Cambrian Airlines

It's not just places which disappear from the map. Companies can also cease to exist for a variety of reasons and it is one such company I'd like to look at today.

While the bikers who visit during the TT will arrive via the ferry, I'm sure some of the crowds will have flown in to Ronaldsway. However, they won't have done so by Cambrian Airlines.

Cambrian Airways was a UK based airline which operated between 1935 and 1974 before being incorporated into British Airways in April of that year. The Isle of Man was one of 16 destinations flown to by the airline. The company used several types of aircraft including the now retired Viscount Vickers 701 which is shown on the card below. These types of craft were last flown commercially in 2008.

The plane on the card above G-AMOO was scrapped long before then.

The website below gives precise information about this particular plane. I won't go into details here other than to say that it was built in Bournemouth in 1953 and sold to Cambrian Airways in 1966 and it remained with them until 1970 when it was withdrawn from service on 19th December that year. It sold for scrap in October the following year and broken up.

The card above is not dated but form the colours we can tell it's from 1969 as this was the year it was painted  in the Cambrian Airways 'BAS - British Air Services' livery.  So, the airline, the aircraft type and the aeroplane all no longer exist. It really is a postcard from a vanished world.

For the full story and for information on other Viscount Vickers planes please see below.

http://www.vickersviscount.net/Index/VickersViscount028History.aspx