• Don Everall (Aviation) Ltd

After acquiring Auster Autocrat G-AHST for personal transport in September 1946, Midlands-based haulage contractor, Don Everall, began operating this aircraft on ad hoc passenger and freight charters from Wolverhampton under the title, Modern Transport. A DH Dragon Rapide was obtained in April 1949, which was used to carry holidaymakers to the Channel Islands and Isle of Man in addition to frequent joyriding. A second Rapide was acquired early in September 1951 with the takeover of Lees-Hill Aviation, a parallel charter company flying from Birmingham’s Elmdon airport. This resulted in a complete reorganisation of the combined business under the title Don Everall (Aviation) Ltd. Now flying two Rapides from both bases, during 1952 almost 1,100 passengers were carried over a flown distance of 7,500 miles.

A move towards scheduled services came in 1953 with the successful application for a network of services radiating from the Midlands to destinations previously served by charter, including London-Northolt in conjunction with BEA and Weston-super-Mare via Cardiff. Proving popular, these flights were expanded in 1953 to take in schedules from Coventry and Leicester. At the end of the following year, with three Rapides operational, passenger uplift had increased to 5,765. For 1955 a summer service linked Birmingham with the Isle of Wight, although this was suspended in 1956 owing to the poor condition of Sandown’s airport. The purchase of a Douglas Dakota in April 1957 opened up new possibilities for the airline and during that summer, the new aircraft flew many inclusive tour charters from Birmingham to Basle, Lyons, Perpignan and Zagreb. A second Dakota was added early in 1959 to expand these operations, additionally from Manchester to the Channel Islands and France, as well as a fortnightly service from Cardiff to Palma.

The advent of larger aircraft had reduced the Rapide fleet to a single machine and the fleet was further depleted in March 1960 with the spectacular, but fortunately non-fatal, crash of Dakota G-ANEG on take-off from Birmingham. This sudden lack of capacity was addressed by the purchase of two former Hunting-Clan Vickers Vikings, the first of which, G-AKBG, entered service on 19 May 1960, on a round-trip charter from Birmingham to Dublin. The sole surviving Dakota was now primarily assigned to Don Everall’s Channel Islands schedules, the Isle of Man services having been dropped with the exception of a twice-weekly Manchester-Ronaldsway freight run.

Planned expansion of the scheduled operations to increase frequency on the Channel Islands run, together with the introduction of new types including the DH Heron, HP Herald and Vickers Viscount and opening of a Birmingham-Newcastle service never reached fruition. On 24 August 1960 Viking G-AMNK crashed off Heraklion, Crete, during a freight charter with the loss of its three crew. Although this aircraft was replaced for the remainder of the summer inclusive tour season with another leased from Maitland Drewery, it did little to enhance the airline’s poor safety record. Indeed, it had already been prosecuted in 1956 following the crash-landing of Rapide G-AGLR while returning to Birmingham on a charter from Paris. Towards the end of November 1960 it was announced that the Don Everall’s airline interests would be merged with Air Safaris and its principal would become a director of the new joint company. Don Everall Aviation still held a lease on the airport at Wolverhampton, where it continued to operate the flying club for another decade until Wolverhampton airport was closed in 1970.