Dublin Airport Historical Movements

This month saw continued variety on the airliner front, with Aer Lingus again hiring-in extra capacity to meet some of its commitments.  These included Boeing 727-100s of Pan Am, which had a number of the type based in West Germany to operate Internal German Services (known as the IGS), because flights to and from West Berlin could be operated only by carriers from the Allied Powers (the USA, UK and France).  These 727s also operated connecting flights to London. These were not common visitors to Ireland so it was noteworthy when they appeared in Dublin. The Irish-registered 707 on the 2nd had been Aer Lingus's first of the type but was disposed of in 1972 after the airline's frst 747s had joined the fleet. By 1978 it was owned by lessor Guinness Peat Aviation and was operating with Iran Air, the Islamic revolution in Iran still being some months in the future. Another 707 of note was N425MA on the 24th; my recollection is that this was in connection with work that had begun t...

The summer months continued to see some interesting general aviation visitors, including a Spanish Cessna 172 and a French Super Cub - the flight to Ireland must have been quite a journey for them and their crews.   The Polish Mi-2 helicopter is the only example ever to have visited Ireland and a contemporary report in "Flight" magazine said that it was in the UK and Ireland as part of a farming machinery sales campaign. In Britain it was used to carry spares to farmers across East Anglia.   Whether this stimulated sales of Ursus Bizon equipment is not known! The Mi-2 was built solely in Poland, by PZL-Swidnik, with 5,497 examples made.   SP-SWG survives in a museum in Germany, albeit wearing false Aeroflot markings. Airliners of note included the El Al 707 - a real rarity for Dublin - and Evergreen International DC-8, which I think was operating for Aer Lingus. Also, the Tarom Tu-154s which I recorded on the 6th and the 20th represented relatively rare appearances here...

As can be seen, Dublin received many general aviation visitors at this time, long before light executive jets had become dominant and when scheduled services were much more limited than nowadays. The Piper Aztec and its larger brother, the Najavo, were amongst the most common sights.  On the 12th, the Italian Beech Queen Air was quite a novelty, while a brand-new King Air 200 arrived on delivery to the Irish Air Corps, with whom it would first take up registration EI-BFJ and then military serial 234.  At this stage, the first Air Corps King Air was still operating with its civil registration, EI-BCY. Short 330 G-BDBS was the first prototype and may have been in for a revision to its livery, though images of it in the 1978 period are hard to find. The Short 330 on 25 July was for painting into Golden West Airlines colours; it would be delivered as N332GW. While I have it recorded with UK B-class marks, it was officially G-BFSW.     As can be seen, Nord 262s were in...

The first part of the month  was dominated by the USAF airlift of equipment to Lebanon , with several C-5A Galaxies, C-130s and a C-141 visiting. This was by far the most intensive USAF activity that I had witnessed at Dublin up to that time, though of course presidential visits in later decades generated high volumes of activity also.  The Starlifter, 66-0161, would visit again in 1984, having been stretched in the meantime to C-141B standard.   The SF Air DC-6 was a rare sight and in fact I did not see it, but have included it for completeness. The Eagle Air 720 on the 12th was in basic Kenya Airways colours after a lease, and used its registration as callsign.  The unusual general aviation visitors on the 3rd and 4th were on their way to an air display at Powerscourt in Co. Wicklow.  The Yak-11 was, and remains, the only example of this type ever to visit Dublin. Early HS125 G-ASSM (14th) is now preserved in the Science Museum, South Kensington, in Londo...