July 1948 saw the end of ACE with all operations being consolidated under the Manx Air Charter banner. The Company thrived with charter work across Ulster, Scotland, and Northern England plus holiday season pleasure flying within the Isle of Man. The potential for aviation to and from the Isle of Man saw a competing operator formed during 1948. Mannin Airways and Ulster Aviation joined forces in a shared stock company, North-West Airlines, despite Manx Air Charter’s attempt to broker a similar amalgamation. North-West employed the constituent companies’ aircraft, mostly Rapides and Miles Messengers/ Gemini, and applied for many BEA Associate Agreements to run services from Ronaldsway to Northern England, Glasgow and the Midlands, often in association with other operators, such as the Lancashire Aircraft Corporation.
Manx Air Charter appear to have been eclipsed by the fast development of North-West and only applied for scheduled routes under BEA Associate Agreements in 1950. By then, G-AEMH had been sold (interestingly, by LEH Airways of Horsey Toll) and had moved to Lincolnshire with Spalding Airways on its way to join East Anglian Flying Services/ Channel Airways in 1952. The four DH89A Rapides soldiered-on and each was named after a glen on the Isle of Man: G-AKIF became Glen Wyllin. A summer time service was opened to Carlisle but operations remained largely charter-based along with the provision of air ambulance services between Ronaldsway and Liverpool. Meanwhile, North-West had purchased two Dakotas to supplement their four Rapides. Although kept busy on summer time routes to Blackpool, Manchester and Glasgow, services to Newcastle, Birmingham and Leeds could only support the Rapides. The short-term nature of the Associate Agreements gave North-West no security and the airline attempted to play-off the Isle of Man Parliament against the Westminster government to gain a better deal. This had limited effect. The Summer 1950 routes continued to work well for North-West – too well, as BEA decided that the volume of traffic between Manchester and the Isle of Man was sufficient for them to operate it themselves. North-West lost the route in 1951 and the airline was bought-out by the Lancashire Aircraft Corporation which sold the Dakotas and continued with the Rapides until 1952 when the Manx airline was absorbed into LAC.
The departure of North-West led to a boom at Manx Air Charter who gained schedules to Newcastle and Glasgow and, accordingly, changed their name to Manx Airlines. G-AKIF and the three other Rapides were retained by Manx to fly the Carlisle route. Two recently de-mobbed Dakotas, G-AMZB and G-AMZC, were brought in to operate the busier routes. The airline managed to maintain very high load factors and efficient aircraft utilisation given the small number of staff and pilots. They supplemented scheduled routes with newspaper flights and charters. At the end of 1955, one Rapide was sold and, tragically, a Dakota was lost in a fatal landing accident at Dussledorf. With insufficient capital to replace the Dakota, Manx Airlines accepted an offer from the British Aviation Services group in Spring 1956 and became the north-western arm of Silver City. The remaining three Rapides were diverted to auxiliary roles with G-AKSE flying Silver City oilfield charters in Libya in 1957. G-AKGY was sold in France and G-AKIF operated with Skyflights of Ramsgate between June and September 1958. On completion of the secondment, ‘IF was sold to Hants and Sussex Aviation at Portsmouth and registered on 16th October 1958. G-AKIF soon moved on to Thomas Marshall at Christchurch (Hants) on 5th February 1959.
Thomas Marshall was the Bournemouth business man who had revived private flying in Christchurch with the 1950 formation of the Aero Club at the ex-USAAF P-47 airfield. The aircraft manufacturers Airspeed were also lively occupants of Portsmouth having moved activities from Portsmouth. Tommy Marshall reorganised the club again in 1952 with his brother, John Hutton Marshall, as Chief Engineer presiding over a fleet of two Tiger Moths, an Auster and a membership of 25. One of the Tigers, G-AKZZ, was lost when it crashed in the sea off Bournemouth Pier on May 30th 1953. It was replaced in 1954 by G-AJEP, a high-wing Auster Autocrat which was duly upgraded to an Auster Alpha by John Marshall. ‘EP was, itself, lost in a landing accident at Christchurch in November 1959 while being flown by Tommy Marshall himself. Fortunately, neither of the incidents proved fatal to the aviators. A further Tiger Moth, G-ANSR, was lost in Studland Bay in 1961 so, when joining the Aero Club on February 5th 1959, G-AKIF was risking a long and happy future! Thomas Marshall had purchased three Rapides in early 1959, planning to use one for twin-engine tuition, one for pleasure flying and one for charter flights to events such as the Deauville Races, Paris Air Show and Coventry Air Races. One was also given a preliminary outing with the local skydiving group in February 1959. A second Rapide, G-AGPG, had been registered to Marshall on 19th March 1959 while a third, G-AFRK, had been acquired on February 25th as a spares queen. The Rapide operations seem to have been curtailed in 1962 with G-AKIF moving to Southern Counties Aerial Contracts in March 1962 and G-AGPG departing in May, Remarkably, the two Rapides have both survived and co-exist at Duxford. Tommy Marshall also traded another Rapide in 1962 with G-AJSL acquired in March and sold in August. However, the Christchurch outfit had interests in Airspeed Oxfords for its twin engine operations but the Aero Club closed in 1965.
