BOAC = British Overseas Airways Corporation (merged with BEA into British Airways in 1974), SAA = South African Airways. Although the aircraft is only small in this poster from 1950 it possibly relates to BOAC's recently arrived fleet of 22 DC-4M-4 aircraft which they named as their "Argonaut class", each aircraft having a classical name prefixed with "A". The Argonauts were delivered between March and November 1949; they flew to South America, Africa and the Far East from London Airport (later Heathrow) until 1960.
The BOAC aircraft here is actually a Handley Page Hermes 4. The giveaway is the shape of the engines which are the more rounded at the front Hercules rather than the Merlin with its distinctive chin. The airline had up to 22 of these and they flew exclusively the African routes between August 1950 and 1952 when they were replaced by Comet 1s on the Johannesburg route and the Argonauts on East and West Africa. They were presurised and comparable to the Constellation in comfort.
ReplyDeletePeter Woodrow. Blog: Airnthere.