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EKCO Ansons
By Chris Poole - revised January 2008
As part of EKCO's quest to be the best weather radar manufacturer, no amount of laboratory testing can fully simulate actual flying conditions.
To fulfil this need, early in 1954, a request was made by Phil Stride the MD of the Malmesbury site to Jerry Brunker at Southend seeking board agreement to purchase a 'flying test bed' aircraft. The request was agreed and the search began both for a suitable aircraft and a pilot.
It is believed that an advert was placed in 'Flight' magazine and following interviews the successful applicant for the pilot was John Meredith who had previously been a pilot with Silver City Airlines and during the war (WW2) had been a bomber pilot.
With the pilot in place, the search began for a suitable aircraft. The aircraft had to be large enough to carry a team of engineers and be capable of conversion to carry the airborne radars then under development (the principal system being the E120 weather radar at that time). It also became apparent that part of the role of this aircraft would also be weather chasing to map and establish safety criteria (see photos in the E120 article) so a rugged airframe was prerequisite and this meant a twin engine aircraft.
Initially a DH Dove was considered but rejected due to its nose wheel mechanism not allowing adequate space to fit the radars in the nose so a AVRO Anson was looked at, which happened to be 'on sale' by BKS Aviation at their Southend site.
Photo of Anson in BKS hanger prior to sale - photo courtesy 'the Jackson collection'
In July 1954 EKCO purchased this Anson (G-ALIH), which was already 10 years old and a chequered history. She was built at the AVRO Yeadon (now Leeds/Bradford airport) Shadow factory sometime between January and November 1944 and delivered to the Royal Air Force as NL229 where she was stationed at RAF Benson in Oxfordshire, later she was transferred to 544 (T) Squadron (also at Benson) and after the war finished, she served in Denmark as part of the RAF Mission (Denmark) communications flight between July 1945 and August 1947.
In 1949, she was sold off as surplus and acquired by a company called Air Navigation and Trading Company based in Blackpool, where she was first registered as G ALIH.
In 1951, she was sold again to a company called 'Starways' and converted to a 13 seat configuration before being on the move again, this time to BKS Engineering at Southend Airport in 1953 before finally being sold to E K Cole on the 6th July 1954.
Following the sale, BKS Engineering undertook the 'nose modification' requested by EKCO and shortly after this she featured in a BBC newsreel program broadcast on the 16th December 1954 about the experiments being made with airborne weather radar - especially that for the Bristol Britannia, which was very topical at that time.
Photo of the BBC filming the Anson - courtesy Southend Museum Services
Below is another photo of her, this on the occasion of her 'roll out' after the 'nose job' conversion and repainting in company colours.
Photo - Source unknown but believed Air Britain
The Anson became a veritable workhorse for EKCO being used extensively by the design engineers as a flying test bed for the radar systems under development and one of her regular ports of call was Filton Aerodrome visiting Bristol Aeroplane Company at Filton in the mid-1950's when the first civil weather radar contract (E120) was underway for the Bristol Britannia.
Note: Filton re-occurs in EKCO history since this was the build site of the British Concordes, which of course had EKCO radar and it is now the home of Airbus UK.
It did not take long before she was also utilised for taking directors and sales staff etc. to important meetings both in the UK and throughout Europe.
Photo of 'IH' after a later repaint to Green and Cream colour scheme - photo source Air Britain
She was finally retired from service on the 21st September 1967 with her serial number being cancelled in May 1968. Following this she was donated to the Newark Air Museum where unfortunately she was totally destroyed by an arson attack on the aircraft based there in November 1971.
EKCO obviously found the Anson to their liking since they then bought a second AVRO Anson (registration number G-AGPG) as a replacement. This aircraft was a slightly younger aircraft being of 1945 vintage. Her factory serial number being 1212.
This Anson never saw active service since she was registered to A.V.Roe Ltd. Yeadon (now Leeds/Bradford airport) on the 15th June 1945 as a company demonstrator.
1945 photo showing PG still in her wartime colours, note the RAF strips in her tailfin. Photo courtesy Ed Coates Collection.
While in their ownership, in May 1952 she was converted to a Mark XIX Series 2 specification, the main change being that she was changed to a 'metal skinned wing' configuration. Following this, she became known as 'the posh 19' by many engineers since she was fitted out as a company demonstrator and used as a company aircraft.
She remained in AVRO ownership right up to July 1961 when she was apparently given to Skyways Coach Air Limited at Lympe during negotiations to sell Skyways a couple of new HS748 aircraft. Certainly she was registered to Skyways on the 13th July 1961 although she was quickly re-registered to Eric Rylands Ltd (an associated company operated by Skyways) on the 25th July 1961.
