British Overseas Airways Corporation

"BOAC" redirects here. For other uses, see Boac.

British Overseas Airways Corporation

IATA BA ICAO BA Callsign SPEEDBIRD
Founded	24 November 1939
Ceased operations	31 March 1974 (merged with British European Airways to form British Airways)
Hubs	London Heathrow Airport
Fleet size	68 (31 March 1972)
Destinations
Headquarters	London Heathrow Airport London Borough of Hillingdon, United Kingdom

BOAC Coat of Arms

The British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) was the British state airline from 1939 until 1946 and the long-haul British state airline from 1946 to 1974. The company started life with a merger between Imperial Airways Ltd. and British Airways Ltd. Following a 1971 Act of Parliament, BOAC was merged in 1974 with British European Airways Corporation (BEA) to form British Airways. BOAC had its head office in the Speedbird House on the grounds of London Heathrow Airport in the London Borough of Hillingdon.

History

BOAC head office

BOAC Short Solent 3 G-AHIN Southampton served the airline's route from the UK down the Nile to Johannesburg between 1948 and 1950

During the 1930s and post-World War II 1940s until November 1950, Imperial Airways and then BOAC operated scheduled flying boat services to colonial possessions in Africa and Asia (until September 1939 they departed from Southampton, then after the war until April 1948 from Poole, and then from Southampton Marine Air Terminal at Berth 50). Aircraft such as the Short Empire and Short S.8 Calcutta flying boats transported their pre-war passengers and mail. After the war, BOAC flew converted Short Sunderlands under the class names of Hythe and Plymouth. Postwar, the airline flew the completely new Short Solent flying boat on their service up the Nile and through East Africa to Johannesburg.

In addition to training pilots in the UK, BOAC operated a tropical training school in Soroti, Uganda.

The breakup

The Civil Aviation Act 1946 led to the de-merger of two divisions of BOAC to form three separate corporations:

• BOAC: for Empire, North American and Far East routes
• British European Airways (BEA): for European and domestic routes
• British South American Airways (BSAA): for South American and Caribbean routes (merged back into BOAC in July 1949)

Early post-war operations

BOAC Avro York freighter operating a scheduled service at Heathrow in 1953

BOAC Comet 1 at London Heathrow in 1953

BOAC Douglas DC-7C taking off from Manchester in April 1958 on a non-stop flight to New York Idlewild (later JFK)

BOAC Britannia 312 landing at Manchester on a transatlantic flight in 1959

BOAC's initial land plane equipment during the years immediately following World War II was based on converted or adapted military aircraft including the Avro Lancastrian, Consolidated Liberator, Handley Page Halton and Avro York. In summer 1948, the unpressurised Yorks were still operating passenger services as far afield as Nairobi (Kenya), Accra (Gold Coast, later Ghana),Delhi and Calcutta (India) and the type continued to operate freight schedules until late 1957.

The pressurised Lockheed Constellation was operated from April 1946, initially on routes to the United States and Canada and from 1949 also to Australia. These were supplemented by the Boeing Stratocruiser for their key transatlantic routes from October 1949, as this type could reliably fly non-stop eastbound from New York City to London Airport (later Heathrow). The Handley Page Hermes and Canadair DC-4M Argonaut joined the BOAC fleet between 1949 and 1950, replacing the last of the non-pressurised types on passenger services.

From late 1956, BOAC received ten Douglas DC-7Cs, enabling the airline to operate non-stop westbound flights from London and Manchester to New York and other North American East Coast destinations, in competition with Pan American World Airways with their DC-7Cs and the Lockheed Super Constellations of Trans World Airlines (TWA).

Introduction of jets

BOAC introduced their Rolls-Royce Conway-powered Boeing 707s in 1960

The Vickers VC10 was developed for BOAC

A BOAC Boeing 747.

