The Carvair – Ugly, Weird and Unique

By Rob Russell

When it comes to ugly aircraft, the poor ATL-98 Carvair would definitely merit a place of honour. Built from a classic WW2 aircraft, namely the DC-4, this one just looks plain ugly, although the designers had good intentions. Its bulbous nose, seemingly out of proportion with the rest of its body, gives this now-defunct plane a chubby, unmistakable appearance. This odd-looking plane was designed to fulfil a very particular mission in the 1950s: flying both cars and their drivers overseas.

And yet the Carvair, which made a brief cameo in the James Bond movie “Goldfinger,” had features that we would later see in iconic aircraft types, such as the Boeing 747. Little did the designers know what was coming!

British car owners wanting to drive their own vehicles around mainland Europe could choose between the slow, and potentially shaky, sea crossing, or simply hop over to the continent by air–car and all. Travellers would drive right onto the airport apron and into the belly of the waiting aircraft, just as they would with a ferry that carries vehicles across water.

By the late 1950s, with the war years in the rearview mirror and car ownership on the rise, legendary aviation entrepreneur Freddie Laker spotted an opportunity. Sir Freddie, who we all remember for his low-cost operations out of Gatwick to the USA in the 1970s and early 80s, foresaw the need for a successor to the now-elderly Bristol 170 Freighters plying their trade between the south coast of England and France. The Bristol Freighters had opened the gates to a mode of transport not seen before by the travelling public; you could take your car and fellow passengers to Europe for a reasonable amount of money in no time at all, the average flight time being less than 30 minutes from Lympne on the south coast to Le Touquet in France.

The Douglas C-54/DC-4 was chosen by Laker and his team to be the blueprint for his new car ferry transporter that he had hoped would entice many of the world’s airlines to show interest in his new design. With the advent of the jet era, plenty of World War II-era propeller planes such as the DC-4, or its military version, the C-54, were fast becoming obsolete and could be had on the cheap.

The Douglas airframe was chosen mainly for its low cost and reliability, as well as the large number of aircraft on the second-hand market at the time. Powered by four Pratt & Whitney R-2000 Twin Wasp air-cooled radial piston engines of 1,350hp, the new design was thought to be perfect for longer flights into Europe as well as the short hops across the Channel. Unfortunately, the engines would not perform well on the short sectors and in the years to come, the airlines that operated the aircraft would constantly be plagued by delays to their schedules.

One of the companies already in his portfolio, Aviation Traders Limited, had accumulated ample experience refitting and re-purposing a large number of military aircraft that had served in the war for civilian use, making it well-placed to execute his vision. The conversion process was carried out at Aviation Traders’ engineering facility at Stansted in Essex, with the new nose section being produced at Southend and taken by road for completion. The engineering work entailed replacing the forward fuselage with a new section 104in longer with a raised flight deck in a bulbous hump and a sideways-hinged nose door, allowing the carriage of either cars, freight or a mixture of both.

The result was the ATL-98, also called “Carvair” – short for “Car via Air”- which would be able to carry up to five cars and 22 passengers at once, a significant improvement over the Bristol 170 Freighter. Even better: this configuration could be adapted to meet the needs of the various flights. For example, it could carry just three cars and 55 passengers or be converted to carry either just cargo or only passengers. If the latter option was chosen, the Carvair’s non-pressurized cabin could be fitted up to 85 seats.

Bristol 170 Freighter

When in car-carrying mode, vehicles would be elevated to cabin level with a scissors-type lift and loaded through the front door, while passengers would sit at the back of the plane, just as they would in a conventional airliner.

The Carvair was developed primarily for cross-Channel routes linking the UK to the European mainland. In its heyday, Channel Air Bridge, another firm in Freddie Laker’s aeronautical empire, operated 24 daily round-trip flights from Southend airport, near London, to Calais (France), Ostend (Belgium) and Rotterdam (The Netherlands).

Aer Lingus, which is now part of the International Airlines Group based in Madrid, but in the 1960s it was the state-owned carrier for the Republic of Ireland expressed an interest in acquiring a few aircraft to use for cross channel operations. Always at the forefront of modern aircraft technology, it was one of the first airlines in the world to introduce such aircraft as the Vickers Viscount, Fokker F.27 Friendship and the Boeing 720 transatlantic jet. In a bid to enter the lucrative car ferry market in the UK and Europe, the airline would turn to Freddie Laker’s company, Aviation Traders Ltd, based in Southend, Essex, placing an order for two of the new ATL-98 Carvairs.

