Squadron Leader Jones was well-known for his deals when purchasing aircraft and his parsimonious nature was reputed to stretch to other viable ways of cutting costs. In this respect, Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary would certainly approve of the EAFS management. The expansion of the fleet during the 1950s and 1960s saw batches of aircraft added from several different sources. Jack Jones didn’t see a need to homogenise the fleet and many aircraft remained in colour schemes little different from those of their former owners.
The ex-factory Miles Aerovan sported a silver colour scheme with ‘East Anglian Flying Services’ titles in italic script, possibly dark green, on the forward fuselage. When the DH89As arrived, they flew in different schemes, all of which were fairly typical for a 1950s Rapide. G-AKRN operated in a white/ blue/ silver scheme while G-AKOV featured silver dope. G-AKJZ operated, firstly, in dark colours with ‘East Anglian Flying Services Ltd’ and the registration in white capitals. By the second half of the fifties, ‘KJZ had adopted a scheme predominantly similar to the others with Channel Airways titles. Eventually, when they were retired at Ipswich around 1960, the last two Rapides livery was white over silver with a mid-green cheat line and green registrations.
The busy 1953 season highlighted the need for an increased fleet and Squadron Leader Jones purchased the airline’s first De Havilland Dove from the West African Airways Corporation. BOAC had sponsored the formation of WAAC in 1946 to operate from Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone and The Gambia. An association with them proved typical of Channel’s purchasing technique: Jones like to buy aircraft with a sound maintenance history, he liked to buy British-built aircraft and he seemed to work well with companies associated with the two British state airlines. Despite his pursuit of a bargain, Jones also seemed to form good long-term relationships with companies – Dove VR-NAP was the first of six Doves and two Bristol Freighters bought by Channel from WAAC. When the Dove arrived at Southend in November 1954, it looked good in its WAAC colours – a dark green cheat line bordered by gold trim. Registered to EAFS on November 12th 1954, the Dove reappeared, after the winter fallow period, as G-ANVU complete with Channel Airways titles. A C of A was issued on April 2nd 1955 and ‘NVU started work two days later with a service to Le Touquet (7). As with the Rapides ‘KRN and ‘EMH, G-ANVU would remain with Channel for the rest of the airline’s life.
(7) This may well have been the inaugural service between Southend and Le Touquet.
(8) G-ANVU was sold to Gerald Thomas Lee at the end of the Receivership sale in August 1972. Further details in the section on the disposal of Channel assets.
Two more Doves arrived from West Africa in April 1955 and the summer ’55 comprised three Doves and three Rapides. Despite the expansion of the route network, Channel’s British destinations from Southend in 1955 all still retained grass runways, a slightly odd situation considering the hundreds of miles of concrete runways built for military operations during WW2. Southend had built a passenger terminal in 1951 and upgraded to two concrete runways in 1954, Ipswich, Rochester, Shoreham and Portsmouth, however, remained grass strips with only Jersey boasting a tarmac runway. This was not an issue for the Rapides and the Doves had been chosen for the same reason, but it would shape future fleet choices.
WAAC’s green and gold livery set the Channel standard for the piston propliner fleet for the rest of the fifties and sixties with Vikings, Dakotas and the DC-4 adopting variations on the colour scheme. For the 1956 season, the Rapides were finally dragged out of the hangar just before Easter and the first revenue-earning flight was made on March 29th. The biplanes were generally used for feeder services from Ipswich and Rochester to Southend and one was based at Portsmouth for services to the Channel Islands. Although primarily a passenger operation, Channel took on some freight operations between June and October 1956 under contract to Transair for newspaper flights between Croydon and Dusseldorf. Silver City had encroached on Channel’s territory in 1952 with a vehicle ferry route between Southend and Ostend and continued to expand rapidly during the early fifties flying cars, passengers and freight from their new airfield at Lydd in Kent. This seemed to increase Channel’s interest in potential car ferry and freight operations and their 1956 license applications included the possibility of using Blackburn Beverleys – a type of aircraft Silver City were also considering. These would have been new ex-factory aircraft and, in the end, Jack Jones opted for a couple of ex-WAAC B170 Bristol Freighters. Although the issue of car ferry operations continued to arise occasionally, Channel never moved into that line of work and the Freighters were used largely for passenger flights.
Autumn 1956 saw the opening of a new airport at Rotterdam which would become very important to the Channel Airways operation. Indeed, this led to Channel continuing to fly over winter 1956/ 57 for the first time, albeit with only two Doves.
