Aviation History and Nostalgia Whether working in aviation, retired, wannabee or just plain fascinated this forum welcomes all with a love of flight.

BAC 1-11 Holiday Jets

Old 30th May 2021, 19:11
  #1 (permalink)  
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Dorset UK
Age: 70
Posts: 1,886
Likes: 0
Received 14 Likes on 11 Posts
BAC 1-11 Holiday Jets

We have threads for the Boeing 727 and 737 so how about the BAC 1-11. There were lots of operators in the '70s and '80s.
I'll start with those I remember:-
Dan Air,
British United / BCAL
Caledonian / BCAL
Channel Airways
BIA
Airways Cymru
Autair / Courtline
Monarch
Laker
Bavaria
Pan International
Hapag Lloyd
Tarom
Air UK
Birmingham Executive / Brymon (not sure if they did holiday flights)
BAF / British World
British Eagle
I'm sure others will come up with more.
dixi188 is offline  
Old 30th May 2021, 20:12
  #2 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: South East
Posts: 154
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
British Island Airways
British Airways - definitely used to do weekend Med charters from MAN with the 1-11s in the 80s. Flew on one.
Downwind_Left is offline  
Old 30th May 2021, 20:36
  #3 (permalink)  
TCU
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: On BA58/59
Posts: 313
Received 3 Likes on 2 Posts
One summer season wonder (1982), Air Manchester. Operated a single BAC1-11 - 416, G-SURE
TCU is offline  
Old 30th May 2021, 20:51
  #4 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: UK
Posts: 285
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Here's a few additional UK airlines...

Mediterranean Express - Luton based, didn't last too long, and only got one aircraft operational - had hoped to fly from Berlin in 1988 , but didn't last long enough to get started
Air Manchester - barely operated a handful of flights and the aircraft was handed over to BAF
London European / Ryanair Europe - Luton based, operated five 1-11s at one point.

There are plenty more operators out there...

TCU... you beat me to it for Air Manchester! Think this was the first 1-11 that BAF operated?
jetstream7 is offline  
Old 30th May 2021, 21:04
  #5 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: LEEDS
Posts: 1,257
Received 4 Likes on 4 Posts
I seem to have started something with this holiday jet business. Anyways...

Cambrian.

Adria Airways took damp leases on a number of BAC and Rombac 1-11s during 1986 and 1987. I think they were supplied by Tarom and flown by their pilots, with Adria's own cabin crew. I rode on YU-ANS in 1987.

British Midland began the 1970s with (three ?) 1-11 500s but I admittedly don't know if these were ever used on holiday jollies. Court Line used at least one of them for a summer season.

Last edited by Mooncrest; 30th May 2021 at 21:46.
Mooncrest is online now  
Old 30th May 2021, 21:25
  #6 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Dublin
Posts: 840
Likes: 0
Received 3 Likes on 2 Posts
Aer Lingus operated a number of 1-11s up to the early 1990's.

I recall flying on 1-11s on a holiday to Reus, Spain in '83. The retun leg had to hop the Pyrenees and land in Lourdes as we couldn't take on enough fuel to make the non-stop return to Dublin (either that or there was no Duty Free in Reus at the time as I recall some fo the crew left during refulling and returned with carry on!).

JAS
Just a spotter is offline  
Old 30th May 2021, 22:42
  #7 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Manchester
Posts: 92
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Flew with Court Line a few times. Great colour schemes.
Peter G-W is online now  
Old 31st May 2021, 01:21
  #8 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Rennes
Posts: 177
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Phoenix Airlines, a now-defunct Swiss operator, had One-Elevens on holiday charter work (mainly shuttling German tourists to the Mediterranean) in the early 1970s, until the oil crisis of 1973 finished it off. I believe that Lauda of Austria did likewise in the mid-1980s.
Blind Squirrel is offline  
Old 31st May 2021, 07:38
  #9 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: UK
Posts: 3,022
Received 197 Likes on 108 Posts
Originally Posted by Mooncrest
I seem to have started something with this holiday jet business. Anyways...

