Neil's Nostalgia

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• Renfrew Reflections •
A series of early pictures and notes taken over the years 1957 - 1960 while I lived at Cardonald, fairly close to Renfrew Airport.
A pretty fuzzy image, but the only snap I took of the tower, I have none of the terminal alas. I do , however have a post card scan (below) that was sent to me by Ian Macdonald.
Another image - this time from the web.
G-AMGW Miles HPR.1 Marathon 1 (127) of Derby Airways shares the ramp with a British European Airways Douglas DC-3 Pionair. Both of these types were regulars at Renfrew Airport.
G-AMEW Miles HPR.1 Marathon 1 (117) of Derby Airways as chocks are being removed, ready to depart for Burnaston.
G-AJBT Vickers V.610 Viking 1B (245) of Pegasus Airlines sits as an Aer Lingus Douglas DC-3 Dakota departs. Both were regular visitors.
An experimental "eggshell finish" Vickers V.802 Viscount shares the ramp with a Derby Airways Douglas DC-3 Dakota.
G-AOHI Vickers V.802 Viscount (158) "Charles Montague Doughty", British European Airways.
G-AOHH Vickers V.802 Viscount (157) "Sir Robert McClure", British European Airways.
G-APKF Vickers V.806 Viscount (396) "Michael Faraday", British European Airways.
G-APIM Vickers V.806 Viscount (412), "R M A Robert Boyle", British European Airways. Circa 1959. Now museum exhibit.
After a wet bicycle trip to the terminal at Renfrew Airport, and getting permission to walk out in the drizzle, here is a snap of a departing British European Airways Viscount. A regular Derby Airways Douglas C-47 Dakota 4 G-AMSW (16171/32919) sits awaiting her passengers for the run to Burnaston. This machine was delivered as 44-76587 just nine days after I was born, then as KN449 of the RAF to Montréal 23 March 1945. She unfortunately came to her demise on 07 October 1961 on Mt. Canigou, near Perpignan, France.
Another wet day, and long bicycle ride, at least I was rewarded by Avro 696 Shackleton M.R.3 XF708 coded "A" of 120 squadron", from RAF Kinloss. I must have talked my way out to get the photograph. d/d 01/03/1959, l/f 23/08/1972 to the IWM, Duxford, Cambridgeshire for display, so we met again in later years!
Two Vickers V.759 Viscount aircraft that were frequent vistors from Iceland TF-ISN (140) "Gullfaxi" and TF-ISU (149) "Hrinfaxi".
Tom Baillie capures one or the other of the Viscounts just clearing the fence!!
TF-ISC Douglas DC-6 (43744) Icelandair "Skyfaxi" a regular at Renfrew. Note Dan Air York at far right!XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXRobert Webster ©
TF-ISH Douglas DC-3 Dakota (13861) sharing parking space with a BEA Viscounts and an anonymous Bristol Britannia - Ken Marshall © July 1965 - Aird Archives
TF-ISH Douglas DC-3 Dakota (13861) Flugefelag Islands, sharing parking space with an Air Links Canadair DC-4M2 Argonaut G-ALHT (165).
Panning to the left I catch G-AOVM Bristol 312 Britannia (13421) British Eagle "Team Spirit" (not really convinced until I find my logbook).The Britannia most likely on a trooping flight, as was the Argonaut.
A Norwegian visitor - Fred Olsen Air Transport Douglas DC-3 Dakota LN-IAS (19458) getting some attention by the hangar. Photo: Neil Aird © 17 June 1959
Same spot but a different Douglas DC-3 Dakota this time, one from the BEAC fleet. They are still building the new fence!
A (fuzzy) BEAC "Pionair" just about over the threshold. I can hear the impending "chirp, chirp" as the tires touch the runway.
A rather blurry shot taken through the windows, complete with reflections, of G-ALXL Douglas DC-3 Dakota (33235) "Charles Rolls" of BEA. I took very few snaps of the Pionairs alas.
An Aer Lingus Fokker F-27 Friendship starts up for a flight to Dublin. View of west end of ramp at Renfrew. I can still hear that Dart spooling up. They were made about half a mile away at Rolls Royce Limited, in the Hillington Industrial Estate just off the picture to the left!
My cheap Reflex Camera records a distorted picture of the departure of EI-AKC Fokker F-27 Friendship (10107) "St. Fionnbharr" of Aer Lingus. One accident occurred on  22 December 1959 when EI-AKA (10105) "St. Fionntan" landed wheels up. She flew again on 23 February 1960.
