Author Topic: Air Freddie  (Read 4666 times)

Offline raafif

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Air Freddie
« on: March 31, 2012, 02:57:26 AM »
After his airline, Laker Airways, folded in England; Sir Freddie decided to relocate & take a long holiday ... he sold up all his personal holdings & moved to Bermuda.

After a year he found that the company of the well-heeled mega-rich (as opposed to the merely super-rich he mingled with in England) was quite invigorating and he longed to be in business again.  This was fairly easy now that he had many new friends with very little to spend their excess money on.  So he looked around at what might be available in the South Pacific.

What there was were plenty of small, poor islands wanting him to invest.  He chose the Kingdom of Tonga, as it was more "British" than the others and welcomed his plans for a small elite holiday-village which would include a casino.  To keep the exclusivity, he actually set up two resorts on separate islands - they would only cater for the very rich but not for those without Taste & Class, thus excluding most movie & rock stars.

The next problem was how to get his clients there from the US -- luxury boats large enough to do the job were expensive & very slow .... many of his clients would want faster transport.  Standard airliners & biz-jets were out as none of these islands were big enough for even a small runway.  Flying-boats were the answer - they would have the capacity & speed, as well as the high class he wished to provide.  There were quite a few Catalinas still flying but they were rather too small for what he had in mind, but he did buy just one for his own corporate use - a Super-Cat.  A search delivered the main answer -- three remaining Short Sandringhams in near-air-worthy condition, one each in French Polynesia, New Zealand & Australia.

He purchased these under the aegis of a new airline -- "Air Freddie" and made them air-worthy, fitting them out with very plush interiors.  Like their forebears, they were painted overall in a classic satin-white with tasteful pale green trim.


They would be crewed by staff in classic 1930s style uniforms too - from the pilots to cabin-crew to porters.  At first only one aircraft was in service as the first new resort was small.  Soon the second resort would be finished so most of his fleet would then be occupied while the third would be rotated in use as maintenance demanded, with the Catalina in reserve if needed.


These two resorts proved successful and popular but, as intended, a bit too exclusive for the many that wanted to get away from the usual holiday-spots.  However, he did realise that the "cash of the Crass" was also welcome in some way ... so he started to set up another, larger & more remote island as a private sex-club -- also with extensive gambling facilities.  After six months the club was ready to start operations -- not surprisingly, this resort quickly became very popular indeed -- attracting many more customers in fact than the number of well-heeled clients who wanted to go to his other establishments and Sir Freddie was now a bit embarrassed with this shortfall in transport for his many new clients -- he hadn't foreseen quite such high demand for his product.  The third Sandringham, plus his own Catalina, were pressed into full-time service - all four were very busy.  Besides the usual sound-proof suites of such resorts, this one also had session-rooms where the rock-stars could practice, and an emergency clinic should anyone overdose on the free drugs of choice.  Speaking of which, his Catalina was used as a drug-mule, making night-time trips to Colombia for bulk supplies at a good price.  Painted gloss black with dark-grey registration codes, the only other markings were the name "Black Kitty" in small pink letters just below the cockpit on the port fuselage side.


Once more searching around, he found two Martin Mars flying-boats that would soon be surplus to needs as they were not up to modern enough standards for the forest fire-fighting companies that currently owned them.  As it turned out, after refurbishing with new interiors (very similar to the original Martin Commercial design), they proved ideal for the large number of famous entertainment stars heading for his club.  Both Mars aircraft were fitted out with a large bar and several double bedrooms as, no doubt, their rock-star clients would wish to indulge in their usual recreational activities as soon as they boarded.  This was easy to do as the Mars was originally designed by Martin Aircraft as an up-market transport, unfortunately immediately made redundant by land-based jet air-liners.
            To see how the interiors of these aircraft looked go here .... (no connection to seller, just a satisfied customer) http://magcloud.com/browse/Issue/3629

The catching red and white paint scheme of these aircraft was fairly recent & in good condition so it was retained -- only being supplemented by large "Air Freddie" titles, a pin-up girl on the enormous single fins and their names .. "Bouncy Betty" and "Bedtime Suzie".
    "Bouncy Betty" lands at the resort ...


    "Bedtime Suzi" rests on a lake to pick up passengers in Colorado.


      For modellers, CMR include the decals for "Suzi" but no mention is made of them on the instruction sheet.



These two new additions to his fleet were staffed by a flight-crew of seven plus cabin-crew of twenty stewardesses wearing nothing but Air Freddie caps and red bows around their necks.
On occasion, one aircraft would be chartered by a well-known magazine owner with his own (land-based) special airplane called the Big Bunny ........
« Last Edit: March 31, 2012, 04:44:23 AM by raafif »

Offline GTX_Admin

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Re: Air Freddie
« Reply #1 on: March 31, 2012, 04:08:17 AM »
 :)
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

You can't outrun Death forever.
But you can make the Bastard work for it.

Offline Alvis 3.1

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Re: Air Freddie
« Reply #2 on: March 31, 2012, 07:09:45 AM »
Oh no! Not the Mars bombers!

 ;)

Alvis 3.1

Offline Brian da Basher

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Re: Air Freddie
« Reply #3 on: April 02, 2012, 04:10:42 AM »
Great stuff, raafif! If an airline had stewardess uniform requirements like Air Freddie, I'd fly a lot more often!

Brian da Basher