Miscellanies

The people, companies and places that played their part in the story of Viscount Stephen Piercey.

British Air Ferries

The company was founded in 1946 as Silver City Airways and became one of the longest-surviving independent airlines in the UK. It began by operating three Avro Lancastrians, the civil version of the Lancaster Mk 3 heavy bomber, from its base at Langley Airfield. It moved to Blackbushe in 1947, and in 1948 took part in the Berlin Airlift.

In 1962 it became British United Air Ferries, pioneering car-ferry services across the Channel and operating mainly from Southend Airport, where its headquarters were. In 1967 it shortened its name to British Air Ferries (BAF) and enjoyed tremendous popularity with the UK flying public.

In 1993 it became British World Airlines and adopted a new logo, which led some wits to christen it, rather unkindly, "British Warthog Airlines". Sadly, like many other aviation companies, it could not survive the aftermath of 11 September 2001, and at the end of that year this historic company went into receivership.

It must be recorded that without the generosity and huge support of BAF, the preservation of Viscount Stephen Piercey would not have been possible.

National Rescue

The company was founded as Cambridge Coachworks on Cambridge Road, Kingston, Surrey, in 1971. The large coachworks needed its own full-time recovery service, so when Andy Lambert joined in 1974, the National Rescue division was formed. During his tenure, the company expanded, opening depots in Surrey, the Midlands and the West Country.

In 1984, ready for the opening of the new M25 motorway, the company moved its headquarters to the ‘Control Tower’ and, more recently, to Chessington. Not long after moving to Brooklands, Mike Goodall of Brooklands Museum visited and ‘wondered’ whether National Rescue could collect a few “small things” for the museum.

It started with a weighbridge scale controller from Chertsy, but over the years the requests grew larger and further. These soon included cars, airfield plant, the odd Barnes Wallis bomb plus moving aircraft around the site. The first of many aircraft recoveries was a twin-engined Varsity from Cambridgeshire, which arrived in 1988—a year before VSP.

G-APIM remains the largest road move the company ever undertook, and since it left heavy recovery in the new millennium, that record will never be beaten. Fortunately, some of its old vehicles, now in private hands, remain at Brooklands, where they move aircraft, aircraft components, bombs and plant around the museum site.

Brooklands Museum

In 1984 British Aerospace sold 40 acres of the Brooklands site to Gallaher Ltd, and 30 acres were leased by Elmbridge Council to form a museum. In 1987 the Brooklands Museum Trust was launched, with Sir Peter Masefield as chairman and Morag Barton as museum director. A period of restoration followed, along with the acquisition of many major and minor exhibits.

In April 1989 HRH Prince Michael of Kent became Royal Patron, and the museum formally opened to the public in 1991. In 2004 the biggest project the museum had yet seen began, eventually bringing a number of new buildings and the refurbishment and relocation of the famous Wellington Hangar. In 2010 the freehold of the site was gifted to the museum by Japan Tobacco International, which had bought Gallaher Ltd, and in 2011 the London Bus Museum opened on the site.

The museum is open all year round, apart from a few days at Christmas. You can find out more at brooklandsmuseum.com.

The Friends of Viscount Stephen Piercey

The group was started in 1990 by Tom Singfield, Roger Hargreaves and Andy Lambert to promote a flight celebrating the 40th anniversary of the world's first commercial passenger service by a turbine-powered airliner. It was the first of many trips the group organised to raise funds for Viscount Stephen Piercey.

The group still raises funds for the aircraft, although sadly its members are dwindling with age.

That second gathering, in 2008, celebrated 50 years since Ray flew G-APIM's first commercial flight, from London Heathrow to Barcelona, on 26 July 1958. Mick Bates, another true legend, had dismantled the aircraft at Southend and then reassembled it at Brooklands.

G-AOYN, VSP's sister ship

No website about Viscount Stephen Piercey would be complete without her sister aircraft, G-AOYN. Many of the Friends' fundraising flights were made in "YN", and over the years we all became attached to the old lady.

YN first flew at Weybridge on 6 March 1958, some three months before "IM", and was named Sir Isaac Newton. For the next twenty years she worked for BEA, Cambrian Airways and finally BA. In early 1981 she was bought by BAF and renamed Diana, a name she kept until 1985. From 1985 until 1993 she was in turn Viscount Rotterdam, City of Dublin and finally Viscount Jersey.

On 18 April 1993 she flew the Friends of Viscount Stephen Piercey to Duxford, where, at a special ceremony beside the world's oldest surviving Viscount, G-ALWF, Stephen's father Ray renamed her The Spirit of Brooklands.

In late 1994 she went on contract to Parcelforce International and was repainted in their colours, finally losing her famous registration when she was re-registered as G-OPAS. Her last flight came a few years later, when she returned to Southend on 21 June 1996. The following year she was sadly broken up and scrapped, but her nose section was saved by the Duxford Aviation Society and is now on display at Bournemouth Aviation Museum.

Carry on to About Viscounts