Cambrian.

Adria Airways took damp leases on a number of BAC and Rombac 1-11s during 1986 and 1987. I think they were supplied by Tarom and flown by their pilots, with Adria's own cabin crew. I rode on YU-ANS in 1987.

British Midland began the 1970s with (three ?) 1-11 500s but I admittedly don't know if these were ever used on holiday jollies. Court Line used at least one of them for a summer season.
Midland operated their three 1-11s mostly on ITs unless my memory is playing tricks on me.

They may have been the first brand new a/c that they ever acquired. rog747 will be able to verify that if correct.
ATNotts is offline  
Old 31st May 2021, 07:51
  #10 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: South East.
Posts: 874
Received 9 Likes on 6 Posts
Originally Posted by ATNotts
Midland operated their three 1-11s mostly on ITs unless my memory is playing tricks on me.

They may have been the first brand new a/c that they ever acquired. rog747 will be able to verify that if correct.


...And , of course, the borrowed Air Cymru in the 90s.



Never a match for the DC9s though !
Sleeve Wing is offline  
Old 31st May 2021, 07:53
  #11 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: britain
Posts: 678
Received 7 Likes on 7 Posts
Originally Posted by ATNotts
Midland operated their three 1-11s mostly on ITs unless my memory is playing tricks on me.

They may have been the first brand new a/c that they ever acquired. rog747 will be able to verify that if correct.
I can verify that
bean is offline  
Old 31st May 2021, 08:42
  #12 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: In a Bar
Posts: 242
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
BA Manchester, Super 1-11 division did IT's, very profitably, at weekends, much to Head Office's disgust. They operated some from Blackpool, and even made money from the positioning flights by selling day trips to Blackpool!
Jn14:6 is offline  
Old 31st May 2021, 09:42
  #13 (permalink)  
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Dorset UK
Age: 70
Posts: 1,886
Likes: 0
Received 14 Likes on 11 Posts
Cyprus Airways and Germanair are two more operators.
dixi188 is offline  
Old 31st May 2021, 09:53
  #14 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Dorset,UK
Posts: 471
Received 8 Likes on 4 Posts
Sultan of Oman Air Force had a fleet of 3 BAC 1-11, 485GD doing the Seeb - Hurn route fairly regulary in both freight & passenger fits.
Sometimes in freight/passenger combo.
Compass Call is offline  
Old 31st May 2021, 11:03
  #15 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: 4DME
Posts: 2,908
Likes: 0
Received 12 Likes on 10 Posts
I believe there was some sort of water system for the engines which might have been needed to help reach the Balearic's definitely Teesside Ibiza. Sure someone will know.
N707ZS is offline  
Old 31st May 2021, 12:17
  #16 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: UK
Age: 66
Posts: 806
Received 24 Likes on 15 Posts
LOL Loving these trips down memory lane -

The BAC 1-11 proved very popular in the late 1960's and 70's with Holiday airlines mainly in the UK and Germany,
and the type was ordered new by - British Eagle/ Autair/ Court Line/ Channel AW/ Laker AW/ BUA/ BMA/ Caledonian AW/ Bavaria Flug/ Germanair/ Paninternational/ and Phoenix.

Cambrian AW joined the list in 1970 when they obtained 4 of the Autair -400 fleet.
Regulars on IT flights from CWL BRS LPL LGW and LHR replacing the Viscounts that were previously used.

BMA definitely bought the 3 1-11 523's new in 1970 to use on the IT holiday market but got their fingers burnt, so they leased 2 to Court Line,
and then sold/swapped all 3 for HP Heralds from Brazil by 1974.
These 1-11's were the first new planes that BMA ever got, but BMA had cancelled an earlier order with BAC for the -300 series.


