page_title: British European Airways
section_title: Late-1940s – early-1950s
hierarchical_section_title: British European Airways / Liveries / Late-1940s – early-1950s
caption_attribution_description: English: Douglas DC-3 Dakota G-AHCT of British European Airways at Manchester in 1951
context_page_description: British European Airways, formally British European Airways Corporation, was a British airline which existed from 1946 until 1974.
  BEA operated to Europe, North Africa and the Middle East from airports around the United Kingdom. The airline was also the largest UK domestic operator, serving major British cities, including London, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Belfast, as well as areas of the British Isles such as the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. From 1946 until 1974, BEA operated a network of internal German routes between West Berlin and West Germany as well. The company slogan was Number One in Europe.
  Formed as the British European Airways division of British Overseas Airways Corporation on 1 January 1946, BEA became a crown corporation in its own right on 1 August 1946.
  Operations commenced from Croydon and Northolt airports, with DH89A Dragon Rapides and Douglas DC-3s.
context_section_description: BEA's early liveries in the late-1940s to early-1950s mainly consisted of a bare metal finish with upper case, black British European Airways titles above the cabin windows on each side of the fuselage, the aircraft registration in bold, black capital letters on each side of the rear fuselage as well as on the underside of each wing, and a contemporary BEA logo on each side of the forward fuselage featuring a stylised wing and BEA in capital letters on each side of the nose. Additionally, Vikings featured a name given to individual aircraft in black capital letters each side of the nose.
caption: BEA Douglas DC-3 freighter in early bare metal colour scheme in 1951.
exif: {}