British United Air Ferries

Crossing the channel from England to the Continent by sea was a time consuming business in the 40s and 50s.

But there was a solution. An Air Ferry.

That's right, pop yourself and your car on a plane and go get a baguette.

Here is British United Air Ferry terminal at Llyd, Ferryfield Airport.



For plane spotters I think they are Aviation Traders ATL-98 Carvairs, a model that was based on the Douglas DC-4.

They were loaded at the front and had a capacity of 3-5 cars and approximately seating 25-50 passengers.

Here is AX 201, the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost getting on board. Just lovely.



This method of Rolls-Royce transport was also preferred by Goldfinger, in James Bond.



Here is the clip. I love the AU1 number plate.



I think they are pretty cool. Who thought Arab's flying their super cars to London for the summer was anything new.

PS Bentley Spotting reader Albert pointed out that there was private footage of a Rolls-Royce being loaded onto the Air Ferry in a home movie of actor Dirk Bogarde.

Here it is.



Thanks Albert for pointing this out - you are right, they quite had some style of travel those days.