This photo shows 'PG' on her roll out from the Skyways hanger at Lympe - still in their colours, where she had been
languishing in the hanger for a couple of years. It is believed that this photo was taken 1967 prior to
her delivery flight to Southend. Photo courtesy 'Dick' ex Skyways.
G-AGPG was bought by EKCO and registered their name on the 20th October 1967, whereupon as with India Hotel (IH), she had a similar 'nose job' conversion although this time the nose diameter was made as large as possible in order to accommodate the 30 inch diameter scanner dish required for the E390/564 weather radar then under development for Concorde.
Photo of PG on a wet and windswept apron at Southend Airport - Photo Air Briton
Unfortunately with the demise of EKCO imminent, PG was not destined to have a long life with the company although one of her last big roles was to be the flying test bed for the E390.
This weather radar was a very advanced system and invaluable testing time was accrued prior to delivery of the first set to the Concorde teams both in Toulouse and Filton.
It somehow seems ironical that the world first (and only) commercial SST was having some of its vital equipment test flown in a pre world war two designed aircraft which was never designed to be a particularly fast aircraft even by the standards of those days. It is also interesting to note that only recently has it been discovered that Anson's were used by 'Taffy' Bowen as flying test beds in 1937 when he was developing airborne radar at Bawdsey - a fact that would not have been known to EKCO during their ownership of Anson's.
Additionally she spent a lot of time ferrying EKCO Instruments engineers to both the missile ranges at Aberporth and Benbecula in aid of the MDI systems and other engineers and sales staff to Sunderland (Coles Cranes) and Monceau Les Mines in France (PPM Cranes) in aid of the SLI (Crane Safe Load Indicator) systems.
On the 2nd January 1970, her registration was transferred to PYE Telecommunications and she then spent a lot of time ferrying PYE staff between Cambridge and Southend where it was apparent that the company was being offered for sale.
With the closure of EKCO in 1971, 'Papa-Gulf' was de-certified by the ARB and her airworthiness certificate withdrawn on the 13th February 1971.
After languishing on the apron outside Aviation Traders Hanger at Southend Airport, she was moved to a new Historic Aviation Museum which had been built adjacent to the airport western boundary on the 5th April 1972, Here she resided - outside slowly but surely decaying away.
Photo of PG at the Southend Aviation Museum in 1973 sitting forlornly under the wing of a Blackburn Beverly.
Of interest to note is that she now has EKCO Avionics as her logo a name
adopted by PYE Ltd In 1969 Photo courtesy Steve Williams
In the early 1980's this museum ran into financial difficulties and all the aircraft were put up for auction in May 1983. Most of the aircraft were either sold off and those that were not sold broken up - the Blackburn Beverly being the most obvious casualty.
PG disappears from sight at this time but she appears to have been bought along with a Hawker Sea Fury (which was also in the museum) by a French person, however she was never exported since it was discovered that she had bad rot around the tail wheel structure. After this she found her way to Lympe airport on the Romney Marshes where she was supposed to be returned to flying condition, however this fell through and she was next seen in pieces at the Brenzett Aviation Museum (also on Romney Marshes) in 1986.
After a period in their care, she was on the move again, this time north to BAe at Chadderton to complement the rebuild of G-AHKX (the Shuttleworth collection AVRO Anson 19) and to act as a source for spares with the proviso that BAe would make good any spares used.
Sometime in mid 1995, she was transferred to AVRO Woodford for restoration by the apprentice school however due to a change of direction taken by AVRO-BAe, this was not possible so in June 2000 she was on the move again and after a short period with the Manchester Museum of Science and Technology she was yet again moved, this time to the Hooton Park Trust in Ellesmere Port on the Wirrel (between Chester and Liverpool).
PG - no longer the 'Posh 19' - Photo taken 2004 courtesy Graham Sparkes - The Aeroplane Trust
She was initially put in a storage area but in 2007 restoration work was started on PG at Hooton Park as evidenced by the photo below although unfortunately due to some roofing issues work has temporarily ground to a halt on the restoration as of January 2008 but the HPT board is working hard to resolve the issues with the buildings.
2007 PG nose detail showing weather radar attachment point
Photo courtesy Graham Sparkes - The Aeroplane Trust
Given the history of changes of owners and her sheer doggedness 'as a survivor' It is hoped that 'one day' she can be returned to a position where at least she can be seen standing on her own wheels and looking intact since she does represent an important link with improving flight safety through weather radar and the Concorde development.
I would like to thank Tony Moor of the Brenzett Museum and Graham Sparkes (of the Aeroplane Trust) at the Hooton Park Trust for kindly sending me photos and information of PG as well as Ian Brown for giving me the historical facts of ownership for both aircraft.
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