Britannia Rules Again ; A Merseyside Hotel is Hosting One of the Biggest Aviation Projects Ever and Bringing Back a Famous Airline Name.

By Peter Elson

I MAGINE stepping back into the golden age of travel, arriving at a glamorous hotel set in a great sweeping, stylish airport terminal building.

Then stroll across the apron to climb aboard one of the most beautiful airliners ever built, to be served an exquisitemeal and fine wines. More importantly, imagine it all happening in Speke.

In spite of all the trappings of travel, you won’t actually be going anywhere beyond Speke, but you can’t have everything.

Besides, this will be an experience to savour and remember.

Thanks to the vision and hard work of hotel managers, property developers and aircraft enthusiasts, a very special attraction is emerging in south Liverpool, unsurpassed by anything like it in the world.

Many people are familiar with the splendid Marriott Hotel Liverpool South, created from the city’s famous former art deco Speke Airport Terminal. This 1937 building, with Berlin Tempelhof, is hailed by English Heritage as being one of Europe’s two greatest pre-war aerodromes.

Fewfolk, however, realise the hive of weekend activity going on behind the hotel.

Members of the 55-strong dynamic Jetstream Club beaver away to rebuild a rare surviving example of a Bristol Britannia airliner.

The coincidences of this airliner, nicknamed “the whispering giant” after the low sensuous whine of its four big turbo-prop Proteus engines, finding its way here are astonishing.

Like some huge, gorgeous homing pigeon, this former British Eagle airliner has returned to its old base in what is Europe’s biggest civil aviation project.

The airliner sits in bits, like a giant Airfix kit, with just a massive tube of gluemissing, a few hundred yards from the hangar which was once its home (now the David Lloyd Racquet and Fitness Club).

Once externally complete this summer, the 1958-built airliner, callsign G-ANCF (Charlie Foxtrot), will be wheeled across the tarmac for permanent show outside the hotel’s main restaurant to forma sensational display for guests.

If all goes well, it is hoped in the long term that the rear passenger cabin could be restored as a private dining space, as an intimate adjunct to the hotel’s main restaurant.

This is a premier template for how Liverpool can make the best of its heritage, with disparate groups creating something new and special out of the past.

For a decade, the derelict and deserted Speke Airport Terminal, rendered redundant by Liverpool John Lennon Airport, was an eyesore many residents feared would be eventually demolished.

Rescued and sympathetically expanded by Neptune Developments, its occupation by the Marriott Hotel has turned what was once a liability into an asset.

The arrival of vintage aircraft is a final flourish to turn a suburban hotel (albeit an up-market one) into a destination in itself for tourists wanting something different.

The Jetstream Club was formed four years ago to preserve an aircraft of that type at Speke.

Roy Coates, Jetstream Club chairman, says: “This project has had somany twists and turns of amazing luck that you couldn’t have planned it.

“I can’t speak too highly of the Marriott Hotel Liverpool South’s management for their continued support, particularly its general manager Matt Byram, and his team Emma Steel and Ken Bennett. None of our projects would have been possible without their very generous support.

“What better place could there be for these classic aircraft than in front of one of the most stunning airport terminals anywhere?”

Returned to its original British Eagle livery, Charlie Foxtrot will look striking, especially when floodlit at night. The club’s already set a very high benchmark with its already restored Jetstream airliner.

Matt Byram, Marriott Hotel general manager, says: “I’ve told the Jetstream Club they can fill the apron with planes as English Heritage says we can’t do anything else with it.

“We’re already getting a very positive reaction from guests from the two aircraft in place, and they look perfectly suited alongside the hotel.

“My only proviso is that the club doesn’t make the apron look like a junkyard, so all the exhibits must be complete aircraft. But I realise it’s going to take time for the Britannia to be reassembled.”

Not wishing to diminish the Marriott’s goodwill, the Jetstreamers are racing to refurbish the Britannia’s parts for rebuilding. The regular 15-strong work parties have to raid B&Q for hundreds of metric nuts and bolts to fit the wing tips.

“They should be Imperial but we’ve no time to worry.Alot of small parts were smashed in storage over the years, but as long as it looks all right we’re not bothered,” says Bill Turnbull, of Mold, a former leading RAF maintenance engineer.

In about nine days, the Brit’s wings and body will be married together for the first time in 20 years. Aviation engineer Mick Bates, who masterminded the plane’s dismantling, has unfortunately undergone emergency major surgery, but plans to help when recovered.

His absence delayed reinstalling the undercarriage, now scheduled to be done in around July, after retrieval from store in Southend and Cosford.

“The Bristol Britannia is a terrific all-British design representing the end of an era for the great propeller driven airliners built for the British Empire routes,” says Roy.

“They became very successful passenger planes, carrying up to 150 people each. Allegedly, at one time, a Britannia airliner took off every 13 minutes somewhere in the world.”

Charlie Foxtrot is only one of four Britannias surviving out of the 85 built. The others are at Kemble, Duxford and Cosworth.

Seeing the cockpit’s mass of wires, levers, switches and dials undergoing refurbishment is an awesome experience.

“This not a straightforward aircraft, it is very complex. We refer to it as a steam cockpit as it is entirely pre-computer age. There are an excessive number of switches, but that’s how it was,” says David Myles, from Liverpool, formerly of Cambrian Airways and British Eagle.

While working for British Eagle, Charlie Foxtrot spent much time flying from the UK to Marlinga, in Australia, with parts for the Blue Streak rocket.

This required installing a large cargo door in the cabin’s portside. For the new work, the plane’s fleet name was changed from Resolution to New Frontier, rumoured to be a Scouse joke about the rebuilding – put the “new front ‘ere”. Refitting the wing edges required one Jetstreamer, Eric Tarrant, from Shropshire, to climb inside the wing fuel tanks, although he has a triple heart by-pass and artificial knee. With classic understatement, Roy says: “We have a very good, dedicated team.”

The forward cabin will probably be returned to first-class configuration, plus space for educating school groups about aviation history and a flight simulator.

DONATIONS and any help are badly needed (paint scrapers and sanders especially welcome) please contact Roy Coates on tel: 07721 638311.

What better place could there be for these classic aircraft?

Get caught up in the Jetstream

THE Jetstream Club’s third annual Jetstream Aviation Fair at Speke Aerodrome on Sunday, June 24, is its biggest and best so far.

On display will be the club’s own three aircraft – Jetstream, Grumman and Britannia – plus the Merseyside Police Helicopter and RAF Griffon Helicopter.

Liverpool Helicentre will offer pleasure flights in its Jet Ranger helicopter, possibly for the last time due to change of use for the landing area. There will also be historic fighter plane cockpits on show and the chance to try out flight simulators.

Among the vehicles on display will be Hot Rods, American and classic cars, classic motorcycles, WWII military transport and dragsters.

Other attractions include a fun fair, plus Merseyside Police, Army, Royal Navy and RAF stands. Proceeds go to the Jetstream Club to maintain the aircraft and to Marie Curie Cancer Hospice in Woolton.

(c) 2007 Daily Post; Liverpool. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.