BSAAC Avro Tudor 4 Star Leopard over Bermuda Docks

Apologies for the quality of the blip, however I am publishing this for the interesting subject.

This is a photo of a painting by John Finch, in the Commissioners House at the Royal Naval Dockyard in Bermuda.

It shows a Avro Tudor 4 of the short lived British South American Airways Corporation flying over Bermuda Royal Naval Dockyard.. Their weekly service started after the Second World War flew from London, with stops at Lisbon, the Azores, Bermuda, Nassau and onto Havana in Cuba.

The BSAAC was a British state owned corporation that split from BOAC in 1946 and ran flights to the Caribbean and South America. It operated Avro aircraft - the Yorks, Lancastrians (civil version of the Lancaster) and Tudors. They were given aircraft names beginning with "Star" since heavenly bodies were used in the long-range navigation required to these exotic locations. The Corporation was headed by Air Vice Marshall Donald Bennett, the former leader of the RAF Pathfinder force in the War.

The Avro Tudor was the civil version of the Lincoln bomber - itself a descendant of the Lancaster - and was Britain's first pressurised airliner. It had four Merlin 623 engines and 32 seats for passengers.

BSAAC was taken over by BOAC in 1949 after accidents had grounded the Tudor fleet.

One final note, the BSAAC in 1949, was a founder member of SITA - the Societe Internationale de Telecommunications Aeronautique, which I have the honour to Chair and is still going strong.