Following the 1957 Defence White Paper the UK Ministry of Defence terminated almost all manned military aircraft development. This prompted Avro in 1958 to concentrate on the civil market.
With the Vickers Viscount already in service Avro worked on a design for the regional airline market and came up with another 'Douglas DC-3 replacement'. Also with the Fokker F27 Friendship already in service it was decided to build a more rugged aircraft with short field performance if required. It was a low wing aircraft with a sturdy undercarriage and twin Rolls Royce Dart engines.
This lead to the Avro 748 design being publicly announce on 09-01-1959 with the prototype first flying on 24-06-1960.
Also around this time there was a Government push to rationalise the aviation industry in the UK with Avro becoming part of the Hawker Siddeley Group. This changed the designation of the Avro 748 to that of the Hawker Siddeley 748 (later to British Aerospace and BAe Systems).
Mount Cook Airlines first 748 Series 242 was construction number 1647 and first flew on 05-09-1968 from Woodford, Manchester and was allocated the New Zealand registration of ZK-CWJ on 16-09-1968,
It was on show during the 1968 Farnborough Air Show as seen in the photo below.
Note it has "NEW ZEALANDS" above the MOUNT COOK AIRLINES titles.
Above as seen at Farnborough 21-09-1968.
It was ferried out to NZ reaching Christchurch on 05-10-1968 and is seen below taxiing to the terminal.
Below we have Captain Geoff Williams.
In house this aircraft was often referred to as 'Captain William's Jallopy'
Its first day of service was on 25-10-1968 when it flew from Christchurch to Timaru and Oamaru
John Evans, Geoff Williams and Alastair McLeod.
Both photos from the South Canterbury Museum collection.
Above at Invercargill on 11-02-1969
The script " The Mount Cook Lily" is in small letters on the tail below the ranunculus flower.
At Christchurch 11-06-1969 without the 'NEW ZEALANDS" fuselage script
John Mounce captured it at Christchurch on 11-11-1970.
At Palmerston North from Phillip Capper in 1973 with the MCA titles now with a slight lean on.
From 07-02-1978 it became part of the Mount Cook Group Ltd but life continued the same - including a short lease to Polynesian Airlines in mid-1981.
At Mount Cook on 01-07-1978 from Peter Lewis with the letter 'J' on the nosewheel undercarriage door.
ZK-CWJ seems to have had a reasonably uneventful life - apart from a minor wing tip strike on a building at Wellington Airport - and the incident below on 20-03-1988.
Briefly - due to an industrial dispute at Auckland Airport ZK-CWJ dropped a load of passenger at Ardmore and then whilst taxiing over towards Airwork for a fuel top up went off onto the grass with the starboard undercarriage sinking in soft ground and the propeller striking the ground.
Three views, one above and two below, show it in distress at Ardmore on 20-03-1988.
Note the new colour scheme above with the lily being larger and lower on the vertical tail, plus 'WJ' now on the nosewheel door and the AORAKI name lower on the fuselage below the cockpit.
It did good work on the Chatham Islands run and is seen above outside the Tuuta Airport terminal building on 13-10-1992. Its final Chathams run was on 20-01-1996.
It was withdrawn from use and stored at Christchurch for a few months before being sold to Clewer Aviation from 28-05-1997. It ferried out to Norfolk Island on 29-05-1997 and continued on through Brisbane ending up at Southend in the UK on 07-06-1997 with its NZ registration being cancelled on 30-07-1997.
Its story becomes a little convoluted from here on - but it goes something like this.
It picked up the UK registration of G-ORCP the same day (30-07-1997); then being listed to Aerospace Express Ltd of Durban, South Africa the following day as ZS-OCF. It was converted to a freighter in early 1998 for lease operations by Airwork Pty Ltd on a freight run from Johannesburg to Bloemfontein. Withdrawn from use on 18-10-2002 it was ferried back to Southend and its ZS registration was cancelled on 13-12-2002.
It then took up its old UK registration of G-ORCP from 02-01-2003 with Emerald Airways of Leeds until the Company's AOC was suspended on 04-05-2006.
As G-ORCP at Edinburgh on 01-11-2003.
At Liverpool on 01-05-2004.
On 16-10-2006 it passed to International Air Parts Ltd and was later flown out to Bangladesh on lease to Best Aviation and then leased on to Bismillah Airlines from 24-06-2009 as S2-AEE.
Blackpool on 21-04-2007 before moving to Bangladesh.
S2-AEE finally at rest at Cox's Bazaar, Bangladesh on 10-02-2018 from Raihan Ahmep.
There are plans to bring her home !
Mount Cook Airlines eventually acquire eight 748s being ZK-CWJ, ZK-DES, ZK-MCA, ZK-MCB, ZK-MCF, ZK-MCH, ZK-MCJ and ZK-MCP.
The first to be sold overseas was ZK-MCA in November 1995 and the last was ZK-DES in February of 1998.
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