Aer Lingus evaluated several designs, including the Armstrong Whitworth AW.650 Argosy and its derivative the AW.670, Bristol 170 Mk 32 Superfreighter and the ATL-98 Carvair. Although the airline was very interested in the Argosy, it proved uneconomical, as did the Superfreighter, which left only the Carvair for consideration. The airline felt that the Carvair option offered the best prospects for a viable operation, although the service was never likely to be profitable even in the long term and it would require support in the form of government subsidy.

On August 31, 1962, Aer Lingus placed an order with Aviation Traders for two Carvairs and an option for a third at a later date. The total cost of the order and associated ground equipment, including eight Hylo Mk 11 loaders, was £700,000. Specialised loading platforms were to be positioned at Dublin, Cork, Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol and Cherbourg, and the aircraft were scheduled to begin service in the spring of 1963.

An early problem the airline encountered with its new acquisition was one of reliability, principally because of engines. For the start of car ferry operations, the airline took over the former BKS terminal in Dublin and the two aircraft were scheduled to begin operations on May 8 with services from Dublin-Liverpool and Dublin-Bristol. Cork-Bristol was added at a later date, followed by Dublin-Cherbourg – the latter service was to suit the aircraft more than any other, as R-2000 radial engines were designed for longer routes, not the shorter flights across the Irish Sea. The Cherbourg service also carried more people, the configuration being three cars and a total of 35 passengers.

Eventually, the network would stretch much further into continental Europe, with planes heading to Strasbourg on the French-German border and the Swiss cities of Geneva and Basel.

Twenty-one Carvairs were built between 1961 and 1968. But, simultaneously, faster and more efficient sea transport options became available on most of the routes served by the air car ferries and none of the new, modern aircraft were developed for this niche market. Like so many of these unique designs, the concept simply faded away, being replaced by other bigger, more modern aircraft, trans channel ferries and the proposed under-channel train services. A further nail in the coffin was the rise of the inclusive package, which included car hire, so for those who wanted to drive, they could fly to their destinations and pick up a car there, giving them longer holidays.

There was even one operator in SA – Phoebus Apollo Aviation. They had grand plans to use it, amongst other things, to fly freight from Rand to and from the coast, but it was severely restricted in the hot summer months operating from the Witwatersrand, and it never proved the success they hoped it would.

General characteristics

• Crew: 2 or 3

• Capacity:

◦ Maximum seating 85 passengers or

◦ five cars and 22 passengers or

◦ 19,335 lb (8,770 kg) cargo

• Length: 102 ft 7 in (31.27 m)

• Wingspan: 117 ft 6 in (35.81 m)

• Height: 29 ft 10 in (9.09 m)

• Wing area: 1,462 sq ft (135.8 m2)

• Aspect ratio: 9.45:1

• Empty weight: 41,365 lb (18,763 kg)

• Max takeoff weight: 73,800 lb (33,475 kg)

• Fuel capacity: 2,993 imp gal (3,594 US gal; 13,610 L)

• Powerplant: 4 × Pratt & Whitney R-2000-7M2 Twin Wasp 14-cylinder radial engines, 1,450 hp (1,080 kW) each

• Propellers: 3-bladed Hamilton-Standard Hydromatic, 13 ft 1 in (3.99 m) diameter

Performance

• Maximum speed: 250 mph (400 km/h, 220 kn)

• Cruise speed: 207 mph (333 km/h, 180 kn) at 10,000 ft (3,000 m) (econ. cruise)

• Stall speed: 119 mph (192 km/h, 103 kn) (wheels and flaps up)

• Range: 2,300 mi (3,700 km, 2,000 nmi) at 10,000 ft (3,000 m) with maximum payload, 3,455 mi (3,002 nmi; 5,560 km) with 10,000 lb (4,500 kg) payload and max fuel

• Service ceiling: 18,700 ft (5,700 m)

• Rate of climb: 650 ft/min (3.3 m/s)

• Takeoff distance to 50 ft (15 m): 4,200 ft (1,300 m)

• Landing distance from 50 ft (15 m): 3,120 ft (950 m)