1-11 Trivia -

Dan Air picked up their first 1-11's for Lunn Poly's urgent need to fly their holiday charters and opened a new DA LTN base in summer 1969 after British Eagle's collapse.
DA wanted LHR but were not allowed access to fly charters.
By 1971 DA had 5 of the 300 and 400 type were in the fleet based at LTN, including G-AZED (ex D-ANDY of Bavaria Flug, a write off that had crashed/RTO at Gerona in July 1970)

Horizon Holidays was pivotal in the BUA order for 8 new 109 seat 1-11 501's starting from 1969 to operate their IT's from LGW and MAN.

Caledonian AW ordered three + one option 109 seat Series 509EWs and were delivered in 1969 and the fourth in 1970.
The aircraft operated inclusive tour flights on behalf of Blue-Sky and Global Holidays from Gatwick, Glasgow and Manchester.

In 1972 now known as BCAL, placed their sole and only order for a new 1-11 530 G-AZMF

Channel AW had their own in house Tour Co. Mediterranean Holidays, plus large IT contracts with Lyons and Leroy Tours, flying at first G-AVGP. Their next order for 3 new 1-11 408's were to seat 99 pax with an extra pair of over wing exits added by BAC. Only 2 were delivered, the 3rd G-AWGG went on lease to Bavaria Flug.
In the summer of 1969 one of them, G-AWKJ was leased to BUA fully painted in BUA livery.
In Feb 1972 Channel Airways ceased trading.

Aeroflug was a new airline in Germany in the late 60's.
This company was due to operate three Series 402APs from a Düsseldorf base. Although D- registrations were allocated for the aircraft, the company was a non starter.
One each of these went to TAE Spain and Bavaria Flug

Orientair Ltd to be based at Berlin-Tempelhof and obtained two Series 401AKs from American Airlines for operation on inclusive tour flights from Berlin to the Mediterranean. The first aircraft G-AZMI was fully painted in Orientair colours and ready for delivery at Hurn 1972 but the company failed to start operations and the aircraft NTU. The second aircraft is not known.

BAC 1-11 twilight

Eventually the need for more capacity and range for Tour Company's to get to the more distant holiday airports of LPA/TCI and RHO/HER etc. was to prove the 1-11's Achilles heel, as even CFU and PMO was a struggle on a hot day with a full load.
As soon as the 737ADV appeared later in 1971 then many charter airlines switched to buy these, or fly 727-100's (Condor, Transair Sweden, Dan Air, and Hapag Lloyd)

Caledonian AW first tied up with Global and Blue Sky Holidays (GUS great universal stores)
BUA (then to become BCAL) had the big Horizon, 4S and Wings IT contracts - but when Court Line bought Horizon and 4S in 1973 they cancelled the summer 1974 BCAL flying contracts at a huge cost to Court Line in penalties.
Court Line then flew for Horizon from LGW, seeing the (slightly downmarket) Clarkson's C changed on the tails to just a large C.

Laker AW flew for Lord Bros and Arrowsmith (MAN and LPL)

I guess BIA was the last bastion in the UK for 1-11 IT flying was until 1991, with 8 in their main fleet.
BIA leased in extra 1-11's from Tarom and BAC during busy summers.

Air Manchester flying for in house Sure Ways Travel was set up in 1982 to fly 3 1-11 300/400.
3 1-11's were painted G-SURE G-BMAN G-BKAU but only 1 flew that 1982 season, and the airline folded.

I have not included much on EAAC, nor BAF/British World here, save to say that both flew IT's - EAAC for Palmair Bath Travel and BAF/BW for the Travel Club Upminster to Spain, Portugal Jersey and Corsica.

BEA then BA, did night, and weekend IT charters for many years with their 1-11 510's mainly from MAN, BHX and NCL.

AeroAmerica was another TXL Berlin based operator flying German Holidaymakers, and they flew a sole 1-11 401 in 1976.

TAE Trabajos Aereos y Enlaces ordered 2 1-11 402 in 1969, the only 1-11 ever to be registered in Spain.
The 2nd one was NTU.

