VH-IPB —

and still flying

I have never seen one of these before and I'm not familiar with it. It sure is an interesting looking aircraft.I looks like a chopped off 747 attached to part of a C-119. I like it.

Extra cool old photo. Great capture with the Cessna and DC3 in the background.

So you told the world you wanted a four engined C-119 with a drive-thru cargo bay. This is what you got. Built in the U.K.

This is what happens when you put Aviation DNA in a blender and push Margarita!


Notice anything...
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/VHIPB


Google VH-IPB

Great old photo!

Pretty sharp old film image with interesting background.

Thank electroman00. According to Google this aircraft was scrapped back in Dec 1990. Interesting looking aircraft though. It does look like a photoshoped image of a 747 and a C-119.

As a young boy I remember seeing a number of these things near Southend-on-Sea in England at an airport where cars were loaded for trips across the English Channel to France decades before the Chunnel trains and auto passage. I think it was probably around 1963-64.

I remember seeing this particular plane flying in Australia, Sydney, Melbourne and I think Canberra in the late 70s, early 80s. Always loved seeing it. It looked uncomfortable on the ground but just fine once it was airborne.

There is ugly and there is UGLY! Probably functionally efficient but man oh man. The Brits were quite proficient at developing ugly ducklings during the 50s and 60s

Built in 1966 and had a varied history before ending up in Australia. I too remember them in the south of England doing cross-channel work. Ugly maybe, but practical for the job it had to do.

VH-IPB flew with IPEC from 1978 to May 1990, was leased to Safe-Air in New Zealand as ZK-SAL for a few months and then scrapped.

I thought I read a comment on one of these once as 10,000 rivets flying in formation...

The British Royal Air Force had a large fleet of Argosy's, but their model did not have the swing open nose door, just the rear clamshells. They carried 4 cockpit crew, including a navigator. The central pod gave an unobstructed cargo hold length of 60 feet. 250 mph cruising speed.

In the 80' I worked at a kids vocational care centre, one time we did a hanger tour at Brisbane airport an argosy was being loaded the kids were impressed.

Here in New Zealand these aeroplanes took over the air freight runs that had been operated by Bristol Freighters.

Yes SAFE Air had them as freighters working from Blenheim to Wellington

Yes indeed Edward. All of 45 nautical miles across the treacherous (for shipping) Cook Strait. With plenty of crosswind landing practise on arrival into Wellington just for good measure! 25,000 pound payload.