Caravelle III OH-LEA "Sinilintu" ("Bluebird")

Keskiviikko 29.3.2023 - Erja Reinikainen

Suomeksi

The Caravelle III, which was brought from Arlanda to Finland by Aviation Museum Society Finland, served in the SAS fleet with registration SE-DAF and name Sven Viking. In Pansio the aircraft is being restored to Finnair colours as its first Caravelle OH-LEA, Sinilintu (Bluebird). This blog tells about the long and colourful history of this aircraft.

Photo by Finnish Aviation Museum photo archive / Ilmailu magazine

In 1958 the Finnish airline Aero Oy (later Finnair) ordered three Caravelle IA passenger jets from the French Sud Aviation aircraft factory. The Finnish airline was one of the forerunners of air travel and was the fourth airline to order the new passenger jet type, after Air France, SAS and the Brazilian Varig.

Photo by Finnish Aviation Museum photo archive / Börje Hielm.

The first jet aircraft in Finnish civil aviation was Sud Aviation Caravelle IA, which got the registration OH-LEA and was named Sinilintu (Bluebird). It was handed over in Toulouse on February 21st, 1960, and it arrived in Finland on February 22nd, 1960. The aircraft was flown to Finland by Olli Puhakka, who was a former fighter pilot and Knight of the Mannerheim Cross. The co-pilot on the flight was Olavi Siirilä, also a former war pilot. Among the guests of honor on the flight were minister of transport Arvo Korsimo, Aero Oy’s managing director Leonard Grandell, chief editor of the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper Yrjö Niiniluoto and maritime counsellor Antti Wihuri.

Photo by Finnish Aviation Museum photo archive / Börje Hielm.

During the spring 1960 the Bluebird was followed by Sinisiipi (Bluewing, OH-LEB) and Sininuoli (Blue Arrow, OH-LEC). These three aircraft were later modified to type Caravelle III. The fourth aircraft was already a Caravelle III when it was purchased in 1962. It was named Sinipiika (Blue Maid, OH-LED).

Photo by Finnish Aviation Museum photo archive / Ilmailu magazine

Photo by Finnish Aviation Museum photo archive / Ilmailu magazine

During its service in the Aero fleet the Bluebird appeared in three different paint schemes. It was delivered in its first appearance, where the rudder was blue, and the name Aero was written in large on the upper part of the vertical stabilizer. In the second paint scheme the rudder was blue and a blue cross on the vertical stabilizer replaced the text. Otherwise the paint scheme was identical to the first one. The third painting was done when the aircraft was updated to type Caravelle III.  This is the appearance into which the former SAS SE-DAF will now be restored. The paint scheme can be seen in the visualization image on the front page of the Caravelle-project. When Finnair celebrated its 40th anniversary, a special anniversary logo and text were added on the aircraft.

OH-LEB. Photo by Finnish Aviation Museum photo archive / Finnair Oyj

In the Finnair fleet the Caravelle had 16 seats in the first class and 75 in the tourist class. Starting from April 1960, the Caravelles operated on routes to European cities. In the beginning the destinations were Stockholm, Copenhagen and Frankfurt, followed by several other cities during the coming years. The Caravelles replaced the Convair 440 Metropolitan piston engine aircraft in Europe, and they were transferred to domestic routes. In late 1961 Oulu was the first domestic route operated with passenger jets.

Olli Puhakka and Olavi Siirilä in the cockpit of Eskil Viking (SAS). Photo by Finnish Aviation Museum photo archive / Ilmailu magazine

A Finnish speciality was flying the Caravelles with only two pilots, when other airlines had two pilots and a mechanic in the cockpit. Another remarkable difference was the surrounding and existing environment, which was why the Aero Caravelles had a brake parachute installed. The Caravelle III had Rolls Royce Avon engines and there was no reverse thrust in them to assist in the braking. The brake parachutes were only used when the friction conditions on the runway were really poor. The pilot opened the brake parachute by pulling a handle during the landing run. When the aircraft left the runway, the parachute was released by pulling the same handle. The technical ground crew then collected the parachute for reassembly.

