Sexy postcards

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Not really - they're aviation postcards, but that made you look :icon_lol:

Today I went to nearby East Midlands Airport to collect some friends. There is a small aviation shop there - mainly those Corgi model aircraft & a few kits, plus books. I asked the man if he had any postcards of the airport & he said no, but that he had some of aeroplanes... Happy Ralf :d

Yet I did find an old one of East Midlands with some interesting stuff on the concrete. That's the tailend of a Martinair Airbus on the left, as Ferry will realise. The most exciting one is on the far right, however, a high-wing, yellow-nosed thing going away from us - lefty, can you i/d that? Nor do I recognise the red bird on the one next to the Dan Air. Zimbabwe?

The Viscounts are at Aberdeen, flying oil workers to Sumburgh. That carrier, British World, is new to me. Lucky oil workers to travel in such classic style!

Two other classics that lefty will like. The 707 is a 320C.

Anybody else got any nice aviation cards to post here? Have had some fun with similar threads on car sites.

[Ferry_vO]

Nice cards. :)

The aircraft on the right in the first postcard looks like a Short 360 to me.
Next to the Martinair Airbus 310 is a 737-100 or -200 and next to it a BAC 1-11 which is quite obviously fitted with hush kits. Don't know the next one though.

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Well, as mentioned, I think that's a Dan Air 727, but it's the big red bird livery more than the actual aircraft that's worrying me on the other one. Nice one getting the Shorts; might be able to work out the blue & yellow operator...

Please post your own cards everybody! (I have a few more for later).

East Midlands is, of course, Headquarters of British Midland. The airport is right next to Donington Park* and serves 3 quite large, historic places, Nottingham, Leicester and Derby, the county towns for their eponymous shires.

*Which is supposed to be taking over from Silverstone as future site of the British Grand Prix. Personally I much prefer to watch classic car racing there and - like a lot of other British tracks - the motorcycle boys do a lot there.

[Hurricane]

The East Midlands Aeropark is one museum I've been wanting to see for ages but haven't got round to. I always like driving past, with the approach lights on the motorway! Its great fun if the winds going the right way and you time it right for something coming in straight over you.

[Ralf Roggeveen]

I don't usually pass it on the Motorway, though I did so yesterday by mistake! Sure enough, some sort of Airbus came down right above me, but I was busy cursing 'cos I'd taken the wrong exit at the Donington roundabout and was rapidly heading for Birmingham! Eventually managed to turn off & go back after several miles too far to the south. :redf:

Your best bet is to take a holiday on some sun-drenched island with the airport near a beach. There was one Greek island (can't remember which) where a section of road had to be 'closed' like a railway level crossing, when aeroplanes were coming in! Needless to say Greek drivers didn't take much notice, so there were some pretty hairy moments with undercarriages nearly touching car roofs...

Thought the red bird might be a Cambrian (Welsh) DRAGON, but looking at it again, still believe it's probably African.

[lefty]

Sorry, Ralf, just looked at this thread, and can't really make out any birds - in fact I'm still looking for something with a yellow nose! Must be my eyesight getting worse than I thought.

[Ralf Roggeveen]

I've tried to post a magnified version of it, but not sure if it'll be too big... Surely someone can i/d the aircraft with its rather crunkey, almost square tail?

Sorry nobody else has posted any aeroplane cards - someone must have some! Here are the BOAC beauties from my collection. I think they actually illustrate slightly different liveries, so could probably be dated with some accuracy. Although not sent by anyone in my family (I bought them all at an antiques fair), the VC10 is a type that little Ralf travelled on in the '60s (I can also remember going in an Air France Caravelle as late as '73, but, sadly, don't know if I ever flew in a Comet.)

The Comet card is definitely dated to 1963 and I have included its wonderful (perfect!) reverse. Who was Deidre? What was she doing in Kuwait in the early '60s? Everything that she did with the card was spot on, including the BY AIR MAIL sticker and her superbly British understatement about the Comet. (Note that the Kuwaiti franking machine was, obviously, made in England).

Finally there are two maps from the endpapers of a book I keep those cards in. It's called The Seven Skies by John Pudney. It's subtitled A study of BOAC and its forerunners. Quite good for showing how Imperial Airways evolved into BOAC, but written in a slightly turgid style and lacking some of the details that we might hope for. Personally I love old route maps like this because they can be used to reconstruct flights for fs9. It is a signed copy; John Pudney was a fairly well-known aviation writer, including the verse "Johnny", which I seem to remember as:


Do not despair for Johnny-Head-in-the-Air.
He sleeps just as sound as Johnny-Underground...

Make of that what you will :confused:

[lefty]

Ahhh - have flown in all three of these, Britannia, Comet 4, and VC-10, the latter to Jo'burg in 1970. Very boring flight in terms of entertainment, or lack of it !

[lefty]

Gotcha !

I think you will find your mystery aircraft was one of these - the tail looked familiar and a bit of poking around found the livery !

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Genius. Thank you - not African then! :d

[lefty]

No genius, Ralf - just a detective with lots of time !

Still can't make out what the 'bird' is, though - very odd livery altogether.

Wait a minute - I 've just had another look - it's a city gent's suit with a red tie and hankie !

[Ralf Roggeveen]

That actually narrows the picture down to being taken between 1988 and 1990, as it was a somewhat short-lived airline! They only had De Havilland Dashs (five of them).

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Or should that be Dashes?

Four more postcards from my collection - I'm sorry that nobody else seems to have any to post...

Louis Botha Airport, Durban, Natal, South Africa with a 727 showing its rear end to a stylish lady in a yellow minidress.

Another 727, this time from the West German carrier. The photographer evidently liked clouds.

Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 720-024B. You don't often see Amharic on an aeroplane. Must look in Avsim & see if there are any Ethiopian aircraft available...

Olympic 707-320. One of my favourite airlines, I have a few old ones including the DC3 of course.

[lefty]

Sorry, Ralf, I have collected all sorts of things in my time, from beermats to whisky miniatures, and currently, pigs (hence the avatar) but postcards, 'fraid not !