war surplus aircraft and spares trader formed in 1947 . in 1949 it began maintaining aircraft used by some of britain s contemporary independent airlines on the berlin airlift . in the early 1950s it branched out into aircraft conversions and manufacturing . during that period it also became a subcontractor for other aircraft manufacturers . by the end of the decade it was taken over by the airwork group . 1 2 3 contents 1 history 2 aircraft re built 3 notes 4 references 5 external links history edit aviation traders ltd. atl was established by freddie laker at bovingdon in hertfordshire england in 1947 to trade in war surplus aircraft and spares . two years later laker shifted his fledgling business to new premises at rochford aerodrome later southend municipal airport near southend on sea essex england . 1 4 atl initially specialised in converting numerous war surplus bombers and transporters into freighters . this included the conversion of handley page halifax bombers into freighters six of which were sold to bond air services an early post war independent british airline . bond air services based these planes at wunstorf aerodrome in west germany to carry essential supplies into west berlin during the berlin blockade of 1948 49 . bond air services furthermore contracted aviation traders to service these planes . in return aviation traders got half of bond air services freight charges . 5 following the end of the berlin airlift in 1949 laker had most of the halifaxes he had supplied to various independent airlines during the airlift scrapped at its southend facilities . aviation traders engineering ltd atel atl s engineering division was formally established in 1949 . laker put jack wiseman a fully qualified aircraft maintenance engineer with whom he had worked for a brief period at london aero motor services lasm in charge of his new engineering business . 6 three former british european airways bea vickers vikings which laker had acquired in 1949 as well were overhauled at atl s southend maintenance base and sold on to british overseas airways corporation boac at a profit . 7 the following year atl s engineering arm cannibalised a number of unairworthy yorks and lancasters laker had purchased to rebuild the salvaged parts into three airworthy yorks . 7 atl also became one of many post war aircraft manufacturers seeking to develop a successor to the then ubiquitous douglas dc 3 piston airliner that continued playing a prominent role in the fleets of many of the world s airlines well into the 1950s . 8 atl s answer was the atl 90 accountant which first flew on 9 july 1957 . the accountant was designed for 28 passengers and like the more successful avro 748 handley page dart herald fokker friendship and ys 11 was powered by two rolls royce dart turboprop engines . at the time atl was competing in the dc 3 replacement market with avro handley page fokker and nihon aircraft manufacturing corporation namc . these were well established aircraft manufacturers with much deeper pockets . atl could not match the scale of its competitors investments both in the design and development of the aircraft itself as well as in marketing the aircraft to potential customers . in addition the simultaneous development of five competing designs the atl 90 accountant the avro 748 the handley page hpr 7 dart herald the fokker f 27 friendship and the namc ys 11 saturated the market . as a consequence the accountant failed to attract orders . this led to the programme s termination . it also resulted in the prototype s destruction . 9 10 subsequent conversion work proved more successful . some avro tudor airliners were fitted with large freight doors to carry cargo for air charter ltd one of atl s sister companies as supertraders . 11 twenty one douglas dc 4 airliners were converted into car ferries as the atl 98 carvair 1 a major task that included replacing the aircraft s original forward fuselage with an extended version incorporating the flight deck above the cargo hold and a side hinged nose door through which five cars could be loaded one at a time by means of a mobile ground based scissor lift . 12 twenty five passengers could be accommodated in the remaining rear fuselage whose cross section remained unaltered . the fin was enlarged to offset the destabilising effect of the enlarged forward fuselage . many of these piston engined carvair aircraft were operated from southend airport on short air ferry routes across the english channel or north sea . the eventual provision of competing fast ferry services by large hovercraft the sr.n4 meant that the age of the car carrying airliner that commenced with the bristol freighter concluded with the carvair . 3 13 atl furthermore re engined argonauts boac s canadian built douglas dc 4s with unused rolls royce merlin piston engines which it sourced from the 88 spare merlins laker had acquired earlier along with boac s halifaxes and several avro tudors purchased from the government . 14 in 1951 atl won a contract from bristol aircraft to manufacture wing centre sections for bristol freighters . between the beginning of 1952 and the end of 1955 atl built 50 wing sections for bristol aircraft . during that period atl had grown into a large engineering and manufacturing organisation . 15 in 1956 atl purchased over 250 surplus ex royal air force percival prentice trainer aircraft about 20 of which were converted for civilian customers . 1 16 in 1958 laker announced his decision to sell both atl and air charter to airwork for 600 000 cash plus a further 200 000 subject to the valuation of stock . 