OH-LEB “Sinisiipi” (“Bluewing”) uses drag chute. Photo by Finnish Aviation Museum photo archive / Ilmailu magazine.

The OH-LEA Bluebird flew its first flight on February 11th, 1960. It belonged to the Finnair fleet in 1960–61 and logged 9091 hours. The aircraft was sold back to Sud Aviation on December 4th, 1962, and it was flown to France on September 20th, 1964.

The following user of the Caravelle was the German LTU, which got the aircraft on February 12th, 1965. It was registered as D-ABAF and named Nordrhein-Westfalen. The next user was Transavia Holland. It rented the aircraft between January 30th, 1969, and April 16th, 1970, as PH-TRM.

F-BSSR in August 1978. Photo by Michel Gilliand via Wikimedia Commons.

From the Netherlands the aircraft returned to France, where it was registered as F-BSRR in Air Inter’s fleet where it flew from March 19th, 1971, until December 1980. During this time the Caravelle was rented to Royal Air Maroc and SNIAS, among others, having different registrations.

Air Inter sold the aircraft to Altair in Italy, where it was registered I-GISA. It was removed from service in September 1983 with 37 532 hours on its log. But the story doesn’t end here.

From Italy the aircraft was bought to Congo by IAC Airlines. In Congo it was registered 9Q-CPS and it was named Santeny. The last airline to use the Caravelle was Air Transport Service, which flew it until 1994. The Caravelle was scrapped in 1996 at the N’djili international airport in Kinshasa, Congo.

As we can see, OH-LEA was an individual with a long history. It served for 36 years, and it had more user airlines and operators than any other first generation Caravelle.

Following sources have been used for this blog:

• www.caravelle-projekti.fi
• www.lentoposti.fi news on 31.02.2020
• www.wikipedia.fi/Sud_Aviation_Caravelle
• www.issuu.com/aviatorlehti/docs/2013_aviator_nr2, artikkeli Finnairin Caravelle-laivaston vaiheet
• Juha Klemettinen has provided technical comments.

Caravelle Sanding Closing to the End

Maanantai 27.3.2023 - Ismo Matinlauri

Suomeksi

During the past week we have been climbing on the top of the fuselage in Pansio. The aim is to sand the last area on top of the fuselage which we have not been able to reach from the ladders. We also cleaned the bolt and rivet holes in the stabilizer.

We rented industrial ladders which allow us to step easily on the fuselage. However, working safety issues required some thinking. How could we step on the fuselage and safely sand and do other repairs as needed? The issue was solved by using the overhead crane’s hook as a fixing point for the personal safety harness. The harness would safely prevent the possible falling.

The vertical stabilizer’s leading edge will be polished and in the autumn we installed protective tape on it for the future painting work. However, the painting wasn’t done due to the cold weather. The tape was left on the stabilizer to wait better times but now it had to be removed due to the changes in the work process. This turned out to be a burdensome job. In addition to hard work it required both mechanical scraping and use of chemical solvents to be removed.

Many thanks to Martti Peräaho, who did the main part of the climbing and grinding work on top of the fuselage while others helped on the ladders as needed.

This week we also started polishing smaller parts. When the weather warms up, hopefully after Easter, we can focus on polishing work.

We also intend to organise a polishing workshop on a couple of days where volunteers from outside the Turku area can join us in the polishing work. At the same time they can get acquainted with the project and contribute in realizing the project.

Photos by Jouko Tarponen.

Translation by Ismo Matinlauri and Erja Reinikainen.

Caravelle's inside works

Maanantai 20.3.2023 - Erja Reinikainen

Suomeksi

Last week the Caravelle’s sanding work progressed in Pansio, but also new work areas were started. The preliminary preparations inside the aircraft were started and the first experiments in painting are also under way.

