Surplus bombers and the Berlin Airlift

In 1947 Freddie Laker set up Aviation Traders at Bovingdon to deal in war-surplus aircraft and spares, then moved to Southend. It converted Halifax bombers into freighters, six of which went to Bond Air Services to fly supplies into blockaded West Berlin in 1948 and 1949. ATL serviced them in return for half the freight charges. After the airlift Laker scrapped most of the Halifaxes at Southend. In 1949 Laker put Jack Wiseman in charge of the new engineering arm.

The Accountant that did not add up

ATL also tried to build an airliner of its own. The 28-seat ATL-90 Accountant, with two Rolls-Royce Dart turboprops, first flew on 9 July 1957 as a successor to the DC-3. It faced bigger rivals with deeper pockets, won no orders, and the prototype was destroyed. Steadier work came from subcontracts, including 50 wing centre sections for the Bristol Freighter. Rivals such as the Fokker F27 Friendship had already saturated the market.

Cars through the nose

The company’s lasting creation was the ATL-98 Carvair. Twenty-one DC-4s were rebuilt with a new raised cockpit and a hinged nose so five cars could be driven in, with 25 passengers behind. Carvairs flew car ferry routes from Southend across the Channel. By then Laker had sold ATL and Air Charter to Airwork, effective January 1959. High-speed hovercraft such as the SR.N4 eventually ended the air car ferries. The cars were loaded with a mobile scissor lift.

Fabrieken

• Bovingdon · Bovingdon, Hertfordshire — First base, 1947
• Southend base · Rochford aerodrome (Southend Airport), Essex — Main base from 1949

Mensen

• Freddie Laker · founder — Founded ATL in 1947 and sold it to Airwork in 1958–1959
• Jack Wiseman · engineer — Ran the engineering arm ATEL from 1949