BWIA St. Kitts to Trinidad

[bhk]

Hey Mon!

Did you know that as far back as 1949 British West Indian Airways (a subsidiary of BOAC) were operating a service between St. Kitts and Trinidad?

Yep....and it was with the Short Sealand.

And would you believe that no such animal exists for FSim?

Bummer!
I was going to create a flight-plan until I discovered that the Sealand has never been modelled for Flight Simulator.

It looks a lot like the Grumman Goose except it has in-line engines, so if anyone out there is interested in creating it........

Bruce

[leylandspurr]

Hi Bruce,
What about the Grumman Widgeon by Joe Binka (it's at AVSIM)? The inline-engined one, not the radial, not sure how many paints there are but I use the RN Gosling version which looks nice. One of the 'civvy' paints would probably pass muster if you squint at it through a haze of XXXX! If you find a 'willing repainter' please let Froggy or myself know as we are looking for someone of that ilk ourselves.
Leyland

[bhk]

Thanks, Leyland.
It never occurred to me to use the Widgeon.
I've done the basic flight plan a la 1949, where two of the ten stops (Dominica and St. Vincent) were still using the sea-alighting areas; the others were all land-strips.
I'll package it after doing a bit of research for the supporting docs.

Thanks again.

Bruce

[bhk]

Well, it's amazing what a little web research can dig up which completely upsets the apple cart!

When researching for info on the BWIA operation in the Caribbean I came across this piece of information which renders completely null and totally void the assumption, based on that Short advertisement, that BWIA operated the Sealand:-

From AJ Jacksons British Civil Aircraft 1919-1972

'Britians 1st(and last) post war amphibian carried up to 7 passengers and 2 crew on the power of 2 Gipsy Queen 70 engines'. Amoungst the information.. was ordered by BWIA but after trials at St Vincent was found unsuitable for open sea use and their order was cancelled. Had extensive sales tours of North and South America and Europe but sales were dissapointing.
Production...
G-AIVX first flight 22/1/48 Shorts demonstrator scraped Belfast 4/55
G-AKLM crashed while on sales tour in Norway 15/10/49
G-AKLN TO LN-SUF 6/52
G-AKLO to Shell as VR-SDS 10/52
G-AKLP to Shell as VR-UDV 9/54
G-AKLR to JAT as YU-CFJ 9/51 for Dalmation coast services later to Yougoslav air force, preserved Blegrade
G-AKLS to YU-CFK
G-AKLT to PK-CMA Christian Missionaries 1/51
G-AKLU to LN-SUH 5/51 undercarriage removed
G-AKLV to AP-AFM 6/52 returned to Shorts 10/57 scraped 58
G-AKLW to SU-AHY 9/51, to Saudia Arabia and later Belfast
G-AKLX TO East Bengal Transport Comission AP-AGB 12/52
G-AKLY to AP-AGC 12/52
G-AKLZ to Indian Navy INS101 1/53
G-AKMA to Indian Navy INS102 1/53

Indian Navy INS103-110 not british registered
also exported directly
JZ-PTA replaced G-AKLT with Christian Missionaries in Indonesia
YV-P-AEG last production for Shell.

Thanks very much for this info. It answers all my questions.
Corrected Sealand Deliveries:

Airlines
- Norway (2 - Vestlandske Luftfartselkap)
- Pakistan (East) (3 - East Bengal Transport Commission)
- Yugoslavia (2 - Jugoslovenski Aerotransport)

Corporate/Private
- Brunei (1 - Shell)
- Dutch East Indies/Indonesia (2 - Christian Missionaries)
- Egypt (1 - private/exec transport)
- Singapore (1 - Shell)
- Venezuela (1 - Shell)

Military
- India (10 - Indian Navy)

The only problem I have now is determining what they flew in 1949, because in 1947 they operated Vickers Vikings and in 1955 they had Vickers Viscounts....but I can't find out what they had in between!

I suppose that I can always set it in 1947.

Bruce

[bhk]

This will be published over the weekend and will encourage punters to download Rick Piper's Vickers Viking.
Set in 1947 and the route is southward, from St. Kitts to Trinidad.

Boy...this would be a wonderful experience in real life; that chain of islands is fabulous.

Bruce