Originally Posted by
WHBM
Let's pick these off.
By 1962 the Bristol Britannia that used to do this marathon had been replaced by Conway-powered 707s. The first bit of the trip was always straightforward. LHR-New York (still IDL, not JFK yet)-SFO-HNL-TYO-HKG. The Britannia hadn't manage the second Pacific sector nonstop, and refuelled at Wake Island along the way, while the 707 was more capable. The route was primarily operated for Hong Kong passengers, where in those days BOAC was the long-haul operator, to the USA and Australia as well as the UK, and Cathay Pacific was just a regional small-scale operation.
Beyond Hong Kong the routing varied between just about every flight of the week, and also from timetable to timetable, with maybe half a dozen stops along the way. Bombay or Delhi in India, somewhere in the Gulf, Beirut, and Rome or Frankfurt across Europe. Other stops could be any sort along the way.
A contact over here used to work all this out as a junior ops officer at BOAC. All those stops along the Asian routes were scheduled maybe 3 or 5 times a week, or whatever, typical loads from each estimated, included a significant number making just intermediate trips. There were no MEA or Thai long haul flights then, so if you wanted to do Bangkok to Beirut this is how you did it. Additional flights cut in at places along the way as required. Scheduling crews who changed several times along such strung-out routes had to be accounted for, and if the presence of both the 707 and the VC10 (which had separate crews) was a further dimension in later years, well in 1962 it was both 707 and Comet, and back in the 1950s it had likewise been a mix of Canadair Argonauts and Lockheed Constellations, so BOAC were used to such complexities. Like a sort of college exam question, said contact had to present a proposal to senior staff, with justifications for changes from the status quo. A real "best uniform" morning's presentation.
What fun !
Excellent commentary as usual from the gentleman in London!
In the fall of 1962 BOAC was actually operating three westbound departures every week from London on their around the world services (via "The Orient" as described in their system timetable). All three flights were operated with R&R powered Boeing 707 aircraft as
WHBM states above.
Here are the schedules.....
Departing every Monday - BA 911 / BA 901: London-New York-San Francisco-Honolulu-Tokyo-Hong Kong-
Rangoon-
Delhi-
Bahrain-Beirut-Rome-
Frankfurt-London
Departing every Wednesday - BA 911 / BA 901: London-New York-San Francisco-Honolulu-Tokyo-Hong Kong-
Calcutta-
Karachi-Beirut-Rome-London
Departing every Friday - BA 911 / BA 901: London-New York-San Francisco-Honolulu-Tokyo-Hong Kong-
Bangkok-
Delhi-
Teheran-Beirut-Rome-
Frankfurt-London
Note there was a flight number change from BA 911 to BA 901 en route. Now the timetable apparently does not specify where this flight number change took place but I'll guess it occurred at either Tokyo or Hong Kong.
Depending on the day of the week, different stops were made at different destinations as
WHBM mentions. I've underlined those above. Also note that both the Monday and Friday flights made eleven stops en route while the Wednesday flight made nine.
At this very same time BOAC was also operating several other interesting flights between London and Asia as referenced above by
WHBM. Here are the westbound examples......
Departing every Sunday - BA 939: Tokyo-Hong Kong-Rangoon-Calcutta-Karachi-Abadan-Cairo-Dusseldorf-London
Equip: Comet
Departing every Tuesday - BA 935: Tokyo-Hong Kong-Bangkok-Delhi-Kuwait-Beirut-Zurich-London
Equip: Comet
Departing every Wednesday - BA 937: Tokyo-Hong Kong-Calcutta-Karachi-Abadan-Beirut-Dusseldorf-London
Equip: Comet
Departing every Friday - BA 933: Tokyo-Hong Kong-Bangkok-Delhi-Kuwait-Beirut-Zurich-London
Equip: Comet
So at this time BOAC was operating seven flights a week with either 707 or Comet equipment from Tokyo and Hong Kong westbound to London.....and it's also interesting to note that Abadan, Iran had two direct flights a week to London as well as to Dusseldorf with the Comet in addition to inbound service twice a week from Hong Kong and Tokyo.