• Lancashire Aircraft Corporation

One of Britain's foremost post-war charter companies, Lancashire Aircraft Corporation had its origins during Second World War as a specialist engineering company, latterly involved in the repair and overhaul of Bristol Beaufighters. When hostilities ceased, this work dried up and in February 1946 the company found replacement business flying charter and pleasure trips, using several DH Rapides and sundry single-engine types from Blackpool (Stanley Park) and Yeadon aerodrome at Leeds. The Rapides were actually based at Samlesbury airfield near Preston and it was at this location that an engineering subsidiary bearing the same name was formed, together with Yeadon Engineering at Leeds.

Samlesbury Engineering later specialised mainly in coachbuilding and the construction of aircraft wings, but in the mid-1950s was commissioned by Sir Donald Campbell to build his K7 Bluebird hull, in which he captured seven world water-speed records between 1955 and 1964. This had come about through the influence of Sir Wavell Wakefield from the famous family firm that owned the Castrol brand of motor oil products and who also held directorships in both Lancashire Aircraft Corporation and Samlesbury. Another well-known name associated with Lancashire Aircraft Corporation was Eric J Rylands, the company’s chairman and managing director, who would later be linked with a number of other independent airlines, including Skyways.

The airline’s early activities mainly involved charters to the Isle of Man and, following a successful first season, a number of ex-RAF Airspeed Consuls and Percival Proctors were acquired, with which to expand the business. At the same time, a large number of HP Halifax bombers were purchased for civilian conversion, the first of which, G-AIHV, made its initial revenue flight on 16 April 1947 carrying fresh fruit from Italy to London. With four machines in service, a move south to Bovingdon aerodrome in Hertfordshire was made in mid-1947, from where freight charters were flown, hauling fresh fruit and vegetables from the continent and longer distance movements uplifting ship’s heavy machinery to India and the Far East. In September 1947 one of the Halifaxes was converted to passenger configuration and on 12 September departed Liverpool with 20 seamen bound for New York via Prestwick, Iceland and Gander. This charter was on behalf of the US Maritime Board for the repatriation of American merchant seamen and as a result, several more Halifaxes were similarly converted for continuation of this work. Other long-distance flights involved passenger and freight charters to the Middle East for the Iraq Petroleum Co, Johannesburg, Saigon and Sydney, the latter carrying cargo under charter to BOAC.

Nearer to home, a lucrative source of business was a series of movements carrying consignments of cloth to and from European destinations; it was on one of these in December 1947 that Halifax G-AIHY became the first British commercial aircraft to land post-war at Budapest. With the demise of LAMS (London Aero and Motor Services), Britain’s only other major Halifax operator in mid-1948, Lancashire Aircraft Corporation’s work increased, especially to Africa, which had been its former competitor’s main area of influence. At home, the Rapide and Consul fleet, which numbered some 15 aircraft, also remained very active with numerous charter flights and during the summer of 1948, began pleasure flights from London’s main commercial airport at Northolt. Around this time, several BEA associate agreements were concluded for operation of scheduled routes connecting Leeds with the Isle of Man and Blackpool with nearby Southport. Associate company, the West Riding Aviation Centre, based at Leeds, flew some of these services.

From 16 October 1948 Lancashire Aircraft Corporation committed three Halifax aircraft to the Berlin Airlift and immediately began ferrying supplies from Wünstorf. Two weeks later the airline began carrying diesel fuel into the beleaguered city with a specially converted Halifax tanker. During the course of the airlift Lancashire Aircraft Corporation contributed 13 aircraft, which carried out a total of 2,760 sorties, 8,715 flying hours and uplifted 16,413 tons; the second highest total contributed by any civilian operator; though not without penalty, for in March 1949 one aircraft crashed in a landing accident near Schleswigland with the loss of its three crew. Of the 11 aircraft that returned home, six were converted back to freighter configuration, with the remainder on standby or as a source of spares.