In May 1952, BOAC became the first airline to introduce a passenger jet, the de Havilland Comet. All Comet 1 aircraft were grounded in April 1954 after four Comets crashed, the last two being BOAC aircraft. Investigators discovered serious structural cracks caused by metal fatigue due to the repeated pressurisation and depressurisation of the aircraft as they ascended and descended. While rectifying this problem, de Havilland engineers improved the Comet in many ways and improved its range, creating the Series 4. In 1958, BOAC used the new Comets to become the first airline to fly jet passenger services across the Atlantic.

During the 1950s and 1960s, BOAC flew the Bristol Britannia and Comet but these aircraft were not competitive so in October 1956 they ordered 15 Boeing 707s which entered service in 1960. Sir Giles Guthrie, who took charge of BOAC in 1964, preferred the Boeing aircraft for economic reasons, and indeed BOAC began turning a profit in the late 1960s. The preference for US-made aircraft caused a political row in Parliament, however, and the government ordered BOAC to purchase 17 Vickers VC-10 aircraft from a 30-aircraft order which Guthrie had cancelled. However, BOAC initially believed that the VC-10 had somewhat higher operating costs than the 707, largely as a result of BOAC's own demands for the aircraft to have excellent hot and high performance.

BOAC later became the largest Boeing customer outside North America. The next major order of Boeing aircraft was for 11 747-100s. BOAC received its first 747 on 22 April 1970 but due to strike action by the British Air Line Pilots' Association the aircraft did not enter commercial service for almost a year, on 14 April 1971.

In 1962, BOAC and Cunard formed BOAC-Cunard Ltd to operate scheduled services to North America, the Caribbean and South America. BOAC provided 70% of the new company's capital and eight Boeing 707s. The independent Cunard Eagle Airways, of which Cunard held a 60% shareholding, provided two more 707s. BOAC-Cunard leased any spare capacity to BOAC which could use it to supplement the main BOAC fleet at peak demand and in a reciprocal arrangement BOAC would provide capacity to BOAC-Cunard on some operations when it had a shortfall. The effect was to remove competition on western routes. The operation was dissolved in 1966.

Dissolution

A Boeing 747-100 in BOAC-British Airways crossover livery.

On 1 September 1972, the British Airways Board was formed, a holding board that controlled BOAC and BEA. On 31 March 1974, both the BOAC and BEA were dissolved and their operations merged to form British Airways.

BOAC would have become one of the first operators of the Concorde had it not merged to become British Airways. BA's Concordes carried registrations of G-BOAA to G-BOAG. The first Concorde delivered to British Airways was actually registered G-BOAC.

Aircraft operated

BOAC Boeing Stratocruiser G-AKGJ "RMA Cambria" at Manchester in June 1954 en route to New York

London Heathrow Airport in 1965. Nearest the camera are two BOAC aircraft - a Vickers VC10 (with the high tail) and a Boeing 707.

• Airspeed Consul (1949)
• Airspeed Oxford (1948)
• Armstrong Whitworth A.W.38 Whitley 5 (1942)
• Armstrong Whitworth Ensign (1939)
• Avro Lancaster (1944)
• Avro Lancastrian (1945)
• Avro Tudor 1 (1946)
• Avro York (1944)
• Bristol Britannia (1955)
• Boeing 314A (1941)
• Boeing 377 Stratocruiser (1949)
• Boeing 707 (1960)
• Boeing 747 (1969)
• Canadair C-4 Argonaut (1949)
• Consolidated Model 28 Catalina (1940)
• Concorde (test flown during the latter years of BOAC, before being passed on to British Airways for passenger services.)
• Consolidated Model 32 Liberator (1941)
• Curtis Wright CW-20 (1941)
• de Havilland DH.91 Albatross (1940)
• de Havilland DH.95 Flamingo (1940)
• de Havilland Mosquito (1943)
• de Havilland DH.104 Dove (1946)
• de Havilland Comet (1951)
• Douglas DC-3 (1940)
• Douglas DC-7C (1956)
• Focke-Wulf Fw 200B Condor (1940)
• Handley Page Halifax (1946)
• Handley Page Halton (1946)
• Handley Page Hermes (1949)
• Lockheed Constellation (1946)
• Lockheed Hudson (1941)
• Lockheed Lodestar (1941)
• Short Empire (1936)
• Short Sunderland (1942)
• Short S.26 (1939)
• Short Empire (1938)
• Short Sandringham (1947)
• Short Solent (1946)
• Vickers VC10 (1964)
• Vickers Warwick (1942)