When Court Line folded most of their 1-11 500 fleet went to Dan Air and Monarch.

Not many incidents thankfully on the holiday 1-11's -

I mentioned the Bavaria Flug crash of D-ANDY at GRO in 1970 which sustained substantial damage in a runway over run accident following a rejected take-off at Gerona Airport.
When the PIC gave instructions for take-off power the co-pilot did not do so correctly. The captain noticed that the airplane was not accelerating as expected and called for full power, but the co-pilot reduced power entirely. The Captain then decided to discontinue the take-off.
Maximum wheel bakes and reverse thrust were applied but the aircraft overran the end of the runway onto a level grassy area, but then ran into an embankment some 6 m high, breaking at aircraft's back. No one was injured out of the 85 persons on board.

Paninternational sadly lost an almost new 1-11 515 in 1971 after take off from HAM to AGP because the de-min water tanks had been filled with Kerosene causing both engines to fail soon after take off. The Crew almost managed to land intact on the nearby Autobahn but the tail hit a flyover. Due to the high sink rate the jet touched down hard.
The left hand main gear collapsed. The crew applied brakes to keep the airplane on the road. It then struck concrete pillars of an overpass, causing the flight deck to separate. The fuselage skidded and broke up, bursting into flames.
The crew was forced to land on the road earlier than they had hoped for and planned. Their intention was to glide over the overpass and land on a longer clear stretch of road beyond the overpass. This turned out to be impossible because during the glide the crew were confronted by electrical power lines in their flight path, with the aircraft refusing to climb, thus forcing the crew to touchdown early and consequently not being able to avoid the overpass pillars.
However, the majority of the 121 passengers and crew survived but 22 were killed including the Captain.
The female first officer of the flight survived the accident. She later died in a Cessna Citation accident on May 31, 1987.

BCAL's 1-11 501 G-AWYS in July 1972 rejected take off at Kerkyra Airport, and overran at low speed into the famous lagoon there. I passenger died during recovery.
A Horizon Holidays charter flight to LGW. The aircraft was temporarily repaired in Corfu by BCAL Engineers, and flown back to the UK.

A Court Line 1-11 was taking off at LTN in 1974 bound for MUC and struck at high speed with it's left wing a light aircraft that had entered the runway, a Piper Aztec killing it's Pilot.
The One-Eleven was being handled by the First Officer from the right hand seat, with the Commander PNF.
During the first part of the take-off run, the Commander was checking the instrument readings, and in consequence did not look out until the aircraft had reached approximately 100 knots. At that moment both pilots in the One-Eleven saw the Aztec entering the runway from the left.
When it became apparent that the Aztec was not going to stop, the Commander of the One-Eleven took over control and fully opened both throttles.
He then steered the aircraft as far as he could to the right and at the same time attempted to lift the port wing over the Aztec but struck the cabin of the aircraft.
Immediately the impact was felt the Commander of the One-Eleven abandoned the take-off and advised the Tower. By use of full reverse thrust and maximum braking the aircraft was brought to a stop in 750 metres. The left wing of the One-Eleven was severely damaged, resulting in a large release of fuel. Nobody aboard the aircraft was hurt and there was no fire.
The Commander then ordered the aircraft to be evacuated because of the risk of fire due to the leakage of fuel from the port wing. The evacuation was delayed when the cabin staff had difficulty in opening the two forward exits in order to deploy the escape slides. Eventually, after using considerable force, the Pilot himself was able to open both doors and the evacuation proceeded normally without injury to passengers or crew.


Last edited by rog747; 31st May 2021 at 15:39.
rog747 is online now  
Old 31st May 2021, 12:38
  #17 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: London UK
Posts: 7,631
Likes: 0
Received 16 Likes on 14 Posts
Originally Posted by Mooncrest
British Midland began the 1970s with (three ?) 1-11 500s but I admittedly don't know if these were ever used on holiday jollies. Court Line used at least one of them for a summer season.
Yes they did, the tour operator was Vistajet, and the aircraft were based at one each of Luton, Birmingham and Manchester. Hope I'm right - have no notes, this had all been going round inside my skull for the last 51 years !

