerous photos exist of planes on the ground at the airport in those days – taxi-ing, starting up, disgorging passengers or simply static on the apron.
But those showing aircraft in the air are few and far between.
Luckily for us, BOAC fireman and enthusiastic photographer, Brian Stainer, chose to spend some time at Hatton Cross on a sunny day about 55 years ago and take a few pictures, this being one of the best. The plane, N1036V ‘Clipper Washington’ is in Pan Am’s interim livery, which pre-dated the iconic blue globe logo, created by New York architect Edward Larrabee Barnes in the mid-50s.
Brian says: “It is ironic that this view shows the enormous flap area of the Strat so clearly. At an earlier date this aircraft was severely damaged because of the inadvertent selection of the undercarriage instead of the flaps.”
He’s referring to an incident in January 1951 when, having been diverted to Hurn (now Bournemouth International Airport) because of fog, ‘Clipper Washington’ was repositioned to London Airport. It seemed to land normally but then the right wheels retracted and the plane skidded to a halt, the crew apparently having sought to compensate for deep slush on the runway by raising the flaps – but selecting ‘landing gear up’ by mistake.
N1036V had been delivered to Pan Am in August 1949 and remained with the airline for 12 years before it was retired from the fleet and purchased by the Airline Equipment Co, which converted it into a freighter with a 43,500lb payload and sold it on to Venezuelan airline RANSA.
They used it for several years on a scheduled cargo run from Miami to Caracas, via Jamaica and Aruba (goodness knows what was in that capacious freight hold on some occasions) before the old Strat was finally pensioned off in 1968.
The men with the blow torches got to work that year, but many of the parts were salvaged and sold to Israel Aircraft Industries, which converted several Strats into tanker, transport or communications roles.
* Brian Stainer, who took thousands of pictures over the decades, and went on to set up Aviation Photo News, has kindly loaned me a selection of stunning images from his collection and many of these will be featured in Fly Past over the coming months. You won’t believe how good they are!