G-AKIF‘s new owners changed their name from Southern Counties to Bardock Aviation on 5th March 1963 in honour of its two owners: A.Barwell and Sir Bernard Docker. Although initially a charter operation out of Staverton, the company had aspirations to operate scheduled services linking Swansea and Bristol, Southampton and Lands End Airport in Cornwall, the jumping-off point for the Scilly Islands. While Sir Bernard had been part of the British commercial elite as the Chairman of both BSA and Daimler, his high-flying lifestyle had led to a fall from grace in the late 1950s and his personal fortune had suffered accordingly. It appears that he was unable to revive his fortunes with Bardock Aviation and the company went out of business in 1964.
Neglected by Bardock, G-AKIF‘s CofA lapsed in March 1965 but was revived on May 9th 1966 upon sale of the Rapide to Kentair Charters of Biggin Hill. The Rapide was the first aircraft to be registered in Kentair’s name although the company was an associate of the Kent & Surrey Flying Club and both went on to join the Medminster Group in 1970. G-AKIF successfully provided the pleasure flights at the 1966 and 1967 Biggin Hill Air Fairs and also offered passenger charters and twin-engine flying experience. Piper Aztec G-ASND joined the Flying Club in January 1967 and took over many of G-AKIF’s duties. On May 2nd 1968, the Rapide was registered to Bernard Schofield as trustee for the Parachute Regiment Free Fall Club and delivered to their base at Netheravon. The Club obtained sponsorship from Rothmans International and G-AKIF was restored by ‘string and canvas’ experts Arrow Air Services. With an appropriate dark blue, maroon and white colour scheme replete with Rothmans titles, crest and the name ‘The Rothmans Skydiver’, the Rapide departed for a promotional tour of Norwegian parachute clubs. In early August 1971, the aircraft had acquired ‘Paralift’ titles when seen at Groningen Netherlands and was sold to Petter Ringvold as LN-BEZ. A Norwegian CofA was issued in October 1971 but the aircraft was flown back to the UK in February 1973 and the Norwegian registration cancelled on April 30th 1973.
On June 15th 1973, the Rapide resumed its British G-AKIF identity with new owner, lifelong aviation buff Adrian Swire, the Taipan of Hong Kong shipping giants John Swire and Sons. He operated G-AKIF through his Airborne Taxi Services Company and ‘IF was registered to them in September 1973. Operating, at first, from Booker and, subsequently, from Duxford, the old Rapide also flew from the airstrip at the family estate of Sparsholt. The red and white Swire house flag was added to the blue and white colour scheme and the Rapide made an appearance as ‘G-ADAE’ on the TV drama ‘South Riding’. A further Hollywood role followed in 1977 when she was painted in USAAC colours for the ‘Glen Miller Story’. The colour scheme was updated to the current overall dark blue sometime around 1992, certainly before it made an appearance at the June ’92 Boscombe Down Air Tournament.
Along the way, there have been some incidents: in July 1983 damage was sustained during a landing at the Sparsholt estate airstrip in Berkshire. The Rapide veered to port and hit a fence which damaged the engine nacelles and the undercarriage. In 1995, a heavy landing at Duxford led to some damage and, most recently, another crosswind landing at Duxford with 8 passengers on board in August 2006 led to bent props, fairing damage and the deformation of engine mounts and struts. Fortunately, no-one has suffered serious injuries and the Rapide continues to operate under the auspices of Cirrus Aviation – which trades as Classic Wings and offers flying experiences from Duxford. Sir Adrian died in 2018 but his second son, Samuel, continues to manage the operation for the Swire organisation. In 2022, G-AKIF had completed around 6400 flying hours and retains her 8 passenger + pilot seating configuration. She has a useful load of 1030 Kg, a 483 nautical mile range and a top speed of 115 knots courtesy of her two Gipsy Six engines driving the Fairey Reed fixed-pitch props.
In this snapshot, G-AKIF appears alongside the ex-RAF Dakota ‘Flabob Express’ at Duxford. The crew of the Dak had just suffered the disappointment of a tech failure which delayed their participation in the 2019 D-Day Commemoration on June 6th. Fortunately, the fault was remedied and the C-47 proceeded to Normandy and Germany. A more detailed history of this magnificent C-47 can be found below:
REFERENCES:
Air Britain History of the Dragon Rapide
British Independent Airlines 1946-76 by Tony Merton-Jones, 2000, TAHS.
Air Britain history of Christchurch airfield by Dave H.Fagan, 2015
CAA Website G-INFO
Civil Aircraft Markings, John W R Taylor, Ian Allan – multiple years
Daily Telegraph obituary, Sir Adrian Squire, 2018.
Hits: 21