Caledonian Airways was formed in April 1961 and adopted that name due to various connections with Scotland from its founders and investors. The airline grew rapidly to become the UK's leading independent airline when it bought British United Airways (BUA) in 1970 to become British Caledonian. It continued its successful growth until April 1988 when due to the economic troubles of the time, it was absorbed into BA. BAC One-Eleven 501EX G-AWYV is caught on final approach to London-Gatwick sometime during the summer of 1984. Scan from a negative taken using a Pentax ME Super fitted with a Tamron 80-210 manual focus lens.
Back to the good old days at London-Gatwick during the summer of 1985, with a line up of British Caledonian DC-10s awaiting their morning departures. In the foreground is G-BHDI that was named 'Robert the Bruce - The Scottish Warrior'. Scan from a negative taken using a Pentax ME Super fitted with a Tamron 80-210 manual focus lens.
Powered by a pair of Rolls-Royce RB211-535E4 turbofans, Boeing 757-224 N19130 of Continental Airlines is captured during an early morning easterly arrival into London-Gatwick on 9th June 2006.
A nostalgic and scenic view of London-Gatwick airport during an early morning departure on 30th June 2006, with Airbus A340-311 V5-NME taking centre stage whilst on tow.
One of the final operators of the long-serving DC-10 was DAS Air albeit in a cargo capacity. This shot of DC10 Series 30F 5X-JOS was taken on 9th June 2006 not long before DC-10 flights in general started to diminish considerably.
Das Air Cargo DC-10 Series 30F 5X-JOS about to touch down on Runway 08R at London-Gatwick on 9th June 2006 not long before DC-10 flights in general started to diminish considerably.
This must have been one of the last passenger carrying DC-10 arrivals at Gatwick and captures Northwest Airlines DC-10-30ER N240NW arriving on 9th June 2006. Most Northwest flights to Gatwick had transferred over to A330's by this time and this would have been one of the few Northwest DC-10's to appear in the final livery of the airline before its merger with Delta Airlines. Northwest along with Japan Airlines was unusual in originally ordering 22 of the -40 version of the DC-10 powered by Pratt & Whitney JT9D engines rather than the more usual General Electric CF-6 units of the -30 series. Northwest later acquired 24 DC-10-30's with N240NW being the last (l/n 438) and one of only three -30ER models to be delivered to Northwest and presumably the reason why it soldiered on for a little while longer, before leaving the fleet and being transferred to Omni Air on 21st December 2006.
Olympic Airways Boeing 737-4Y0 SX-BKL on lease from Malaysia Airlines makes a mid-morning approach to runway 08R at London-Gatwick on the 9th June 2006.
Delta Air Lines Lockheed L-1011-500 TriStar N754DL heads back from London-Gatwick to Atlanta sometime during the summer of 1985. A scan from one of my negatives taken with a Pentax ME Super fitted with a Tamron 80-210 zoom lens.
