HOW TO MAKE CARS FLY
IN a June issue of THE AEROPLANE in 1947 the following comment appeared: "Which charter company will be the first to establish a regular car ferry across the Channel, using a Bristol Freighter or an Aerovan? There is a gap of but 25 miles to be bridged for car owners, between Dover and Calais. Assuming that a two-way traffic was organized, it should be perfectly possible to compete with the Southern Railway. … On the face of it an air channel car ferry should become a regular all-the-year-round institution. On that basis, it would be worth turning a large field at Dover and one at Calais into Customs aerodromes."
The answer came the following summer from Silver City Airways, which had the distinction of flying the first car across the "gap of but 25 miles" on July 14, 1948. It should be added that the car was owned by the managing director Air. Cdre. G. J. Powell. That year saw a further 169 cars being flown across the Channel under a variety of strange charter arrangements. In 1949, however, the operation was put on to a proper footing.
A vehicle-ferry licence was issued to Silver City and the company, together with the Bristol Aeroplane Company, worked up the design for the long-nosed …