The post-airlift period was a time of general depression in the aviation charter market, but Lancashire Aircraft Corporation's Halifaxes were sustained with the award of a contract from cargo agent, LEP Air Services, to transport textiles from Lille and Milan back to the UK. Other useful work involved carrying loads of fresh fruit and vegetables to the UK from Mediterranean countries. By 1950 the summer scheduled network had grown substantially and now took in Penzance, Isle of Man, Blackpool, Carlisle, Leeds, London-Northolt, Manchester, Jersey and Newcastle, where another base had been established with the takeover of Northern Air Charter/Astral Aviation and its scheduled route to the Isle of Man. During summer months appearances at air displays and pleasure flying continued with the Proctor fleet.

During 1951 Lancashire Aircraft Corporation hung on to its Halifax freighters, as the only British operator offering this heavy capacity, which was carrying out more long-haul work on behalf of BOAC to Singapore and Tokyo and for BEAC to Rome, Malta and Athens. But with spares drying up, their days were numbered and replacements were forthcoming via a fleet of 23 Avro Yorks, purchased from BOAC at a cost of £137,000. The first three examples had been converted to passenger configuration by July 1951 and commenced trooping movements almost exclusively for the Air Ministry, primarily on flights to the Canal Zone in Egypt. This business culminated in the formation of a specialised Auxiliary Transport Squadron for the RAF in 1952. Meanwhile the Avro Yorks’ first commercial charters in January 1952 consisted of a consignment of electrical equipment to Sao Paulo and general cargo to Lagos. Later movements included trooping flights to the Caribbean and inclusive tour movements to the continent.

Lancashire Aircraft Corporation always seemed to attract interesting characters to its board and management and in mid-1951 Eric Rylands ceded his chairmanship to David Brown, head of the manufacturing group responsible for the classic Aston Martin marque of sports car. On the operational side, Leeds station manager was Capt. Henry Worrall, who had acted as Cobham’s pre-war survey co-pilot and latterly as a test pilot with Avro. The chief pilot and operations manager was Sqn-Ldr Wallace Lashbrook, who had held a similar post with Scottish Airlines after a distinguished RAF career; while the general manager was Group Capt. W N Cumming, formerly with Imperial Airways, RAF Coastal Command and the Straight Corporation’s training organisation.

In March 1952 Lancashire Aircraft Corporation bought out Skyways for £157,000 and, thereafter, the long-range York fleet was progressively transferred to Skyways together with Samlesbury Engineering. Lancashire Aircraft Corporation itself concentrated its efforts on pleasure flying from Blackpool and domestic scheduled operations, which were now carrying around 15,000 passengers annually. Early in 1953 Lancashire Aircraft Corporation ceased flying from Leeds, having failed to secure management of Yeadon aerodrome from the Ministry of Civil Aviation after they had withdrawn staff and facilities. By way of compensation capacity on remaining routes was enhanced by the acquisition of four Douglas Dakotas mid-1953. These aircraft also found additional work with the movement of ships crews and on a weekly inclusive tour service from Manchester to Tarbes, for Lourdes. The new aircraft proved very successful and helped the company to carry over 21,000 passengers and 133 tons of freight during the year. Passenger boardings continued upwards in 1954 to over 30,000 and in 1955, thrice-weekly inclusive tour flights from Gatwick to Perpignan were begun under contract to travel agent, See Spain. For some time, Lancashire Aircraft Corporation had also been operating coach-air services between Blackpool, Beauvais and Strasbourg and in 1955 Eric Rylands made plans for a similar operation linking London and Paris. The first service took place on 30 September 1955, using two Lancashire Aircraft Corporation Dakotas and subsequently evolved into Skyways Coach-Air.

A year or so later, in December 1956, Lancashire Aircraft Corporation was taken over by the British Aviation Services Group, resulting in the sale of most of the company’s aircraft, which were replaced by two Bristol 170 Wayfarers on routes to the Isle of Man and Jersey. The group also included Dragon Airways, Manx Airlines and Silver City and it was into this latter company’s Northern Division that the Lancashire Aircraft Corporation name disappeared at the end of 1958. It was briefly revived by Samlesbury Engineering after their purchase of the production rights to the Edgar Percival EP-9 agricultural aircraft, which was subsequently renamed as the Lancashire Aircraft Prospector.