In one of the most obscure designs in aviation
history, the Aviation Traders ATL-98 Carvair
has often been likened as a propeller powered
precursor to the Boeing 747.
In reality, the Carvair was a very specific
airframe conversion that was built to exploit
the growing market for car ferry flights across
the English Channel, an operation that was
far quicker than the archaic ferry boats working
between Britain and Europe.
The story of the Carvair begins with aviation
entrepreneur Freddie Laker, who, at the end
of World War II, formed Aviation Traders Ltd
(ATL), a company that specialised in converting
ex-RAF bombers such as the Handley Page Halifax
into commercial freighters.
Created through a mixture of personal funding
and loans from friends and associates, ATL
made its name in 1948, when Laker converted
and supplied ex-BOAC airliners for use in
the Berlin Airlift, the vital mission to supply
the besieged German capital following the
establishment of a blockade by the Soviet
Union.
Following the end of the Berlin Airlift in
1949, Laker changed the name of ATL to Aviation
Traders (Engineering) Ltd – (ATEL), and
expanded the company's works at Southend Airport
in Essex.
Throughout the 1950s, he undertook the role
of a sales agent for three ex-British European
Airways (BEA) Vickers Vikings, which he'd
bought at a depreciated price, refurbished,
and then sold to BOAC for profit.
In 1957, ATL attempted to fill a demand by
airlines to provide turboprop replacements
for the hundreds of Douglas DC-3s in use across
Britain with regional airlines.
While the Vickers Viscount of 1949 had been
a major success as the world's first turboprop,
the design was nearing the end of its production
run, and a slew of new models were starting
to emerge.
ATL responded with the ATL-90 Accountant,
an unusual looking twin-engine turboprop that
could carry 28 passengers and was powered
by Rolls-Royce Dart engines.
The aircraft had a top speed of 295mph, and
a range of 2,070 miles, presenting operational
figures that exceeded many contemporary turboprop
designs, including the Viscount replacement,
the Hawker Siddeley 748, the Handley Page
Dart Herald, the Fokker Friendship, and the
NAMC YS-11.
Sadly, despite being displayed at the 1957
Farnborough Air Show, ATL couldn't match the
scale of its competitors' investments, not
only in design and development, but also in
marketing the airliner to potential customers.
This, combined with an oversaturated market
from five other regional turboprop designs,
meant that the ATL-90 failed to attract any
orders, causing the end of the project and
the scrapping of the sole prototype in February
1960.
It was around 1958 that Laker noticed another
potential market the ATL company could exploit,
the conversion of improved aircraft designs
into cross-channel air ferries.
At the time, cross-channel air ferry flights
were mainly undertaken by the Britsol Type
170 Wayfarer, which had first been introduced
in 1946.
The Type 170 was developed from the Freighter,
a planned air transport that was to be used
during World War II to fly military vehicles
into battle, but was too late to see service
in the conflict.
Come 1958, the Wayfarer was rapdily becoming
obsolete due to its low capacity and sluggish
performance.
While a long-nosed Mark 32 variant had been
built to improve its car carrying potential,
the aircraft could only transport three vehicles
at a time, and these operations were subject
to a very tight margin of profit and loss.
Much of this stemmed from the rigorious levels
of maintenance the aircraft required in order
to continue operating.
Wayfarers were subject to extremely tight
schedules in order to meet the high demand
for cross-channel flights, especially during
the summer, which meant that the repeated
landings and takeoffs took their toll on the
lightweight airframe.
Therefore, to combat the airliner's structural
deterioration, a rolling maintenance plan
had to be implemented by carriers, which was
very expensive.
This, therefore, meant that even if only one
car was to cancel a transit or fail to arrive
on time, the flight would make a substantial
loss.
This was compounded further by the increasing
length of car designs during the 1950s.
Regardless of the Wayfarer's shortcomings,
the market for cross-channel ferry flights
was booming.
At the time, Roll-on/roll-off ferry boats
were still in their infancy for conveying
road vehicles, with most car trips to the
continent requiring them to be lifted into
the cargo hold using a crane.
The sheer profitability of the cross-channel
ferry flight, meant that ATL could almost
guarantee themselves a success if they were
able to develop a replacement for the Wayfarer.