Panels were dismantled from the wall between the cabin and cockpit. They were taken to the Tuesday Club in Vantaa to be cleaned and restored. In the cockpit the shading cover above the instrument panel proved very difficult to unfasten. A small part, but very tightly fastened.

The torn insulation material and its plastic covers hanging from the cabin ceiling were removed together with some tubes and wires hanging above the aisle. Some old and dry tape lines were removed from the cabin floor. A couple of kilos of small bolts, nuts and washers were vacuumed from the cabin floor. They have probably been used for fastening either the passenger seats or the cabin panels on the walls and ceiling.

Photo by Erja Reinikainen.

Two maintenance panels in the cabin floor were opened to allow future work on the aircraft’s doors.

Photos by Jouko Tarponen except if otherwise mentioned.

Caravelle SE-DAF

Sunnuntai 19.3.2023 - Jan Forsgren

Suomeksi

These blogs talk about the Sud Aviation Caravellle III SE-DAF. We think it is appropriate to tell something about what has happened to the SE-DAF before it arrived in Pansio to be restored.

The original article “SE-DAF to Finland” about SE-DAF was written in English by Jan Forsgren / Arlanda Flygsamlingars Vänner, the summary has been edited by Erja Reinikainen. The whole article was published in Aviation Museum Society Finland’s aviation history magazine Feeniks, 3/2022.

One of the first operators, and, in fact, the first airline to use the Caravelle in regular service was Scandinavian Airlines Systems (SAS). In SAS service, the Caravelle proved to be extremely popular among crews and passengers alike. Between 1959 and 1974, SAS operated on the European and Near East routes a total of 21 Caravelle I, IA and III variants. The Caravelle I and IAs were later modified to Caravelle III standard.

The fifteenth Caravelle III SAS purchased has the serial number c/n 112. After roll-out from the Sud Est factory at Toulouse, Caravelle III c/n 112 was temporarily registered as F-WJAO prior to the first flight on February 8th, 1962. On February 17th, 1962 the Caravelle was flown to Arlanda airport just north of Stockholm.

On March 5th, 1962, it was registered as SE-DAF for AB Aerotransport (ie the Swedish part of SAS). Later the same month, the aircraft was named Sven Viking. Most of the SAS Viking names used were of historical individuals from the Viking era. Sven was Sven Haraldsson, better known as Sven Tveskägg (in English; Sweyn Forkbeard). He ruled Denmark, southern Norway and England around year 1000 AD.

Photo by Wikimedia Commons.

Photo by Wikimedia Commons. Taken in December 1964.

Photo by Lars Söderström via Wikimedia Commons. Taken in 1966. 

When Flygvapnet (the Swedish Air Force) bought two Caravelles from SAS in 1971, it had originally been planned to buy a third aircraft as well for use in the personnel transport, and as (later on) a source for spares. As it was only possible to take Swedish-registered Caravelles into consideration, this third Flygvapnet Caravelle was to have been SE-DAF. However, for various reasons, SE-DAF remained with SAS.

Photos via Wikimedia Commons. Taken in 1971 on Oslo Fornebu Airport.

The 1973 oil crisis saw a rapid increase in fuel prices. With the Avon engines being very ’thirsty’, the SAS Caravelle fleet was withdrawn from use earlier than originally planned.    

The last flight of SE-DAF, between Copenhagen and Arlanda, took place on September 23rd, 1974, with the registration SE-DAF being cancelled on December 3rd, 1974. A total of 27 321 hours were logged.

Photo by Peter Bakema via Wkimedia Commons. Taken in 2004.  

After being withdrawn from use, SE-DAF was donated to Luftfartsverkets historiska samlingar (The Swedish CAA Historical Collection). The engines were removed, with the cabin seats and interior also being largely removed. Some of the cockpit instruments were also removed. A preservative coat of Tectyl was then applied to the fuselage to prevent corrosion. Originally parked at Ramp Kalle, the Caravelle was later towed to Ramp Ivar, which was located outside the security area. It is believed that the damage to the right wingtip was sustained when towed to Ramp Ivar. Members of AFV  took care of filling air in the tires every sixth month, as well as moving about 30 cabin seat frames (mainly from Caravelle 10B1R SE-DEC) into the cabin. However, a multitude of other projects, as well as a constant lack of resources, meant that no proper work in restoring the Caravelle to her former glory could be accomplished.

