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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0747.PDF
31 May 1957 753 (Above and right): Typical wartime mods, enemy and friendly, that came the way of Dallas (Kingston), Ltd.: Me 109, Ju 88 and Oxford. Highway to the Air Moving Aircraft by Road: Specialized Haulage Work STOPPING for petrol in a small Hampshire town not so verylong ago, we became aware of turned heads, of somethinginterrupting the workaday flow of vehicles through the High Street. A police motor cyclist, looking purposeful and wavingoncoming traffic to its own side, accelerated past. "Royal car," we thought. We were wrong. In a moment thecause of the stir became apparent—a lorry with a long, low trailer carrying a load that seemed to fill the narrow street. "It's asubmarine," said a woman with a perambulator. "No it ain't, Mum," said a small boy with her. "It's an aeroplane." And like most small boys in such situations he was right,though Mum's misinterpretation was pardonable, for the long cylindrical form, swathed in adhesive-paper protective wrapping,looked heavy and ungraceful, and very much out of its element. Though recognizable chiefly by its window-shape as the fuselageof a Viscount, it presented the oddest contrast to the sleek, glinting turboprop airliners so familiar at any major European airport. Lettered on the lorry was the name "Dallas (Kingston), Ltd.,"and on the trailer, "Dallas for all aircraft and boat transport." Later we were to find out more about the haulage firm con-cerned, for—as the words on the trailer suggested—this was no exceptional operation, but a routine job for an organization whichhas been specializing in awkward loads of this kind for many years past. It is not surprising that, with headquarters in New Maiden,Surrey, only a mile or two from Kingston-on-Thames, the com- pany should have received its first aircraft-transport contracts fromHawker Aircraft; this was in the early 1930s, when such com- paratively small and easy loads as Hawker Harts were taken fromthe Canbury Park Road works to Brooklands for flight testing and subsequent delivery flights. Even in these days there was anoccasional order from Vickers, though for the most part the products of the Weybridge firm were flown straight out fromBrooklands. Mr. W. T. Dallas, who directs the company, treasures a con-siderable collection of photographs of aircraft and boats which they have moved. (A big cabin cruiser on the road, incidentally,looks even more out of its element than does an aeroplane.) Among the pictures is one—not quite clear enough for satisfactory repro-duction here—showing the Bellanca monoplane Dorothy (former Irish Swoop) which Jim Mollison flew from Harbour Grace, New-foundland, to Croydon in 13 hr 17 min, making a coast-to-coast record of 9 hr 20 min; this was in October 1936. During the succeeding months the tempo of the work began toquicken, with the emphasis on military aircraft; such famous types as the Fairey Battle and Gloster Gladiator were moved in largenumbers. By the time war was declared in 1939, orders for the road transport of aircraft were flowing in. One of Dallas's biggestcontracts was for moving Airspeed Oxfords, which were carried on six-wheel Leyland articulated semi-low-loaders, the fuselage (com-plete with centre-section and engines) being accommodated with its own undercarriage resting on a transverse 20ft girder, anda rearwardly extending girder supporting the tailwheel. The first order was for moving 100 Oxfords from Eastleigh to various partsof the country. Another regular job was the bringing of Westland Lysanders from Yeovil to London, where they were packed for seatransport to the Middle East and other destinations. Not all the loads at this time were factory-fresh English aero- Big stuff: a Comet 1A fuselage and (bottom picture, typical of the loads being moyed today) a production Viscount. planes. A good many were German ones, very much the worsefor wear. At any time of the day or night Dallas were liable to be asked to collect crashed enemy aircraft from fields up and downthe country, and to transport them to such establishments as Farnborough for detailed post mortems. But the R.A.F. weremeanwhile developing their own M.T. fleets and techniques, and during the Battle of Britain, when the countryside was more or lesslittered with fallen enemies, they took over the job entirely. Some five years ago, after a fallow post-war period, the firmre-entered the aircraft-transport field on a considerable scale, fulfilling contracts for a number of well-known constructors. Chiefamong these has been Vickers-Armstrongs, with movements of Viscount 700 fuselages in both directions between their Weybridge
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