Fleet

BOAC fleet in 1970

Aircraft	Total	Orders	Notes
BAC/Sud Concorde	0	0	Eight on option
Boeing SST	0	0	Six on option
Boeing 707-300	6	4
Boeing 707-400	18	0
Boeing 747-100	3	12
BAC VC10	11	0
BAC Super VC10	17	0
Total	52	16

Incidents

• On 23 May 1940, Armstrong Whitworth Ensign G-ADTA Euryalus crash-landed at RAF Lympne and was damaged. The aircraft was one of six that escaped after a Luftwaffe raid on Merville Airfield, France. The intended destination was Croydon. Approaching the English coast, first she lost her port inner engine and the pilot set course for RAF Hawkinge. A short time later her starboard inner engine also had to be shut down. The pilot changed course for Lympne. On landing, the starboard undercarriage was not fully down, causing the wing to scrape the ground and the aircraft to go through a fence as no braking was attempted. Euryalus was flown to RAF Hamble in June, but it was decided to cannibalise her to repair G-ADSU Euterpe which had been damaged in an accident at Bonnington on 15 December 1939. Euryalus was officially written off on 15 November 1941 and scrapped in September 1942.
• A Consolidated Liberator C I, registered G-AGDR, was shot down by a Royal Air Force Supermarine Spitfire in error over the English Channel near Plymouth, England on 15 February 1943. All five crew and four passengers (including Townsend Griffiss) were killed.
• On 1 June 1943 a Douglas DC-3 registered G-AGBB on Flight 777 was shot down over the Bay of Biscay by German Junkers Ju 88s. All seventeen crew and passengers were killed, including actor Leslie Howard. There has been widespread speculation that the downing was an attempt to kill British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
• 28 July 1943 A Short Sunderland, registered G-AGES, crashed into a hill in Dingle Peninsula near the village of Brandon in the Republic of Ireland on a flight from Lisbon to Foynes. The crash killed 10 passengers and crew out of 25 on board.
• 17 December 1943 A Lockheed Lodestar, registered G-AGDE, crashed into the sea off Leuchars, Scotland on a flight from RAF Leuchars to Stockholm-Bromma Airport. The accident killed all 10 passengers and crew on board the flight.
• 11 January 1947, Douglas C-47A G-AGJX crashed at Stowting, Kent whilst on an international scheduled flight from Heathrow to West Africa via Bordeaux. A number of attempts were made to divert in poor weather. The aircraft crashed whilst attempting to land at Lympne. Eight people were killed and eight injured of the five crew and 11 passengers.
• 2 May 1953 A de Havilland Comet I registered G-ALYV crashed near Calcutta, India after a structural failure of the airframe, when the flight took off from Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport on a flight to Delhi. The crash killed all 43 passengers and crew on board the Comet aircraft.
• 10 January 1954 - Flight 781, a de Havilland Comet I registered G-ALYP ("Yoke-Peter"), took off from Ciampino Airport in Rome, Italy en route to Heathrow Airport in London, England when it suffered an explosive decompression at altitude and crashed into the Mediterranean Sea, killing everyone on board.
• On 13 March 1954 a Lockheed Constellation, registered G-ALAM, crashed landed at Kallang Airport after a flight from Jakarta. Killing 33 people out of 40 passengers and crew on board.
• 8 April 1954 - de Havilland Comet I, registered G-ALYY ("Yoke-Yoke"), was operating as South African Airways Flight 201 when it crashed into the Mediterranean near Naples, Italy.