Photo by Juha Klemettinen. Taken in 2011.

Due to Ramp Ivar being located near a taxi runway, literally thousands of airline passengers could see the Caravelle. Due to the rather worn and tatty SAS colour scheme, SAS paid for over-painting this in white. SE-DAF appeared briefly in the 2013 movie Monica Z, about the singer Monica Zetterlund. In the movie, SAS colours were applied digitally to SE-DAF during postproduction, but not painted on the actual aircraft.  

Shortly afterwards, the aircraft was towed back to Ramp Kalle. It was to remain there for the next eight years.

Photo by Ulf Nyström. Taken in 2020.

After SMTM took ownership of Arlanda Flygsamlingar in January 2018, Le Caravelle Club, following negotiations, received permission in late 2019 to remove certain parts of the interior from SE-DAF, including some of the overhead luggage shelves, and the galley in order to restore SE-DAI back to SAS colours.

In the spring of 2020, the owners of Arlanda Flygsamlingar, Statens Maritima och Transporthistoriska Museer (National Maritime and Transport Historical Museums, SMTM), decided to dispose of the Caravelle due to lack of resources, and the onslaught of the Corona Pandemic. To scrap the aircraft would have cost SEK 200,000. It was obvious that an alternative solution had to be sought. A volunteer member of Arlanda Flygsamlingars Vänner (Friends of Arlanda Flygsamlingar, AFV), Jan Forsgren, contacted Janne Salonen, tentatively asking if IMY would be interested in acquiring the Caravelle. Janne Salonen responded quickly to Jan Forsgren’s e-mail, saying that IMY were indeed interested in obtaining the Caravelle for preservation in Finland.

And the rest is history.

Blog was shortened by Erje Reinikainen from Jane Forsgren's article.

About Caravelle's sanding

Maanantai 6.3.2023 - Erja Reinikainen

Suomeksi

Caravelle’s sanding work is progressing well in the port hall in Pansio. During the autumn season work methods were developed and now the best practices are producing results.

The first phase in cleaning the Caravelle’s surfaces was to remove the black tar streaks and blotches left by rainwater and air pollutants during the decades when the aircraft stood outside at Arlanda airport. After some experimenting it was noticed that persistent scratching was the best work method. Different chemicals for removing graffiti and even oven cleaner foam were tested, but the results were not mentionable.

Angle grinders have been used in the sanding work, starting with coarse sanding discs, and progressing to finer ones. Sanding discs P240 grit have been used for removing old paint. The surfaces which will be painted are left to this sanded coarseness, which is sufficient for the new paint to cover the surface well. The surfaces which will be polished have been sanded first using discs with P500 grit and then with P1000 grit.

The most burdensome areas for sanding have been the round head riveted painted areas on the rear fuselage and flaps. There the first grinding phase has been to use a steel-wire brush before moving to sanding discs.

The sanding work was started on the left side of the fuselage and on the lower side of the right side. After the transportation from Sweden, for some time the fuselage was resting tilted 45 degrees to the left, and this made it possible to restore the bottom on the right side and sand the left side at the top of the fuselage. The fuselage was lifted upright in the beginning of November.

Before the Christmas break the 18 cm wide white strip of SAS-paint scheme white paint under the windows was sanded away on the left side, below the window line. It has been agreed that the aircraft will be painted to the 1960s Finnair paint scheme used on the Caravelle OH-LEA. There the lower side of the fuselage is polished up to the window level and the top part of the fuselage and the vertical stabilizer are painted white. The window area is painted blue with a narrow white line below. On the other side of the fuselage the paint-removing work was finished in the beginning of February. Also the sanding of the horizontal stabilizer, vertical stabilizer and engine nacelles was finished in early February.

