|  When
Wing Commander Taffy Powel set up Silver City,
(named after a silver mine in Broken Hill, Australia),
he opened a fascinating and innovative new chapter
in British aviation.
A keen and impatient traveller,
Powell realised that by converting a Lancaster
bomber, he could fly passengers, and their cars,
to Europe. This would allow holiday-makers to
avoid a lengthy wait for the ferry. On the 7th
of July, 1948, Powel made the first civilian British
flight with a car, from Lympne to Le Touquet.
The service was a resounding success.
However it soon became apparent that another,
more suitable location would have to be found.
Silver City relocated to Lydd, where the first
new post-war airport in the UK was built, in under
six months, for £400,000. The Duke of Edinburgh
officially opened the airport on the 5th April,
1956, and few know that on his outward journey
to Le Touquet he exported two cars!
For the very reasonable amount of
£25 for a car, and £4 for each passenger, one
could fly to the continent between seven thirty
in the morning and eleven at night. Between 1953
and 1957 one hundred and thirty seven cars and
half a million passengers flew with Silver City
out of Lydd. In 1962, however, Silver City was
taken over by British United Airways. The last
Bristol freighter flew from Lydd in 1970, and
the last car in 1971.
But interest
and enthusiasm in Silver City and Lydd has not
waned. Lydd starred in the James Bond film ‘Goldfinger’,
and a multitude of celebrities have graced the
tarmac: from the Queen Mother to Diana Dors, from
King Faisal of Iraq to Humphrey Bogart. We have
also played host to a variety of animals, flowers
and even a mini-submarine!
It is over fifty years since on 13th July 1954, first flight took off
from Lydd Airport bound for Le Touquet.
The original Bristol freighter aircraft was re-named
the fourteenth of July to commemorate
both the opening of the airport and also in recognition
of Bastille day, a day the French enthusiastically
celebrate
as their great national holiday.
 Liberté
As a modern homage to these historic
events, Ms Heather Gordon, daughter of the owner
of LyddAir, came up with the idea (as a law student
she was researching the basis of international
law and the three principles of the French revolution
(1789)) of renaming the LyddAir fleet of aircraft
to Liberté, Egalité and Fraternité.
 Egalité
LyddAir operates scheduled services
to the French resort town of Le Touquet.
Fares are just £89.62 return, inclusive
of all airport and security charges.
 Fraternité
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