Talk:Miles Aerovan

I've had a go at adding refs and trying to give the predominately civil use of this a/c proper weight. I only have Jackson (AJJ) and JAWA'56-7, and others may want to add references to the existing bibliography which was and is not referenced. A number of points came up and I wonder if anyone has authoritative answers.

1) Did Miles really use Roman mark numbers? AJJ does not, and The book of Miles a/c (1945) does not have any examples (the Aerovan is not in that, of course). RAF Magisters did go Roman, but that was RAF practice early in WW2. They never used Aerovans.

2) What was the c/n or civil reg i/d of the Israeli 'van?

3) Is there evidence for Turkish AF use? If so, what a/c i/d? We know that G-AJZR became Turkish State Airlines TC-VAN (ho-ho!); but airforce?

4) Was the French contract mentioned really that with HD, or something different? Is so, did they build 'vans and how many?

5) Is ref 1 worth keeping? It was misquoted here anyway.

6) Build numbers: I counted 52, not 59. The counts via registrations or by c/n agree, and go as follows: 2 prototypes + 7 MkIII + 42 MkIV + 1 Mk VI. No Mk V here as it was a Mk IV, and similarly with a few others. The UK Civil reg contains 48 'vans, allowing for G-AJOF/'HDM apearing twice. As well as these we have c/n 6381 (OO-HOM) , Mk III plus c/n 6426-8, (YI-ABW, ZK-AWV and 'W), giving 52 in all.

So were there any more? An obvious possible miss is c/n 6419 which should have been a Mk IV. There might have been c/ns above 6428, of course.

Any thoughts? TSRL (talk) 21:15, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

3) Jackson (1974) entry for TC-VAN says to Turkish Air Force 1954. MilborneOne (talk) 21:31, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

2) It was an Aerovan 4 and operated between 17 June 1948 and 17 July 1948 (when it was destroyed) an image at [1] shows a UK civil reg painted out under the wing looks like G-AJ?? - Aeroflight give the identity as G-AJWI which would fit although G-AJWIs history is a bit vague 'damaged beyond repair abroad 1950 in Jackson. MilborneOne (talk) 21:43, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

3)

• Aerovan 1 - 1 (AGOZ)
• Aerovan 2 - 1 (AGWO)
• Aerovan 3 - 7 (AHTX, AHXH, AIDI, AIHK, AIHL, AIIG, OO-HOM)
• Aerovan 4 -41 (C-602, HB-AAA, YI-ABW, G-21-4, G-21-3, AIDJ, AIHJ, AIKV, AILB, AILC, AILD, AILE, AILF, AILM, AISE, AISF, AISG, AISI, AJKJ, AJKM, AJKO, AJKP, AJKU, AJOB, AJOF, AJOG, AJOI, AJTC, AJTD, AJTK, AJWD, AJWI, AJWK, AJXK, AJZG, AJZN, AJZP, AJZR, AKHD, AKHG, AKKJ)
• Aerovan 5 - 1 (AISJ)
• Aerovan 6 - 1 (AKHF)

Yes agree looks like 52 (AMYA and AMYC were never completed which confused me originally!) MilborneOne (talk) 21:56, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

5) the ref is not reliable we can use Jackson or JAWA instead. MilborneOne (talk) 21:57, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

• Just seen the original registration document for G-AJWI [2] it was sold to Mayfair Air Services Ltd, 100 Park Street London three or four weeks before it arrived in Israel! MilborneOne (talk) 22:01, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

• Interesting! Note it says written off 8/11/50, though I guess write off dates and wrecked dates are not necessarily the same, especially in these circumstances. On the numbers issue, the RNZAF link in the article says 4 Aerovans. I can only find details of 2. Also note TC-VAN became TC-BIS later, to V.Hercus then crashed 7/58.TSRL (talk) 09:54, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

• • Perhaps we need a secondary source for the Turkish Air Force use. Can only find two NZ Aerovans 6427 (G-21-4/NZ1752/ZK-AWW) and 6428 (G-21-3/NZ1751/ZK-AWV). MilborneOne (talk) 10:30, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

• • • Agree on both NZ and Turkish. There is an unoffcial Turkish civil reg (Google on TC-BIS Aerovan) which lists TC-VAN (c/n 6422)as first registered in Jan '49, owned by DLH. The date agrees with AJJ and I guess DLH is the transport company that runs Turkish Airlines. In '53 ownership passes to V. Hirkus (Turkish WW1 fighter ace); crashed off reg in 7/58. So unless this is wrong, or it was with the AF after TC-VAN and before TC-BIS (which I suppose is possible, for why the change in reg?) it was not with TAF.TSRL (talk) 12:05, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

The IAF page http://www.iaf-museum.org.il/site/museum.asp?pi=13&doc_id=216 has photos of IAF Aerovan and mentions the number 6418, i.e. G-AJWI. Probably interesting but it is in Hebrew, which I do not have.

I'm minded to remove the nickname unless anyone can offer an authoritative source. The Hampden was called this.TSRL (talk) 19:58, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Agree on nickname, I think thats the IAF Aerovan proven, begining to wonder if the Turkish Air Force was a confusion for being owned an ex-Air Force pilot perhaps he kept it at a TAF base. MilborneOne (talk) 20:06, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

• • I've emailed ole nicolajsen, the chap who runs the Turkish reg. He has also published on Turkish Military a/c, so maybe he can nail it.TSRL (talk) 21:09, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

• • • Bang on! Ole N confirms this is what happened. Reg change a Herkus family thing; airbase probably Etimesgut. Have therefore removed Turkish a/f comments.TSRL (talk) 17:10, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

Nice work. MilborneOne (talk) 19:05, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

Belgian civil user

The mention of a Belgian civil user "Belgian Air Service" baffles me - never heard of an Airvan in Belgian use, and never heard of this operator either. Perhaps confusion with Belgian International Air Service ? I am afraid we may have to remove this entry. Jan olieslagers (talk) 16:28, 19 October 2013 (UTC)

G-AISI msn 6397 of British Nederland Airservices was sold to Belgium in August 1950 to "Belgian Air Service" and registered OO-MAR according to A.J.Jackson's "British Civil Aircraft since 1919", is was later re-registered as OO-MAP refer image http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1037792/ MilborneOne (talk) 16:39, 19 October 2013 (UTC)

Air-Britain Archive in 1981 had C of R Number 854 Miles M.57 Aerovan 4 registered 10.50 as OO-MAR, "Ex G-AISI. Vinchent, Brussels; to P. Lafosse, Spa. Re-regd OO-MAP 30.6.60 and crashed at Spa 25.6.61" so no mention of "Belgian Air Service" in the registration info but presumablt Jackson didnt make it up as he is normally a reliable source. MilborneOne (talk) 16:49, 19 October 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for the quick and adequate reaction. There seems reason enough for not changing anything in a hurry. I even found a photo of that same OO-MAP in the famous round hangars at EBGB Grimbergen. Rgds, Jan olieslagers (talk) 17:04, 19 October 2013 (UTC)