• Early on Christmas Day 25 December 1954, at 0330 hours, a British Overseas Airways Corporation Boeing 377 Stratocruiser crashed on landing at Prestwick, killing 28 of the 36 passengers and crew onboard. The aircraft had been en route from London to New York City, when, on approach to Prestwick, it entered a steep descent before levelling-out too late and too severely, hitting the ground short of the runway. A number of factors have been attributed to the cause of the crash, including pilot fatigue (the captain was well over his duty limit due to the aircraft being delayed), the landing lights at Prestwick being out of action due to repair and the First Officer either not hearing a command from the Captain for landing lights (which may have helped judge the low cloud base) or mistakenly hitting the flaps, causing the aircraft to stall.
• A Canadair Argonaut registration G-ALHL crashed on its fourth attempt to land at Tripoli International Airport after a flight from London and Rome on the 21 September 1955. The accident killed 15 passengers and crew out of 47 people on board.
• On 24 June 1956 Canadair Argonaut registration G-ALHE crashed after taking off from Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport on a flight to Tripoli International Airport. The crash killed 32 passengers and crew out of 45 people on board.
• A Bristol Britannia 312 G-AOVD crashed during a test flight near Winkton England on the morning of 24 December 1958.
• On 5 March 1966 Flight 911 operated by a Boeing 707 registered G-APFE, crashed on Mount Fuji after experiencing clear air turbulence. All 124 on board died.
• On 9 April 1968 Flight 712 crashed after a Rolls-Royce Conway engine exploded and broke-off the wing of a Boeing 707 (G-ARWE) following take-off from London Heathrow Airport and attempting an emergency landing at Heathrow and caught fire. A stewardess and four passengers were killed and 38 other passengers were injured. The stewardess, Barbara Jane Harrison, was awarded a posthumous George Cross for her part in helping passengers escape.
• Flight 775 became the first British plane to be hijacked on 9 September 1970 as part of the Dawson's Field hijackings.
• On 23 July 1971, BOAC Flight 045, from London to Khartoum, was forced by military jets to landing at Benghazi at 3.30am. New Sudanese President Babiker El Nur, instated a week previously in a political coup, was instructed to leave the aircraft, otherwise the fighter planes would bomb it. President Babiker El Nur quickly agreed to leave in order to save the lives of the other passengers. He was quickly taken off the aircraft along with his companion, Major Farouk Osman Hamadullah, to be held at gunpoint. Despite the best efforts to save the President and his staff-member, both men were ultimately executed.
• On 3 August 1971, BOAC Flight 600 from Montreal to London was diverted to Denver, Colorado due to a bomb hoax inspired by a TV film Doomsday Flight. The plane travelled 3,200 miles out of its way to land in Denver. The supposed bomb was thought to be triggered by flying below 5,000 feet. Denver's airport was above 5,000 feet.

See also

• Miles Thomas, Chairman of BOAC at the time of the 1950's Comet crashes.

Popular culture

• Evolutions of the BOAC logo inherited from Imperial Airways, the Speedbird, continue to be used as the logo for British Airways, and continues to be used as BA's call sign. A recent commercial summarizing the history of British Airways shows a BOAC VC10 aircraft.
• The Beatles song "Back in the U.S.S.R." (released in 1968 on the White Album) begins with the line "Flew in from Miami Beach BOAC".
• Bobby Bloom's song "Montego Bay" in its first line refers to a jetliner as a "BOAC", pronouncing it as an acronym rather than as an initialism, which was more usual.
• The acronym/title "Better on a Camel" was a popular nickname for BOAC

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Jackson, A.J. (1990). Avro Aircraft since 1908. Putnam Aeronautical Books. ISBN 0-85177-834-8. 
• Scholefield, R.A. (1998). Manchester Airport. Sutton Publishing. ISBN 0-7509-1954-X. 

External links

• British Airways Archive and Museum Collection
• BOAC Junior Jet Club Information
• Some BOAC timetables-- where they flew, how long it took, etc