Flying the Channel

If you are taking your classic car to the continent this summer, chances are that you will be going on one of the giant ferries that regularly make the channel crossing.

In the 1950’s when your car was new, the ferries were considerably smaller, taking only forty or fifty cars at a time, in fact right into the early sixties some operators still craned cars on board with ropes slung around the wheels.

A typical fare in 1958 for the Dover Calais crossing was £6 15s for a car up to 12ft 6” long rising to £17 17s for one over 16ft 6”.

The debate about whether to build a channel tunnel or a bridge was still ongoing, but neither idea looked likely to reach fruition in the foreseeable future.

However there was an alternative to the ferry, offered by Silver City, a subsidiary of British Aviation Services (Britavia), who operated a regular air service between Lydd and Le Touquet.

The aircraft used were Bristol 170 Freighters, which powered by two 2000hp Bristol Hercules engines, cruised at 165 mph at 1000 to 1500 ft, making the crossing in only 20 minutes.  

When the service started in July1948, the cost of a one way crossing was £27 for a small car and £32 for a large one. In 1954, specially lengthened MkII 320 Superfreighters, capable of carrying 3 cars and 15 passengers, made lower fares possible, down to only £5 10s for a car up to 12ft long, rising to £20 for an eighteen footer.

Passengers paid £3 each, £1 10s for children.

To put these prices into context, a typical blue collar worker would at this time be earning about £7 a week, and anyone on £10 a week would be considered to be doing quite well for himself.

The service originally operated from Lympne, but by 1953, 15 aircraft were in use and the facility had become too small, so a new purpose built airfield was constructed at Lydd at a cost of half a million pounds.

This became known appropriately as Ferryfield Airport.

In 1955 a Southampton to Deauville service was inaugurated, by which time Silver City had become the largest air freight carriers in the world.

A competing service was started in 1956 by Freddy Laker’s Air Charter company.

Christened “Channel Air Bridge” it operated out of Southend and later extended to many European cities.

Silver City also opened up new routes in 1956 with the “Silver Arrow” passenger service to Brussels and Paris using a Breguet 761 “Deux Ponts” leased from Air France. This service later upgraded to Hermes airliners and flew out of Manston airport.

By 1958, Silver City had 22 aircraft in operation, and one in four cars travelled to the continent by air. The total number carried during it’s 10 years in service, had reached 215,000 cars, 48,000 motorcycles, and 759,000 passengers. At the peak, there were 220 flights in a single day.

To commemorate the services 10th anniversary, the first car carried by Silver City, an Armstrong Siddeley, repeated the journey leaving Ferryfield at 11 am on the 14^th July, 10 years to the minute since the first flight.

Britavia later formed a northern division of Silver City by creating an alliance of northern companies and routes, including Lancashire Aircraft Corporation, Dragon Airways, and Manx Airlines.

In 1960 BUA was formed from the merger of several small airlines including Air Charter, and in 1962 Silver City merged with Air Charters subsidiary Channel Air Bridge, to become British United Air Ferries (BUAF). This was later abbreviated to British Air Ferries (BAF) in 1967.

Eventually the car ferries got better and more efficient, and the Bristol Freighters gradually wore out. As no suitable alternative aircraft existed, the service was eventually phased out, bringing a pioneering era of air transport to a close.  

P.S.

For a first hand account of a trip from London to Paris in an Austin A105, using this service, have a look at www.islandnet.com/~atlantic/lonparis.html