Reims Photo's

by Christophe Bardou

Christophe Bardou's father was Chief Test Pilot at Reims during the 70's and early 80's and so flew nearly all the Skymasters that passed through the factory. Christophe became very interested in aviation and took many black and white photo's of the aircraft, which he developed and printed himself. He also took some colour ones as well. It is with grateful thanks that he has allowed me permission to publish some of his photos on the web.
Click on any photo for a larger and clearer version of it
Wichita-built aircraft c/n 1173 registered 5U-MAS of the Niger Air Force in 1975 when the aircraft was undergoing overhaul at Reims
Reims built FTB337 c/n 060. Photo taken in April 1978 just prior to delivery to the Guinea Bissau Air Force, registered 04-AV-P
Taken in 1976 this Wichita Ce.337 c/n 1176 coded AD was for the Benin AF
Reims FTB337 c/n 030 registered CS-ADN for the Portuguese AF and is seen prior to delivery in an all grey livery in September 1975

Two photos of FTB337's delivered to Rhodesia (where they became Lynxes). At that time (early 76) there was an embargo against Rhodesia and so its beleived that the aircraft were supposedly sold to a French fishing company based near the French Spanish border. Hence the fish on the logo of the front a/c in the top photo. The botton photo is of F-BXXB taken in November 1975. Christophe recalls that the ferry pilots that took delivery of the aircraft had very peculiar looks, the ones that mercenaries may have.....so the 'window-dressing' had some limits....
FTB337 c/n 034 . This picture was taken in january 1977. F-BXIL was Reims Aviation demo aircraft and is seen here during tests carrying rockets launcher pods. This a/c was later used for Search and Rescue missions trials.
Reims built F337 c/n 036 6W-SAT for the then-Senegal Air Force (it's now Senegambia) taken around 1975-1977 - so it probably means that it was during a visit to Reims and not prior to delivery
Chad Air Force Reims built F337 c/n 014 TT-MAB during overhaul at Reims' plant in January 1977.
This photo, taken in June 1978 is of the last built FTB337 (i.e. c/n 061). It carries the F-WZDK test registration and is seen here just before or after its first flight but before going to the paint shop (Aircraft were very seldom painted before they first flew and therefore these first flights were carried out in bare metal configuration). This aircraft later became N337BF and then N15SA as the Spectrum One conversion. Its life between FWZDK and N337BF is unknown to Christophe.
Taken in April 1975 prior to delivery this photo shows F337G c/n 073 as OE-FAH. It later became HA-FAA.