Originally, the concept was to create a car-carrying
variant of the ATL-90, dubbed the ATL-96,
but the collapse of the Accountant project
in 1958, combined with ATL's lack of major
capital to create a bespoke model, meant that
their only recourse was to convert an existing
airliner design.
With the rise of commercial jet airliners
in the late 1950s, including the Boeing 707,
the Douglas DC-8 and the De Havilland Comet,
many of the original post-war medium to long-range
airliners, like the Douglas DC-4, were being
retired en masse, with depreciation seeing
the cost of second-hand units drop to as little
as £50,000 (or £1.2 million in 2020).
As the DC-4 was a much larger aicraft than
the Wayfarer, and with second-hand prices
at an all-time low, ATL chose the airliner
as the basis for their new air ferry design.
The concept for the new air ferry airliner,
dubbed the ATL-98, was originally penned by
Laker himself, who created a cardboard model
which took the DC-4 airframe and replaced
the nose with two hinged doors, while the
cockpit was positioned above.
The fuselage behind would then be able to
accommodate up to five average sized British
cars, with an enclosed section at the rear
for the seating of up to 25 passengers.
The partition between the passenger and cargo
sections was also designed to be flexible,
and could be either enlarged or constrained
depending on the preferences of the carrier,
with movement of the partition wall being
accomplished in around 40 minutes.
Furthermore, conversion of the DC-4s to air
ferry configuration was easy due to there
being no requirement for cabin pressurisation,
as due to the short flight time of cross-channel
services, there was no need to operate at
higher altitudes.
ATL, however, did propose that - based on
the success of the ATL-98 - a pressurised
version of the aircraft could be made available
based on redundant DC-6 and DC-7s equipped
with Rolls-Royce Dart turboprop engines, thus
forming a second-generation of ATL air ferry
aircraft that could be made available from
between 1973 and 1975.
In the end, the ATL-98 was christend the Carvair,
a portmanteau of car-via-air.
In total, 18 ex-airline DC-4s and ex-military
C-54s were bought by ATL for conversion.
The process required removing the forward
fuselage and replacing it with an extension
of eight feet, while the cockpit would be
positioned above in a bulbous hump.
The nose would then be covered by a hinged
cargo door.
Other modifications included more powerful
brakes due to the added weight of both the
airframe and cars, and the tail was enlarged.
Otherwise, the four Pratt & Whitney R-2000-7M2
Twin Wasp 14-cylinder radial engines were
the same as those fitted as new from the factory.
The first prototype, G-ANYB, undertook its
maiden flight from the ATL facility at Southend
Airport on June 21st, 1961, before carrying
out a series of proving flights across Europe
into 1962.
Conversion of DC-4s into Carvairs cost ATL
£80,000 per unit (£1.9m in 2020), and the
aircraft were put on sale for a price of £150,000
(£3.5m in 2020).
Performance wise, the Carvair had a top speed
of 250mph, and could fly over a range of 2,300
miles at a service ceiling of 18,700ft.
In full passenger configuration, the aircraft
could conceivably carry 85 passengers, while
in full cargo configuration it could transport
either five cars or 19,335lbs of cargo.
The launch customers for the Carvair were
Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus, private charter
airline Air Ferry, and the newly formed British
United Air Ferries (BUAF), which was created
through the merger of British air ferry carriers
Channel Air Bridge and Silver City Airways.
Aer Lingus put the Carvair to work on their
cross-channel flights between Ireland, the
British mainland and Europe, while BUAF and
Air Ferry provided frequent car-carrying services
between England, Europe and the Channel Islands.
Of note is a Carvair captured at work in the
1964 movie Goldfinger, as Auric Goldfinger
and his bodyguard Oddjob are having their
Rolls-Royce Phantom III loaded aboard G-ASDC
bound for Switzerland, while being pursued
by MI6 agent James Bond.
Aside from British air ferry services, the
increased cargo capacity of the Carvair meant
it also attracted interest from Ansett Australia,
who supplied ATL with three of their DC-4s
for conversion to Carvair configuration.
Main conversion of the Carvairs was undertaken
at ATL's secondary factory at Stansted Airport,
while only three units - the original prototype,
and airframes 11 and 21 - were converted at Southend.
Come the mid-1960s, though, the concept of
air ferries was starting to fall out of favour,
as the widespread implementation of roll-on/roll-off
car ferries began to be adopted by cross-channel
operators.
