Heath Row - Pictures of the early days wanted

[LowNSlow]

My dad took a school trip to Heath Row as part of his post RAF career as a schoolmaster in 1948 / 49. He flew in a Dragon Rapide and recalls that the fledgling airport was mostly tents. Does anybody have access to pictures taken around that time that I could show him please?

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

There are some amazing old shots here:
http://www.abpic.co.uk/search.php?q=60%20Years%20of%20Heathrow&u=airshow

You need to scroll through many pages to sort out the old ones..

[ChrisVJ]

So was it a lady flying the Dragon? Nancy used to let me stand next to her seat and pointed out the Tower and Tower Bridge.

Unfortunately I only ave two pics, taken at my birthday party, oe was my head stuck out of the FOwindow of a Comet and the other inside THE restaurant, which was a Nissen hut, where we did the sandwiches and cake thing. Then we all went off to the resevoir at the end of the airport and had bonfires (with all the construction debris, I think,) and fireworks.

My grandfather used to organise cricket matches on the turf between the rope (that was the fence then!) and the runway! Why don't we do that today?

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Pssstt Mike... Your slip is showing - the pic is upside down! You didn't pinch it from Dr Strangelove by chance? That's the map on the back of the wall in the mad man's office.

Yep.. it was a lady flying the Dragon Rapide - she had a foreign name, which has become lost in the rats nest I call a brain. Sorry.

[treadigraph]

It's a great pic, what a difference from today - and I didn't notice it was upside down either!

Rapide lady was Monique Agazarian (spelling?) - one of her Rapides was G-AGJG, now beautifully restored and flying from Duxford!

[henry crun]

Here are three I took with a box brownie in 1950, they are faded now so did not scan well.
The first PanAm, the second BOAC, and I cannot remember which company owned the third.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v712/crun9/LAP.jpg

[renfrew]

Is that the BSAA logo on the York's nose and the aircraft name Panama?
Quite a rare photograph.
Ken.

[henry crun]

You are right renfrew, it is.

[GrumpyOldFart]

I always understood the original plan was for six runways - but in the LBU photo above it looks more like seven, with one passing right through the central area. Is that possible?

JC

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

No, the original plan was for NINE runways, as the link below shows. If only that had gone ahead...

http://www.members.aol.com/HEATHROWDIRECTOR/LAPPLAN.htm

[LowNSlow]

Thanks for the links and stories folks, I'm sure my dad will enjoy them.

[henry crun]

renfrew: Please tell me why it is a rare photo, did that York disappear/crash shortly after I took it ?

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Jerry Coe... further to your note.. That "runway" which might have crossed the central area remained as a taxiway. It was known to (much) older ATCOs as "Wates Alley" as that was the name (spelling?) of the Captain who attempted to take off along it in poor visibility thinking he was on 15R.

[renfrew]

henry,
BSAA were absorbed by BOAC in 1949 so the photo of the York was taken at an interesting time.