CBFT - Classic British Fuel Truck

[Garry Russell]

BEA also did an extensive refurbishment of the Viking after which they referred to them as Admirals, but like the Dak it is truthfully applied when talking about the modified aircraft...and there was the stripped out Pionair Leopard (freighter), lost the ability to be able to carry pax, so couldn't change it's spots, or so it was said.

I take it you know which as yet unnamed airliner had the BEA class name adopted as the type name??

[DarrenL]

To give a bit of an analogy on the subject I suppose if British Airways suddenly called their Boeing 737s the Falklands class it would't mean that every Boeing 737 is now called the Boeing Falklands. I mean imagine the uproar in Argentina.

[FlyTexas]

That’d go over like a fart in church.

Brian

[Garry Russell]

They would be the Malvinas there

But yeah...personally I prefer to stick to the proper names

I even recently saw a pic of a TCA DC4M-2 North Star labelled as an Argonaut

Another one was the Herald

HP intended to put both piston and TP versions in production so they were called the Herald and the Dart Herald

When they abandoned the piston version they renamed the TP version dropping the Dart to just Herald but the HP publicity guys and the World at large never followed suit

But again, I never call it a Dart Herald

Another one was the Boeing 720, often referred to as a Boeing 707-020 in the early days because the public knew what a 707 was so cobbled onto that and saved having to explain what at 720 was. To the publicity people they were the same, to the operation people there were quite different and to the engineers...nothing much was common.

[DaveB]

CT....

The Vanguard team have been mulling over this shot among themselves and have now come to the conclusion the trailer is also carrying Avgas as a top-up tank for the main bowser. If you look at the rear of the main bowser, there's a large diameter pipe which runs to the trailer Also.. the oil used in the Merlins was very treacle like in consistency which is why it was often packaged in smaller drums or even cans. These could be carried on the fuel bowser though a separate oil bowser was common place

Sri for the earlier statement but on reflection, they are now certain the rear trailer is also carrying fuel

ATB
DaveB

[Garry Russell]

Could be mate

Funny...it is something I've seen so many times, yet never thought about it.

[Chris Trott]

David, I will tend to defer to those guys, but I'm not sure the hose is connected to the trailer as having such a large arc in it is counter productive and if you look closely at the shadow, you can clearly see the a-frame for the tongue but not the hose. However, if it was connected to the truck, I wonder if the connection wasn't for connecting to the dispensing equipment at the front of the truck (under the roll-up doors). I know that the old AvGas truck I saw in Midland was setup with all the delivery equipment (fuel and oil) at the front of the truck so that you got everything from one place.

As for oil, I'm not sure they used different oil in the Merlin than any other engine. I know today they use the same multiweight oil in Merlins that they do in every other high horsepower piston engine (like the R2800 and R2000), so I don't know why they would've used a different oil back then.

[DaveB]

Hi Chris

I'm in agreement with that to a large degree. Having such a large arc of pipe doesn't make a great deal of sense to me either.. I'd have thought short and straight would be the way to go. As far as oil goes.. my only hands on experience is with turbine oil for the Vanguard other than washing and polishing oil off the old Brietling Fighters (Old Flying Machine Company) Harvard/Corsair/Spitfire aircraft. This did have a rather sticky consistency.. it didn't exactly wipe off!
I wish I knew what the fuel capacity of the bowser was but that wouldn't prove anything One would imagine it would be able to carry more than the max fuel for the DC4 (3226imp gals). Too many questions and not enough brain capacity

ATB
DaveB

[DaveB]

Bump..

Found this link showing a Shell truck the same as in the first shot taken at Jersey refuelling a Viscount (there are also some other cracking shots on this site but they're for sale and thus watermarked).. http://www.fotolibra.com/gallery/663612 ... ort-1960s/

I've tried zooming in but the detail gets lost so the end result is inconclusive I'm afraid. I'm tempted to buy the hi-res shot just to confirm where that darned pipe goes

ATB
DaveB

[Garry Russell]

if your get stuck working out where the pipe should go I could offer up a suggestion