The Clamshell Doors
Access to the Freight Bay was by means of a pair of Clamshell doors at the rear of the Bay. The photos above show the doors from the rear and the starboard. The rails attached to the Clamshells were fitted when the Beverley was dropping paratroops. An attachment point is shown left. The rails prevented the parachute static lines and bags from tangling behind the doors. Such an occurrence may have prevented them from being pulled in. Each Clamshell had an inwardly folding door in the side (above right). As well as for loading passengers, these were used for supply and paratroop dropping.
LEFT: Each clamshell was attached to the fuselage with two ball hinges, and were opened by an electric motor fitted to the roof of the freight bay. The bottom corner of the starboard door can be seen above and to the left of the hinge. For the air dropping of large and heavy items, the clamshell doors were removed completely and the supplies literally rolled out of the back when released. The webmaster can vouch for how bitterly cold it was standing at the rear of a Beverley dropping supplies in winter.
RIGHT: There was nothing high-tech about ventilation on the Beverley as the grid on the right shows. There was one grid in each clamshell half.