The arrival of the first Bristol 170 Mk21 at Southend in March 1957 may not have led to any revisions in Channel’s colour scheme but it did involve a change in operational direction (9). Not only were these much larger aircraft, they moved away from the Gipsy Major/ Gipsy Six/ Gipsy Queen engines which the maintenance department had dealt with up to then. The Freighter’s beefy Bristol Hercules twin bank radials and the robust undercarriage had dealt well with primitive airstrips around the World but Silver City had experienced some issues on the soggy grass runway at Lympne. VR-NAA arrived from West Africa via a transit stop in Bordeaux and was issued with a C of A as G-AIFO in May 1957. The WAAC seating capacity of 56 was a big change for Channel but they managed to gather up thirty-nine Southend to Jersey passengers for G-AIFO’s first revenue-earning flight on May 25th. Of these, 29 passengers had originated in Rochester or Ipswich and transited to Southend on feeder flights. Demand for direct flights existed and G-AIFO made its first grass strip landing for Channel on May 31st prior to a Rochester to Jersey service. Thereafter, the B170 flew passenger services to the Channel islands each weekend while operating Southend to Rotterdam freight schedules on weekdays. With as many as three return flights per day to Rotterdam, carrying over 4 tonnes of perishable fruit, veg and flowers on each, Channel Airways were offering a considerable freight capacity for the first time.
(9) The Channel Airways name appeared, initially, in quite small lettering above the WAAC dark green cheat line along with ‘Southend’. Later titling was more prominent. At first, even the yellow circle which had contained WAAC’s ‘Skypower the Elephant’ remained….minus elephant.
Three Doves were also acquired from WAAC and they were put into operation during April 1957. Gradually, they took over from the Rapides, some of which were still lingering in winter storage. DH89A G-AKJZ was sold in February 1957, G-AKRN didn’t emerge from storage until the end of June 1957 and G-AEMH started work on the Rochester and Ipswich feeder flights on March 26th. Eventually, ‘KRN joined two of the Doves at Portsmouth for flights to Europe and the Channel Islands. As well as regular schedules, Channel also went on to explore Coach Air services with passengers boarding in Portsmouth, Shoreham and Southend. Southdown and Wallace Arnold coaches delivered happy holiday makers to the airports from a London coach terminal on Pentonville Road as well as from cities as far afield as Glasgow. The potential for delays caused by connecting coaches traveling long distances frequently gave the airline’s operations staff scheduling headaches. Channel also continued with plans to expand Inclusive Tour operations and the larger capacity of the B170s was appealing (to the Accounts Department, if not the passengers!). A second Bristol Freighter was therefore purchased from WAAC and arrived in the UK in Summer 1957 carrying 1.5 tonnes of spares as the Corporation sold-off the last of its 4-strong Freighter fleet prior to shutting-down completely in 1958. Channel were in no hurry to restore VR-NAL to the British Register and it was only in May 1958 that it was issued a C of A as G-AICT. The end of 1957 season had seen the Dove G-AHRB sold in the Cape Verde Islands and, in January 1958, a second Dove left the fleet after crash landing on Dungeness Beach. With a reduced fleet and increasing popularity of the Coach Air services in 1958, Freighter G-AICT joined G-AIFO on operations from Southend although neither could be considered unduly attractive for passenger flying.
The late fifties also brought a notable ‘first’ for Channel Airways, one which demonstrated that Jack Jones ability to obtain a top-quality item at a good value price didn’t just apply to aircraft. In 1957, ex-ATA pilot Jackie Moggridge joined the airline as Britain’s first female commercial pilot flying passengers on scheduled routes. Dan Air and British Air ferries made much of their woman pilots Delphine Gray-Fisk and Caroline Frost in the 1970s but Channel had outpaced them by fifteen years. For further details, click on the button below.
Jack Jones could see the potential for the expansion of cross-channel passenger flights, Inclusive Tour flights to the Channel Islands and some closer European cities as well as the popular Coach Air operations. He needed to supplement the fleet with aircraft which were larger than the Dove and more appealing to passengers than the utilitarian Bristol Freighters. He chose to purchase a couple of Vickers Vikings for the 1958 summer season and sourced them from Eagle Aviation. The Viking was widely-used by the British independents and, from one perspective, made good sense as it used the same Bristol Hercules radials as the two Bristol Freighters. They also offered a longer range than, for example, a Dakota and were also faster; however, their suitability for grass airfields was poor. In the long run, Channel might have done better going straight to Dakotas rather than waiting until 1960. The first Viking to arrive was G-AHPH which was delivered from Eagle’s Blackbushe base on 27th March 1958. ‘HPH might not have operated as part of Eagle’s fleet having been purchased by them from Central African Airways in September 1957. G-AHPH’s first revenue-earning flight for Channel managed to pack-in forty passengers on the Southend to Rotterdam route on April 4th. Photographs indicate that it was painted with a dark-coloured cheat line- different from both CAA and Eagle. This suggests that the inherited WAAC dark green and gold scheme had also been applied to this first Viking. The second Viking, G-AHOZ, arrived at Southend in May 1958 and flew a Southend to Basle route on June 1st. It had also been sourced from Eagle Aviation and had a Central African Airways history. Photographs of ‘OZ show that it carried a new Channel scheme: three green pin stripes above the window line and a yellow and green ‘flying wedge’ on the tail fin and just aft of the cockpit. Many Eagle Vikings of the mid fifties carried what was basically the red pinstripe BEA colour scheme and, at first look, it seems that G-AHOZ started work with Channel wearing this scheme….only green. However, a closer look suggests that the pin stripes were slightly thinner. Either way, the airline’s colour scheme had moved on from WAAC’s dark green and gold scheme to the medium green pinstripe style. Channel had also adopted a logo of its own, no matter how basic, and the overall scheme would be applied to subsequently-purchased Vikings and Dakotas. A slight variation would be applied to Channel’s lone DC-4 G-ARYY.
