Bilferge i luften - CNN

Det kan være verdt å nevne British Air Bridge som opererte Armstrong Whitworth Argosy til kanaløyene. Typen var forøvrig ofte i Norge i regi av RAF.  Fra min korrespondent i Sola, forfatter og journalist Jan-Petter Helgesen, har jeg mottatt følgende tilleggsopplysning, for meg helt ukejnt, om Carvair:

Thor Tjøntveits flyselskap Norwegian Overseas Airlines opererte minst en ATL-98 Carvair på norsk register. Han hadde også flere på hånd. Problemer med Luftfartsdirektoratet pluss økonomi gjorde at han hadde problemer med å få flere enn den ene i luften.

Han malte den ene i Røde Kors-farger og stakk av fra Kjevik med kurs for Vietnam. Her ville han fly nødhjelp. Turen nedover ble en føljetong i ulovligheter. Flyet endte som vrak på den gamle flyplassen i Bangkok. Det var mye avisskriveri om Tjøntveit og NOA midt i 1970-årene.

Foto: Wikipedia 

(Red,)

Car ferries in the skies: The rise and fall of the Aviation Traders Carvair

Miquel Ros, CNN • Updated 7th April 2021

FacebookTwitterEmail

 

(CNN) — If an aviation enthusiast were to compile a roster of the world's weirdest looking planes, the ATL-98 Carvair would definitely merit a place of honor.

Its bulbous nose, seemingly out of proportion with the rest of its body, give this now-defunct plane a chubby, unmistakable appearance.

And yet the Carvair, which made a brief cameo in the James Bond movie "Goldfinger," anticipated features that we would later see in iconic aircraft types, such as the Boeing 747.

This odd-looking plane was actually a heavily modified Douglas DC-4 airliner designed to fulfill a very particular mission in the 1950s: flying both cars and their drivers overseas.

 

To load Carvair planes, vehicles would be elevated to cabin level with a scissors-type lift and loaded through the front door.

Courtesy of Iberia Photo Archive

British car owners wanting to drive their own vehicles around mainland Europe could choose between the slow, and potentially shaky, sea crossing, or simply hop over to the continent by air -- car and all.

Travelers would drive right onto the airport apron and into the belly of the waiting aircraft, just as they would with a ferry that carries automobiles across water.

Related content

Born from post-war travel dreams

Aircraft like the Bristol 170 Freighter and its larger derivative, called the Superfreighter, started carrying automobiles as cargo from the mid-1940s, shortly after the end of WWII.

Those planes were sturdy machines that sacrificed speed and range for robustness and economics. They featured clam-like frontal doors that opened sideways to allow cars to be driven into the cargo hold, while the raised cockpit increased cargo capacity by making the whole length of the fuselage available for self-rolling loads.

As ingenious as this design may have been, though, these aircraft had a rather limited payload and could carry no more than three average-sized cars at a time.

 

A car is loaded onto an Aer Lingus Aviation Traders ATL-98 Carvair at Bristol Airport in the UK.

Alamy

By the late 1950s, with the war years in the rearview mirror and car ownership on the rise, legendary aviation entrepreneur Freddie Laker spotted an opportunity.

Laker, who would later be known for his pioneering, but ill-fated, low cost airline ventures in the 1970s and early 80s, came up with the idea to build a larger and better car ferry.

With the advent of the jet era, loads of World War II-era propeller planes such as the DC-4, or its military version, the C-54, were fast becoming obsolete and could be had on the cheap. This worked in Laker's favor.

One of the companies already in his portfolio, Aviation Traders Limited, had accumulated ample experience refitting and repurposing a large number of military aircraft that had served in the war for civilian use, making it well-placed to execute his vision.

The result was the ATL-98, also called "Carvair" -- short for "Car via Air".

Linking the UK to the mainland

To create this airborne car ferry, Aviation Traders Limited took a DC-4, cut its forward section and added an additional section to stretch its fuselage. Next, it was fitted with the Carvair's characteristic elevated cockpit and a couple of side-hinged doors that allowed cars and other cargo to be loaded through the front.

The resulting aircraft would be able to carry up to five cars and 22 passengers at once, a significant improvement over the Bristol 170 Freighter.

Even better: this configuration could be quickly and easily adapted to meet the needs of the moment. For example, it could carry just three cars and 55 passengers or converted to carry either just cargo or only passengers. If the latter option was chosen, the Carvair's non-pressurized cabin could be fitted with as many as 85 seats.

 

In Spain, domestic carrier Aviaco's Carvairs shuttled passengers -- and their cars -- between the Balearic Islands and the Spanish mainland.

Courtesy of Iberia Photo Archive

When in car-carrying mode, vehicles would be elevated to cabin level with a scissors-type lift and loaded through the front door, while passengers would sit at the back of the plane, just as they would in a conventional airliner.

The Carvair was developed primarily for cross-Channel routes linking the UK to the European mainland. In its apogee, Channel Air Bridge, another firm in Freddie Laker's aeronautical empire, operated 24 daily roundtrip flights from Southend airport, near London, to Calais (France), Ostend (Belgium) and Rotterdam (The Netherlands).

Eventually the network would stretch much further into continental Europe, with planes heading to Strasbourg on the French-German border and the Swiss cities of Geneva and Basel.

 

In later years, as interest in car ferries dwindled, the planes were used to ship cargo.

Richard Vandervord