Contributed by R. Pelley
Bob's Post Card Collection
These are photos I have collected over
the years of aviation activity in Gander. Most of them are actual
postcards I have but a few of them are copies that people have sent me
when they knew I was looking for photos of the Gander terminal.
(click
for enlargement)

This is a hand coloured postcard from
1952. The colouring is not very accurate. For example, the outside of the
hanger was grey and not that brick-red shown on the postcard. This is
actually an American Overseas Airlines DC-4 which had basically red trim
as compared to what looks like blue. It took me quite some time to
identify this airplane due to the imaginative colour scheme! The
postcard was done by Folkard of Montreal..

This is an aircraft used in the late
1940s for in-flight refuelling, mainly because the earliest transatlantic
flights had limited fuel capacity with little margin for error. This is a
converted Lancaster bomber. The postcard was mailed from Gander on 16
July 1952.

As far as I can find out, this is a
postcard specially made for American Overseas Airlines when it started
flying through Gander. It must be from the 1946-1950 period because AOA
was the international arm of American Airlines and was sold by AA to Pan
American in 1950. This one is weird though as it was sent with three Nfld
stamps but clearly postmarked 18 Oct 1964 !

This is a Scandinavian Airline System (SAS)
aircraft on a postcard that was sent from Gander on 6 July 1951. Looks
like a DC-4.

I like this postcard
in particular (a) because a Constellation has to be one of the most
graceful aircraft ever built and (b) I think this is the road leading to
Deadmans Pond which means that the TWA plane is parked close to where we
would go as a family on Sunday afternoon to see the planes. Remember the
entrance next to the Allied Commissary?... every now and then they would
give us a "airplane meal" when an aircraft was late arriving and the
meal had to be redone or when an aircraft had fewer passengers than
expected. We'd eat the meal and imagine that we ourselves were on our way
to some exotic and mysterious destination.

Another AOA aircraft,
also looks like a DC-4. Unused postcard, no date.

A great colour shot of
a TWA Super Connie. Also an unused postcard... but it shows that
"globalization" had already started - it is a photo by Ruggles of
St.John's, published by the Book Room Ltd of Halifax and printed in the
USA.

Another unused,
undated postcard of a Connie but this time a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

According to the
caption, this is an "Alaskan" aircraft in Gander. I must say though that
while this is a postcard made in Toronto by the "Photogelatine Engraving
Co. Ltd", I'm not convinced it is really Gander nor an Alaskan airplane.
This is because (a) the trucks don't seem to be the same as others I've
seen from Gander, (b) even though Alaska became the 49th state in 1959,
the identification on the airplane that starts with ZS doesn't seem to be
North American and (c) the flag on the tail looks Dutch or Belgian.
The message on this
back of the postcard (29 June 1951) is very human, obviously sent by a
father to his son and meant probably to reassure him. The photo on the
front is of a two-engine airplane but the message and the back says "
Dear Dave, We are flying in a DC-4. The plane has 4 engines. Must run,
Daddy."

Another
Connie, this time a Pan American.

This full colour
postcard showing a KLM Connie and an SAS DC-6 might be my favorite for a
number of reasons. Firstly, my father Calvin worked for Shell at the time
and who knows, he might have been refueling that KLM. Secondly, this
postcard was bought in Gander by a lady who sent it back to Washington
from Madrid on 4 April 1955. It is fairly warm in Madrid in April so her
comment about Gander on the front of the postcard is probably
understandable : "A bleak place when we were there - snow and ice."

this is also a
fascinating postcard firstly because it shows a Trans Canada Airline DC-3
in Gander, a type of photo which is hard to find. I have traced the
pedigree of this particular airplane : it was a US Airforce C-47 number
92306 transfered to the RCAF as FZ557. It then
went to Trans Canada Airlines as CF-TDS in 1946. It then became CF-QBF
with Quebecair and was written-0ff in hangar fire
13 July
1958 at Rimouski, Quebec.
Another
interesting facet of this postcard comes from the comments on the back,
written on 5 July 1952. It tells us that the person who wrote it came in
on a Pan American flight O72 that landed in Gander on three engines. The
85 passengers on Pan Am 072 had to wait 8 hours in Gander until another
airplane was flown in from New York. The writer says they were well
treated in Gander. One can imagine they were happy to know that Gander
Airport was nicely placed between the US and Europe with nice long
runways.

I
got this postcard from a chap in Lima, Peru as it had been sent to someone
in his family from Gander on 5 June 1949, This is another Forkard postcard
and the photo was taken by Mr DB Moore, manager of the Skyline Club. This
is the rarest postcard I have ever seen of Gander and shows a small
airplane, possibly a Beaver, flying up the shore of Gander Lake. From the
description, it would appear that this photo was taken at the bottom of
Burner Road near what became the "DOT boathouse" (unless it was the main
seaplane base a bit further to the east.) Hard to tell because it is
described as "a short walk from Gander Airport".

Not a
good photo but interesting because we see a Boeing Stratocruiser landing
at twilight.

Again not a good
photo, but shows an Air France Connie.

This photo is interesting for a number of reasons, Firstly, it is a nice
close-up of a BOAC Stratocruiser where on can really see that this
airplane was based on the B-29 bomber (the one that dropped the atomic
bomb on Horoshima). Funny how a machine of mass destruction became a
symbol of civilization. Secondly, it is interesting to see how the hanger
building changed over time. In earlier photos, the roof of the hanger has
what looks a line of antennas, sometimes with or without flags of many
countries, while the roofline is much cleaner in this photo. Also, the
earlier sign just said "Gander Airport" while this one now says "Gander
International Airport, Newfoundland, Canada". I wonder why the change ??

Just a black and white
shot of what looks like two DC-4s, the closest one being an SAS.

I'm not sure where I
got this photo but it has a seldom seen angle. Both aircraft are Pan
American (Stratocruiser and DC-6).

Seaboard and Western"
DC-4, named the "Frankfurt Trader", N1543V, refuelling at Gander in 1951.
Just look at the old fuel trucks, hard to find anything more 1940s than
that!
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