EI-AKF Fokker F-27 Friendship (10118) "St. Finghin" Aer Lingus captured in 1962 by my pal Tom Baillie.
LN-LAU Convair 240-5 (64) Norronafly. This Convair quite made my day, ex VH-TAQ of TAA, then N9853F of another TAA, Trans Arabian Airlines. I believe she still operates as N295M of Bahama Air Ferries in Florida. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXPhoto: Neil Aird © 05 May 1959
A welcome visitor, as can be seen by the gathering, a LOT - Polish Airlines/Polskie Linie Lotnicze, SP-LSB Ilyushin IL-18 (180002404), from Warsaw, most likely bringing in a ship's crew. It was registered to LOT 21 April 1961 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXVXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXRobert Webster © 12 August 1962
I get the "thumbs up" from the First Officer of TF-IAL Douglas C-54A-15-DC Skymaster (10399) "Saga" of Loftleidir as she departs for Keflavik. This aircraft was leased as LX-IAL to Interocean Airways in July 1960.
TF-RVH Douglas C-54A-5-DO Skymaster (10278) another regular at Renfrew. This image by Gordon Pearson © late 1950's.
Even after leaving the Renfrew area, I still made the long trip from Lenzie across the city of Glasgow, by public transport, to catch the odd interesting visitors. Here two Douglas DC-6B OO-SDQ (44695) and OO-CTM (44175) grace the ramp on St. Valentine's day, 1962. They were joined by five other SABENA machines, all charters from Liège, probably for some soccer event. OO-CTM went on to serve with the Luftwaffe as CA+024 and later to Sterling as OY-STY, while OO-SDQ was leased as EC-ASS for a while and after returning to OO-SDQ, then moving on to TR-LOX. The other Sabena aircraft present were OO-CTN, OO-CTH, OO-SDG all DC-6, OO-AWG DC-3 and OO-SCL Convair 440.
G-AGJV Douglas C-47A Dakota III (12195) British Midland "Millers Dale" sits ready, with parked WV734 Hunting Percival Pembroke C.1 of the Royal Air Force. G-AGJV was sold to Antigua as VP-LVM on 03 March 1980. The Pembroke was struck of charge 22 March 1972.
G-ARWK Douglas C-54G Skymaster (35936) of Lloyd International starts, while the "batman" in orange coveralls, keeps an eye on things. Note the healthy dockyard horizon full of cranes and the tower of Glasgow University at the far right. G-APEA Vickers V.951 Vanguard (704) the first delivered to BEA sits at the ready. G-ARWK was ex N904 and later became D-ADAD.
After the Vickers Viscount came the larger capacity Vickers V.951 Vanguard. Here G-APEE (708) "Defiance"gets ready to depart Refrew for London. I made several flights as a passenger on the Vanguard, travelling in CF-TKS (724), G-APEA (704), G-APEB (705), G-APED (707), G-APEJ (713) and twice in G-APEU (723). As a young lad I got the complete tour of the production facilites at Weybridge and Wisley. I was even introduced to Sir Barnes Wallace, who pontificated on his Swallow swing wing project.
G-AOHO Vickers V.802 Viscount (164) "Samuel Wallace" in the new BEAC livery. This was the aircraft in which I took my very first flight "BE790" on 13 April 1962 taking one hour exactly en route from Renfrew to Birmingham/Elmdon. I had the pleasure of sitting in the Captain's chair of G-AOYL Vickers V.802 Viscount (261) "Lord Joseph Lister" (en route over Northern England into Scotland) and watching the Decca system perform as the pen traced our track. That date was 12 March 1966. In all, I had eleven flights in the Viscount. Just loved those huge windows.
Smaller aircraft were often seen visiting Renfrew. Heron and Dove aircraft were quite common. Here G-AOZM de Havilland DH.114 Heron of Silver City Airways awaits her passengers for the scenic flight to the Isle of Man.
G-AOFI de Havilland DH.104 Dove 2B (04477) the corporate hack of Pressed Steel Co., Ltd., was a regular visitor to the Renfrew ramp. It was scrapped at Baginton after C of A expiry on 03 June 1970.
G-APRR Sokol Aero 45 (04-014) of Maitland Air Charters. Note the rare Avia 14 OK-BYO of the Czechoslovak Government in the background. Both were new types for the local spotters. Unknown photographer © 11 November 1959 - Aird Archives
Scottish Aviation had facilities at Renfrew and sometimes an opportunity would present itself for a quick "snap and run" shot. Here a lone Avro CF-100 awaits attention.
For a while there were a number of Canadiar CL-13B Sabre 5 parked adjacent to the airport in their silver cocoons.