Douglas DC-3 at Speke Airport – 1962

This photo of a Douglas DC-3 was taken at Speke Airport (now known of course as Liverpool John Lennon Airport) in 1962.

• The Douglas DC-3 in the forground, was one of the most famous airliners of the 1930s–1950s era.

• It bears the livery of Starways, a British independent airline based in Liverpool (Speke) Airport from 1948 until 1963.

• Starways operated DC-3s and later Vickers Viscount aircraft on charter and scheduled routes across the UK and Europe.

• Behind the DC-3, there appears to be a Vickers Viscount—a British turboprop airliner—painted in the livery of British European Airways (BEA), identifiable by the white fuselage with a dark cheatline and circular tail emblem.

• This combination of aircraft types fits the transitional period when piston-engined DC-3s were still common but were being replaced by turboprops like the Viscount.