The days when you and your CAR got on the plane

[Gliderman8]

Came across this article this morning and found it interesting of days gone by.....

Car ferries in the skies: The rise and fall of the Aviation Traders Carvair

This ATL-98 Carvair was actually a heavily modified Douglas DC-4 designed to fulfill a very particular mission in the 1950s: flying both cars and their drivers overseas.

www.cnn.com

 

[anarchy99]

American cars in the aisle and cargo hold... LBCs fit in the overhead

 

[3798j]

And before Aer Lingus Aviation, there was Silver City Airways...

From Wikipedia: On 7 July 1948, a Silver City Bristol Freighter operated the first cross-Channel air ferry service, between Lympne near Folkestone in Kent and Le Touquet on France's northern Côte d'Opale coast, with good road connections from and to London and Paris respectively. The new service, which initially operated on a seasonal charter basis, became a year-round scheduled operation in 1949. In the beginning, there was a flat £32 one-way fare to take a group of four passengers along with their car across the Channel. Once opposition from British European Airways (BEA) to the carriage of passengers travelling without vehicles was overcome, a new fare structure was introduced. For example, a group of four travelling with a small car was charged only £27, while the comparable fare for four people travelling with a large car remained at £32. By the end of 1949, this operation fully utilised five Freighters, which carried 2,700 cars and 10,000 passengers. These figures represented a significant increase over the previous year when only 178 cars and their occupants, as well as some motorcycles and bicycles had been carried until the end of the season in September.

 

[Gliderman8]

When I was a sophomore in college, I shipped my Lambretta scooter from JFK ( in New York) to Tampa FLA on Air Florida (long gone) for $25. What a deal!

 

[HealeyRick]

 

[anarchy99]

137,000 cars ferried In a year by 25 planes... at roughly 25 pounds to 50 pounds a trip... wow

 

[vette]

It only worked for cars being IMPORTED to the US. If it was our cars being exported the planes couldn’t off the ground.

 

[Basil]

When I was a sophomore in college, I shipped my Lambretta scooter from JFK ( in New York) to Tampa FLA on Air Florida (long gone) for $25. What a deal!

That IS a good deal. You couldn't ship an extra bag for $25 these days.

 

[JPSmit]

137,000 cars ferried In a year by 25 planes... at roughly 25 pounds to 50 pounds a trip... wow

Indeed - 32 GBP in 1949 = 1,138 GBP in 2020 = 1564 USD today = 1964 CAD