A B.O.A.C. Comet on the apron. North Point is probably behind it and note the half-decked B.O.A.C. bus. They were used in the mid to late fifties to ferry passengers from the Air Terminal in the foyer of the Peninsual Hotel to the airport and then out to the waiting planes. (Andrew S)
Date picture taken
1 Sep 1959
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Nice Photo
Nice view showing the arrival of the Comet jetliner. A view of the BOAC bus can be seen here
Hi Moddsey. I thought that I
Hi Moddsey. I thought that I had seen a better colour image of the B.O.A.C. bus somewhere on Gwulo but couldn’t find it. Thank you for providing the link. These buses were also used by the R.A.F. as crew buses to take aircrew to their planes held on remote dispersals at many of the wartime aerodromes (old name for airfields) in England. That was possibly at the very end of the war and in later years. There is one surviving example, that I know of, at the Yorkshire Aviation Museum (maybe not the exact name) at Elvington just to the East of York in England. They were built onto a Commer chassis. I took a photograph of it a few years ago and, all being well, I shall upload it later today. Late in the evening on Sunday 20th October 1957, about 12 of my pals, along with about another 30 Service personnel and family members, were taken by one of them from the Central London Air Terminal, opposite the Victoria Coach Station, to Heathrow. The ‘terminal’ was still in some huts, immediately off the old main road running along the North side of the airport. The central terminal was still being built. The plane, a Canadair version of the DC4, renamed Argonauts by B.O.A. C. was named Arion and had about 40 seats, which were all taken. I have sometimes wondered whether the Commer bus had enough seats to carry that number and whether two Service families travelled by taxi. Andrew