Now also on the upper sides of the wings the middle sections have been sanded. The wings’ middle sections will be painted, and the leading edges and flaps will be polished. There the sanding work is under way. The lower sides of the wings were cleaned with dry-ice blasting, and they are ready for painting.

Before polishing, the finer grit discs (P3000 or P4000) are used at the final phases of sanding, when necessary, to remove the scratches caused by sanding. On a surface which is in poor condition, or which hasn’t been polished before, there are microscopic “hills” and “valleys” and these differences on the surface are smoothed out by moving material from the high points to the low ones (this is called compounding). This surface processing requires a lot of polishing power and therefore a rotary polisher and a wool disc are used. After using a rotary polisher the surface has a bright finish, but the wool disc has left thin spiralling scratches on it. To remove these the final polishing must be done using a double-disc random orbital polisher, “cyclo”.

As you can see, there is a lot of polishing ahead before all Caravelle’s surfaces are shining bright. The use of polishing abrasives requires a temperature of +5…+10°C, so polishing work in Pansio will have to wait for spring weather.

Translation with help of Martti Saarinen.

Photos by Jouko Tarponen

The Caravelle's cockpit is missing instruments and equipment

Keskiviikko 1.3.2023 - Erja Reinikainen

Suomeksi

At the moment, the Caravelle SE-DAF’s cockpit looks rather bare and stark. There are a lot of instruments missing and the surfaces and fittings are shabby. The decades of being stored outdoors at Arlanda have left their mark.

Photo by Ismo Matinlauri.

We will not let this discourage us, instead we take this as a challenge. Our aim is to find the missing instruments and equipment and restore the cockpit and its surfaces as well as we can.

Now we are looking for analogue instruments which were used in the 1960s’ and 1970s’ aircraft and we turn to our readers for help. The instruments don’t have to be original ones which were used in the Caravelles, a similar style is sufficient. A list of the missing instruments is below, we need two of each.

Flight monitoring instruments

The size of the flight monitoring instruments varies. Some have a rectangular housing 82 x 82 mm, others a round housing with a diameter of 80 mm. The housing for the Flight Director Indicator / Attitude indicator is rectangular 100 x 100 mm. A round instrument can be installed instead, using a reducer plate.

• Airspeed indicator (display in knots)
• Flight Director indicator (HZ4)
• Altimeter (display preferably in feet)
• Rate of climb indicator
• Pictorial Deviation Indicator PDI
• Gyrosyn compass C6B (preferably with ADF)
• Gyrosyn compass C6B (preferably with VOR)
• Radio Altimeter
• DME indicator Collins 339D

Engine monitoring instruments

The engine monitoring instruments have a diameter of 49 mm. A different size can be used but will be difficult. Instruments with the original displays will probably not be found but the dial face can be changed. The following instruments are missing.

Photos by Ismo Matinlauri.

• Fuel Qty Indicator Main Tank (the original display 0-7000 kg)
• Fuel Qty Indicator Outer Tank (the original display 0-1200 kg)
• Fuel Flow Indicator
• Fuel Used Indicator
• Fuel Pressure Dual Indicator
• Nozzle Temp Indicators (the original display 0-1000)
• RPM Indicators (the original on resembles a clock with two hands, one for hundreds of rpm, the other for thousands)

Radio control panels

The following items are missing:

• Control panel of the VHF radio, Com and Nav
• Control panel of the HF radio
• Control panel of the ADF

If you happen to know anything about the items listed above or if you know where they could be found, please contact Caravelle project manager Janne Salonen, mobile +358 50 5291135 or email janne.salonen@imy.fi

Translation with help of Martti Saarinen.

Photos by Jouko Tarponen except if otherwise separately mentioned.

The restoration of the Caravelle III towbar is progressing

Keskiviikko 1.3.2023 - Tuesday Club member

Suomeksi

During Tuesday Club’s autumn season the Caravelle III towbar restoration work reached the point where the majority of the towbar parts had been painted with Isotrol primer, which prevents rusting. Half of them were painted with dark grey Isotrol and the other half with pale grey. We could see that the paint made the corrosion marks on the towbar surface clearly visible.

