1953 Modern British Aircraft (BFG-4)
J. & J. Beaulah Ltd., 24 Airplane + 1 Ad cards, United Kingdom

Set Overview

Series Title: Modern British Aircraft
British Trade Index: BFG-4
Issued by: J. & J. Beaulah Ltd.
Issued with: Beaulah’s Canned Fruits and Vegetables
Country: United Kingdom
Number of Cards: 24
Card Numbering: 1 to 24 on reverse
Type of Card: Food Issue
Card Dimensions: 68 × 37 mm
Circa: 1953
Checklist: Checklist

During 1953, J. & J. Beaulah Ltd., a canner of fruits and vegetables located in Boston • Lincs, Lincolnshire, England, issued a set of 24 airplane cards. The set was 25 cards since it contained an additional advertising card for Beaulah’s Illustrated Cards. The set was titled Modern British Aircraft and was issued the British Trade Index designation of BFG-4. The dimensions of the cards are 68 × 37 mm. All 24 aircraft card fronts are in a landscape format with color images derived from photos. The images are boxed with a thin black frame and centered within a white margin surround. A truncated title of the aircraft is in the lower left-hand corner of the image area.

The 24 aircraft cards feature the latest state-of-the-art aircraft deployed by the Royal Air Force, Royal Navy and British airlines. All 24 of the aircraft are of British Commonwealth design. Many of these aircraft were quite successful with additional Marks that were developed to meet specialized specifications. However, several of these aircraft never went beyond the prototype stage or were deadly catastrophes.

Card #1, the Bristol Barabazon Mk.1, one was a colossal flop with only one aircraft being built. This aircraft was a design-by-committee aircraft that was meant to provide transatlantic service. Unfortunately, it never lived up to expectations and was summarily canceled. Card #2, the de Havilland DH-106 Comet Mk.1 was the world’s first jet airliner to enter service. However, it had a fatal design flaw. Within a year of entering service, three of these aircraft suffered catastrophic in-flight break-ups with the loss of all souls. The cause of the disasters was attributed to low cycle fatigue of the fuselage and the square window design which produced stress cracks at the corners of the windows. Therefore, all modern passenger aircraft now contain some form of rounded windows.

Obviously, de Havilland had to correct the problem and after various redesigns they came up with Mks.2, 3 and 4 Comets. Meanwhile, over in Seattle Washington, the Boeing Company was developing the Boeing 707 Airliner. The Boeing 707 instantly took over the jet airliner market, and the de Havilland DH-106 Comets never saw extensive service.,/p>

One problem with airplane cards is that the publishers of these cards never seem to give the full designation of the aircraft depicted on their cards. In many cases, the captions are incorrect. Therefore, for the checklist presented below, we have included the entire designation of each of the aircraft.,/p>

The card backs are presented in a portrait format with dark green toned text. The card contains the usual set titles and company advertisements on the tops and bottoms the cards. However, this set provides a well written description of each of the subject aircraft. All in all, the Modern British Aircraft set is very well presented and provides some nice eye candy for airplane buffs.

(BFG-4) Image-Guide

The following Image-Guide shows computer enhanced images of the fronts and backs of the 24 cards in the BFG-4 set. Behind each thumbnail image is a 900-dpi computer enhanced card image that you may access. In addition, directly beneath the (BFG-4) Image-Guide, in tabular form, are links to the original scans used for this article.

(BFG-4) Checklist

We have provided two versions of the checklist for this set: (1) An 8½ × 11 inch PDF version, and (2) the web version shown below. Click on the PDF graphic below to access on print-out the PDF checklist version.

References

1. John A. Shupek: Modern British Aircraft (BFG-4), J. & J. Beaulah Ltd., UK, The Skytamer Archive Digital Image Database.