[Rob L]

Does anyone know when the service stopped?

Well it certainly ran Lydd-Le Touquet on 24th April 1960...my folks took their (possibly Ford Prefect) on one on the way to their honeymoon in Spain.

[Guest]

The service ran under the Silver City Banner until 63, at which point it became British United Air Ferries, still operating from Lydd. By the late 60s, that route had become uneconomic, and Carvairs were used from Southend until 1971. At that point the car services into Le Touquet came to a halt, and for a brief period the "Silver Arrow" Gatwick Paris service came into being. The silver arrow consisted of a BAC111 operating to Le Touquet from Gatwick (frequently outside controlled airspace under VFR) whereupon, the pax would be transferred onto a waiting train at the (now disused) Le Touquet airport station, for a 2 hour trip into Paris Gare du Nord.

Needless to say, that service was not a big hit.

[Flyingfemme]

ISTR going to watch them around 1970.......

[Flyin'Dutch']

The silver arrow consisted of a BAC111 operating to Le Touquet from Gatwick (frequently outside controlled airspace under VFR)

Am I correct in making the assumption that Route Charges had not been invented by then? So what was the benefit of taking this option?

[Guest]

Fuel was cheap, and speed was the only feature that this route had going for it. Going VFR meant fewer delays and quicker block-block times.

[Adrian]

Something similar was tried in the early 1990's by "British Independent Airways". Coach from London to Lydd, HS748 to Beauvais, and coach to Paris. It was cheap, not very reliable, and useful only for people like me who lived in Paris and wanted to visit family in Kent.

[vintage ATCO]

. . . and before that. Skyways Coach Air operated Avro 748s and DC3s between Lympne and Beauvais with connections at each end by coach. Used it myself in 1966, out on a DC3, back on a 748.

[Guest]

Truly, you are a Vintage ATCO, Vintage ATCO.

[Vince C]

Is it apocryphal that many years ago a couple of PPLs were flying (presumably non-radio) from Le Touq to Lympne and discussing just how the name of their destination should be pronounced? On landing, they asked the refueller.

[Guest]

Perhaps, except that Lympne was pronounced LIMM not LIDD

[MichaelP]

from Le Touq to Lympne ....

[Vince C]

Perhaps, except that Lympne was pronounced LIMM not LIDD

Hmmm. Ok I'll change the last line:

"It's pronounced 'Shoreham'", he informed them

Vince

[Moira]

Hiya,
Confused and struggling with dates :
I do remember taking a flight from Beauvais to Lydd in May '77 but getting mixed infos on the web. Has anyone else ever flown that route those dates or am I getting gaga ?
..and it was called the Silver Arrow..

[Dave W]

16 year old thread resurrection!

We'll watch this one...

[Rob L]

16 year old thread resurrection!

We'll watch this one...

Threads about cross-channel car flights seem to recur every so often.
My newly-married parents flew from Lydd to Le-Touquet with their car in 1960. My Dad had a job in Madrid. My Mother only went out with him because he had a car (they weren't my parents then of course).

If it wasn't a Bristol Freighter, it was a similar clam-shell front-loading seriously Fugly British-designed aircraft that took maybe two Ford Prefects. I have a photo somewhere.