Photos by Juha Veijalainen.

We made a test where a small area of the towbar was painted with Teknos adhesive primer to see whether it would cover the corrosion. It did, indeed, but the corrosion marks were still visible. The next step would have been to spackle the whole towbar to make the corrosion marks disappear. However, we decided not to. We shall let the corrosion spots show and prove that the Caravelle III towbar has been rusting under the open sky for fifty years at Arlanda airport.

The towbar will be painted to the same paint scheme we used for the Finnair Super Caravelle towbar when it was restored last year. Just to refresh your memory, the towbar now under restoration was brought from Sweden together with the Sud Aviation Caravelle III (SE-DAF), which was acquired by Aviation Museum Society Finland. This towbar has been used by SAS, but we will restore it to Finnair colours. After restoration the towbar will be placed on display at Turku airport together with the Caravelle III, which will be restored to the Finnair 1963 paint scheme as OH-LEA “Sinilintu” (Bluebird).

The main colour on the towbar is the Finnair blue, with 50 cm of the towbar’s pull loop end and 73 cm of the aircraft towhead end painted yellow. The blue paint is Unica outdoor furniture paint NSC S 6030-B and the blue paint Unica outdoor furniture paint RAL 1023.

Photos by Juha Veijalainen.

The top coat painting was started from the smaller parts of the towbar. The towbar wheel rack with its fastening flange was the first part to be painted blue. The paint was applied with brushes. After the first layer we noticed that the covering wasn’t sufficient yet. The surfaces were sanded manually with sandpaper and painted with another layer of blue paint. The result was fairly good. We don’t think the wheel rack needs to be painted a third time.

The bar section of the towbar had been dismantled into two parts. The painting with finishing paint was started with the yellow paint. It was soon noticed that already the first layer of yellow paint covered well the bar which had been painted with pale grey Isotrol primer. However, the yellow paint didn’t cover so well the other half of the bar which had been painted with dark grey Isotrol. It would have been better if both halves of the bar had been painted with the pale grey primer. Well, this means only that we will have to apply several yellow layers on the half which was painted with the dark grey. At this point two layers of yellow paint have been applied.

In addition to painting, also other restoration work has been done. Both ends of the towbar lack the rectangular handlebars made of round metal rods. The Super Caravelle towbar we restored earlier has similar handlebars. We unfastened one of them to use it as a model when building the missing handlebars for the Caravelle III towbar. This Caravelle III towbar is the first version of the towbars manufactured by Sud Aviation, its model number is S.09.107 and the Super Caravelle towbar we restored last year is the factory’s last and third towbar version with model number S.09.107 2.

First we started making the fastening plates for the handlebars, using the Super Caravelle towbar handle as a model. There is a fastener plate welded to both ends of the handlebar. There is a 10 mm hole in the plate for a bolt, which fastens the handle on the towbar.

We found a suitable piece of 4 mm thick and 10 cm wide flat bar iron in the metal storage of the Finnish Aviation Museum’s hot work container. Rust was sanded off the flat bar iron and then four 8 cm pieces were cut from it with an angle grinder. The shape of the Super Caravelle towbar handle fastener was drawn on all of them. The extra material was cut off and their corners and edges were shaped round using an emery and an abrasive band. The fastener plates are now ready to be welded on the handlebar, but the holes for the bolts are missing. The following phase will be to make the actual handles for the handlebars.

On the surface of the Caravelle III towbar there are the remains of the broken handlebar fastening bolts. The bolts were drilled out, first using an 8 mm drill bit. Then a hole was made for a M10 bolt using a larger drill bit. A thread was made into the hole for a 10 mm hexagon head bolt, using a threading tap. The bolt holes are now ready for fastening the handlebars on the towbar.

Translation by Erja Reinikainen.

Photos by Lassi Karivalo except if othewise separately mentioned.