2 the deal became effective in january 1959 when both companies joined the airwork group . 3 aircraft re built edit aviation traders carvair aviation traders accountant notes edit a b c d mondey 2000 p. 116 a b fly me i m freddie p. 54 a b c airliner world britain s carferry airlines key publishing avenel nj usa july 2005 p. 34 fly me i m freddie eglin r. and ritchie b. weidenfeld and nicolson london 1980 pp. 12 17 fly me i m freddie eglin r. and ritchie b. weidenfeld and nicolson london 1980 p. 16 fly me i m freddie eglin r. and ritchie b. weidenfeld and nicolson london 1980 pp. 12 3 24 a b fly me i m freddie eglin r. and ritchie b. weidenfeld and nicolson london 1980 p. 24 the douglas dc 3 armstrong p. 2005 . the flight of the accountant a romance of air and credit flight to insolvency fly me i m freddie eglin r. and ritchie b. weidenfeld and nicolson london 1980 pp. 48 54 fly me i m freddie eglin r. and ritchie b. weidenfeld and nicolson london 1980 pp. 36 7 39 40 fly me i m freddie eglin r. and ritchie b. weidenfeld and nicolson london 1980 p. 89 fly me i m freddie eglin r. and ritchie b. weidenfeld and nicolson london 1980 pp. 77 8 fly me i m freddie eglin r. and ritchie b. weidenfeld and nicolson london 1980 pp. 38 49 fly me i m freddie eglin r. and ritchie b. weidenfeld and nicolson london 1980 p. 29 fly me i m freddie eglin r. and ritchie b. weidenfeld and nicolson london 1980 pp. 46 7 references edit eglin roger & ritchie berry 1980 . fly me i m freddie . london uk weidenfeld and nicolson . isbn 0 297 77746 7 . mondey david 2000 . the new illustrated encyclopedia of aircraft . london quantum . airliner world britain s carferry airlines january 2004 . avenel nj usa key publishing . airliner world online external links edit www.atl.aero atl aviation traders ltd armstrong p. 2005 . the flight of the accountant a romance of air and credit flight to insolvency v t e aerospace industry in the united kingdom economy of the united kingdom manufacturing in the united kingdom companies current ad aerospace agustawestland airbus uk astrium satellites surrey satellite technology bae systems bae systems integrated system technologies bae systems military air solutions eurofighter gmbh 33 % mbda 37.5 % bba aviation boeing defence uk british airways engineering britten norman chemring group cobham cobham technical services euravia ge aviation systems gfs projects gkn hants and sussex aviation hybrid air vehicles irvin gq lindstrand technologies lockheed martin uk marshall aerospace martin baker meggitt messier bugatti dowty qinetiq reaction engines rolls royce selex es short brothers telespazio vega thales air defence thales optronics ultra electronics defunct adc aircraft ajep abbott baynes sailplanes abc motors air navigation and engineering company airco the airscrew company airship industries airspeed armstrong whitworth aircraft arrow aircraft auster austin motor company aviation traders avro beagle aircraft william beardmore and company blackburn aircraft boulton & paul boulton paul aircraft bristol aeroplane company british aerial transport british aerospace british aircraft company british aircraft corporation british aircraft manufacturing btr aerospace central aircraft company chilton aircraft chrislea aircraft clayton & shuttleworth comper aircraft company cunliffe owen aircraft dart aircraft de havilland de havilland aeronautical technical school de havilland propellers desoutter aircraft company dowty group dowty rotol dunlop standard aerospace e. d. abbott edgar percival aircraft elliotts of newbury english electric fairey aviation company fane aircraft company ferranti folland aircraft foster wikner aircraft garland aircraft company general aircraft general electric company gloster aircraft company grahame white handley page hawker aircraft hawker siddeley heston aircraft company hewlett & blondeau hordern richmond hunting aircraft lakes flying company luton aircraft m. b. arpin & co. marconi company marconi electronic systems martinsyde matra marconi space miles aircraft moss brothers aircraft d. napier & son nash & thomson national aircraft factory no. 2 nieuport & general aircraft norman thompson flight company parnall parnall & sons port victoria marine experimental aircraft depot lang propellers reid and sigrist rollason aircraft and engines royal aircraft establishment saunders roe scottish aviation seaplane experimental station selex galileo selex sistemi integrati siddeley deasy sopwith aviation company spartan aircraft supermarine vickers vickers armstrongs westland aircraft westland helicopters j. samuel white government and regulatory bodies civil aviation authority defence electronics and components agency defence science and technology laboratory european aviation safety agency related topics ads group aircraft manufactured in the united kingdom air international air service training british aerospace engineers farnborough airshow flight international key publishing nats holdings ndi uk parcaberporth royal aeronautical society society of british aerospace companies category retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title aviation traders & oldid 742394153 categories defunct aircraft manufacturers of the united kingdommanufacturing companies established in 19471947 establishments in englandbritish companies established in 1947 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages deutschitaliano edit links this page was last modified on 3 october 2016 at 12 41 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view