The two Rapides soldiered on during the peak summer months of 1958, the B170s were circulated onto the busy schedules between Southend and Le Touquet, Southend and Ostend while the Vikings plied routes to the Channel Islands, Rotterdam, Ostend and Basle. The Freighters could carry 48 passengers but also lived-up to their name by hauling flowers and fruit inbound to Southend, fridges, machinery and radio components on the export leg; confirmation that Britain still had a manufacturing economy in the late fifties. The success experienced on the Ostend route prompted a trial service from Southend to Antwerp in October and November 1958 but, perhaps surprisingly, it wasn’t a success. Occasional ski charters also arose but winter remained a fallow period for Channel and much of the larger equipment hibernated at Southend while the Doves maintained services on the most popular routes.The Doves were also key members of the fleet for the lower-volume routes during Summer 1959. A Portsmouth to Sandown, Isle of Wight, route was added with departures timed to encourage day trips. Three Doves and Rapide G-AKRN also benefited from an extended 1959 season when that gift to airlines, a rail strike, took place in October. The four operational aircraft flew mail and newspapers from Gatwick, an airport which had opened a year earlier in June 1958.
Channel continued with their policy of purchasing the aircraft they liked when the price was right – and not necessarily when they were needed. Following the comparative success of the two Vikings purchased from Eagle in 1958, Jack Jones bought a third aircraft in January 1959. G-AGRU had been operated by a number of Commonwealth airlines allied to BOAC/ BEA before being leased to the Kuwait Oil Company for four years. KOC leased a number of Vikings over the years but, by the late 1950s, they were replacing them with pressurised Viscounts. G-AGRU had been flown to Lasham and stored for some months before being acquired by Channel and flown to Southend on 19th January 1959. It wasn’t required immediately and joined Channel’s reserve bench for close on a year until Christmas Eve 1959 when it was test flown before entering service. A fourth Viking, G-AJJN, had also been added from Continental Air Services in August 1959 in response to the writing-off of Channel’s G-AHPH in a landing accident on 28th July 1959. Continental’s colour scheme was also modeled on the BEA ‘pin stripe’ scheme (although in blue) and G-AJJN fitted straightinto the Channel fleet – although initially without the Channel logo on the fuselage and fin. G-AGRU was refinished in Channels green pinstripe scheme as the Kuwait Oil colours were white and blue.
A trio of Vikings satisfied the airline’s requirements at the end of 1959 although a further large tranche of the type would later join Channel following the acquisition of their Southend neighbours, Tradair, at the end of 1962. Jack Jones’ other purchase during 1959 was, on the surface, a puzzling one; two Miles Marathon 1s were bought from the RAF in April 1959. The Squadron Leader had already shown himself to be a fan of Miles aircraft and the Marathon had, briefly, been operated by Channel’s past friends at the West African Airways Corporation. However, the Marathon was already being flown by a British independent, Derby Aviation, and wasn’t performing well on the grass runway at Burnaston Airport. The appeal of the two metal Miles therefore lay in the four Gipsy Queen engines fitted to each airliner, a good supply of spares for the airline’s Doves.
The early sixties would bring in a new influx of ex-BEA aircraft, a DC-4 bought in the USA and a small fleet of Vikings inherited from Tradair. The colour scheme of the ex-BEA Dakotas followed the pattern set by the Vikings: red pin stripes replaced by green, Channel green/ yellow logos on the forward fuselage and tail fin. The DC-4 also adopted the Channel logos along with a broad green cheat line. Tradair hardware was absorbed into the Channel fleet in late 1962 and some of the Vikings continued to fly in Tradair’s distinctive blue livery for some months. Gradually, the Vikings were repainted in the Channel green pinstripe although G-AIXR and G-AKTV were withdrawn from use in September 1963, still wearing the Tradair livery. Tradair’s Viscount G-APZC became the first Channel turboprop airliner and, as such, also became the first of the Company’s ‘Golden Fleet’ which came to symbolise the Airline’s peak period. The golden scheme in which ‘PZC appeared during 1963 would evolve throughout the 1960s…but more of that later……
One of Channel’s earliest aircraft which has enjoyed a profusion of colour schemes during its long life is Puss Moth G-AEOA. Their very first aircraft spent little time with EAFS but has gone on to wear orange, grey and blue colour schemes with its multiple owners. Today it survives with the Shuttleworth Collection.
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