With the ability to carry dozens of cars in
a single crossing, with a far more favourable
profit to loss margin, the air ferry service
started to lose significant momentum both
on journeys between England and Europe, as
well as services across the Irish Sea.
The final nail in the coffin of air ferry
flights came following the introduction of
Seaspeed, a high speed hovercraft service
operated jointly by British Rail and French
railway operator SNCF.
Established in 1965, and utilising the Saunders-Roe
SR.N4 passenger hovercraft, each crossing
of the channel could be undertaken in approximately
35 minutes, while carrying up to 254 passengers
and 30 cars.
With an extremely fast alternative now presented,
the air ferry service was doomed to failure,
and on January 1st, 1977, BUAF, now renamed
British Air Ferries, operated the last air
ferry flight, rendering most of the Carvair's
built redundant.
The Carvair project, meanwhile, had ended
in 1968, with a total of 21 units converted,
18 purchased by ATL themselves, and three
provided by Ansett.
Unit 21, the last Carvair, VH-INM, left the
Southend factory on July 12th, 1968.
With the decline of air ferry services, plans
for a second generation of Carvairs was dropped,
and Aviation Traders would never convert another
model.
As for Carvair's themselves, most of these
units were used primarily in a cargo role
even before the end of air ferry operations,
with their increased size and low operating
costs making them very popular across the
globe.
In the United States, Carvair's were flown
by Hawaii Pacific Air on inter-island freight
services, while other second-hand units saw
work in South Africa, New Zealand, Italy,
Canada, the Dominican Republic and France.
Ansett Australia would operate Carvair's between
1965 and 1974, before selling them on to other
carriers in southeast Asia.
In terms of accidents, the Carvair was involved
in eight incidents, all of which resulted
in hull losses and the cumulative deaths of
24 people.
The first loss of a Carvair was on December
28th, 1962, when Carvair G-ARSF, on a ferry
flight from Southend to Rotterdam, struck
a dyke short of the runway while landing after
losing too much speed on approach, causing
the plane to flip over and crash on its roof,
killing the captain while injuring the co-pilot,
flight engineer and stewardess.
The worst crash of a Carvair came on March
8th, 1967, when Carvair F-BMHU, while on a
cargo flight from France to Australia, suffered
a failure in the number 2 engine and had to
be diverted to Karachi in Pakistan.
After the engine had been repaired, the Carvair
resumed its flight, but shortly after departure
the number 2 engine once again failed, and
while attempting to return to the airport,
the plane was forced down onto the National
Highway short of the field, striking a railway
bridge, lorries and other vehicles.
In the crash, four of the six aboard were
killed, together with seven on the ground.
Another notable incident came on June 23rd,
1969, when Carvair HI-168, after departing
from Miami International Airport en route
to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic,
suffered a number 2 engine failure shortly
after takeoff.
While attempting to land back at Miami, the
aircraft rapidly lost altitude and crashed
into a residential area short of the runway,
killing all four aboard, and six on the ground.
The final accident involving the ATL Carvair
occured on May 30th, 2007, when Carvair N898AT,
working a flight from Fairbanks to Nixon Fork
Mine near McGrath, Alaska, was caught by a
downdraft on short-final, causing it to lose
altitude and clipped some rocks at the foot
of the runway.
The right main gear subsequently collapsed
and the aircarft flipped over, eventually
coming to rest in the bushes adjacent to the
field.
Aside from those lost in accidents, Carvair
operations continued well into the new millennium,
with several still reported to be in use across
the world.
Today, only one Carvair remains in airworthy
condition, N89FA, the ninth unit converted,
which is currently kept at Gainesville Municipal
Airport, and flies with Gator Global Flying
Services on ad-hoc cargo charters throughout
the United States.
Currently, the aircraft has an airworthiness
certificate set to expire in March 2021.
The only other survivor of the Carvair fleet
is 9J-PAA, which is now preserved at Rand
Airport in Germiston, South Africa, adjacent
to the South African Airways Museum.
Overall, the ATL Carvair was a curious machine
tailor made for a bygone era.
While the aircraft's role in air ferry flights
across the English Channel and Irish Sea were
doomed to inevitable closure, the Carvair
proved that it was capable of maintaining
a useful role as a cargo plane, seeing continued
work across the globe well into the 21st century.