Didn't work out, they then put them on schedules like E Midlands to Glasgow, but that was even less worthwhile, so they were leased out. After some leasing out to Court Line all three were sold to Transbrasil. They all came back to the UK eventually and operated under their original registrations. The end of the IT flights must have been a financial issue, the next year Vistajet was reported working with old Air Spain (ex-Eastern of the USA) DC8s.
WHBM is offline  
Old 31st May 2021, 12:48
  #18 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: UK
Posts: 1,465
Received 3 Likes on 3 Posts
I believe there was some sort of water system for the engines which might have been needed to help reach the Balearic's definitely Teesside Ibiza. Sure someone will know.

Yes, absolutely correct - it was a water injection system which basically allowed uprated thrust settings on take-off. There were barrels and barrels of de-mineralised water all over the network as needed, and the control and labelling of it was pretty tight to make sure that the Paninternational 1971 accident couldn't happen again - the de-min water tanks were accidentally filled with jet fuel which was injected into the engines on take-off, which set off a disastrous chain of events.


I never saw a system anywhere for doing the pumping of the water from barrel to aircraft by anything other than hand-pump and it was an absolute sod of a job. Other 1-11 gotchas included the cargo door coming off its runners and CSDS (drive-shaft) failures on engine start which you could hear from a few miles away.


I can't remember if the BA 1-11-510s had the water injection system (something tells me they didn't but happy to stand corrected!) but the Dan-Air and BIA aircraft definitely did. The Tarom / Adria ROMBAC aircraft also had. The BA -510s also didn't have forward airstairs and I think has been covered elsewhere that they flew around with a lump of concrete in their place for weight & balance. Incredible really.


In latter years, BIA probably took the 1-11 performance towards the boundaries more than most. Gatwick-Athens on a Friday night in a 1-11-500 was always quite interesting, particularly when half the fleet was out doing night Athens flying. There was a fine morning when, for performance reasons, none (including the -400, which was normally OK-ish on this sector) could make it back direct and the whole lot ended up in Ostend for tech-stops in the early hours of Saturday morning where crews were going out of hours due to call-outs from standby, night duty times and all the rest. Ops had worked out that if the First Officer from one 1-11 could quickly get across to another one on a nearby stand, they could swap F/Os and at least get one full crew who had the hours to fly one of the 1-11s on to Gatwick. The plan was fine until the F/O, running across the ramp, tripped over a ground power cable and broke (or at least badly injured, can't remember which!) his ankle so couldn't continue the duty.


It wasn't one of the finest Saturday mornings in BIA Ops with half the fleet stuck in Ostend and a full Saturday charter programme to fulfil.
Flightrider is offline  
Old 31st May 2021, 12:53
  #19 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: UK
Posts: 1,465
Received 3 Likes on 3 Posts
And just to say, on the BCal 1-11 at Corfu, everyone made it off the aircraft safely. After the evacuation, an elderly lady suffered a heart attack and passed away on the same day, so was deemed to have been a fatality from the accident.

YS was repaired and flew on with BCal, BA and then Maersk Air in the UK. It must have been in the early 90s - so nearly 20 years later - that the engineers doing a heavy check on the aircraft were rather baffled to find what looked like a high water mark running around the inside of the holds just under the cabin floor. That's exactly what it was!
Flightrider is offline  
Old 31st May 2021, 12:56
  #20 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: London UK
Posts: 7,631
Likes: 0
Received 16 Likes on 14 Posts
Presumably the water had to be precalculated as required for a given departure, and couldn't be just left in there, otherwise it would freeze.

Did it lead to additional black smoke on departure, as on early US jets ?
WHBM is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service

Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.