THE BEA SCHEDULE FROM THE EARLY 1950s.

INTRODUCTION.
British European Airways started in the 1940s, using ex military Dakotas which they converted into DC-3s and continued to operate as their routes expanded in the 1950s. Many people see this period as the heyday of propliners in Europe. 
Following a conversation in the DC-3 Airways forum about early BEA operations, it occurred to me that if I could get hold of the original timetables it might not be too difficult to re-create the schedule for use by DC3 Airways, and at the same time perhaps introduce a few more UK flights for the benefit of those of us who like to fly there. 
The UK domestic schedule was completed but, like Topsy, the project 'growed'. The flights now include BEA's European passenger and cargo schedules and DC-4 flights that were flown by associated airlines. My information on these is quite possibly incomplete however, and if you have access to any of the original timetables I would very much like to hear from you!

WHAT TO DO WITH THE FILES.
Unzip the BEA Sched vnn zipfile into a folder called 'BEA', which can be anywhere you like.

CONTENTS OF THE ZIPFILE:
1) This Readme file. 

2) A folder called 'Pictures' containing five graphic image files. They're all embedded in the Word document (described below).

3) An Excel spreadsheet that lists all the Flight numbers, Departures, Destinations, Airport Codes, Distances and Altitudes and also contains a nifty little set of buttons that allow you to list this information in any order you like. It is intended to be used in conjunction with the Word document and the FSNav flight plans.

4) A Word document that contains the DCA flight numbers, the original BEA flight numbers, the flight plan descriptions, the flight times, notes about some of the wierd Brit traffic rules used and some notes and links relating to the interesting places you'll be flying to, from and over. Oh yes... it also displays the pictures referred to in (2).

5) A zipped file containing all the .fsnav files. Unzip this into a folder called 'BEA FSNav' (or whatever) and copy that into to your FSNav Plans folder.   

FINALLY.
Once again, I'd like to thank John Lawler and Bjorn Larsson for making available their 1950s timetables, and Charles Wood and Tim Cook for doing such a great job of posting these flights on the www.dc3airways.com website.  I hope you enjoy them.

Max Johnson (DCA878).
Heysham, England.
max@nonesuch.force9.co.uk
www.dc3airways.com        