How did Heathrow used to look ?

[airsmiles]

So why was the redundant 16/34 runway deemed unsuitable for commercial use? A runway is a runway isn't it and usable by any aircraft?

[scotbill]

This was the 1957 aerodrome chart.
LAP - as it was then known - still had a green ident flashing beacon.
First based there in 1960. The staff car park for the Queens Building became the subsequent site for Terminal 1.

[A30yoyo]

Heathrow Past

Queens Building seen from the 1955 Central Control Tower
Air Aero 1920- (2 Folders) - Hosted by Google

T2 (Europa) Terminal interior looking NE
Air Aero 1920- (2 Folders) - Hosted by Google

T2 (Europa) Terminal interior looking SW
Air Aero 1920- (2 Folders) - Hosted by Google

T2 (Europa) Terminal from the 1955 CentralControl Tower
Air Aero 1920- (2 Folders) - Hosted by Google

View of Northside apron looking East from 1946 Northside Tower
Air Aero 1920- (2 Folders) - Hosted by Google

View of Spectators Enclosure ca. 1951 looking West from Northside Tower
Air Aero 1920- (2 Folders) - Hosted by Google

Only the cars have changed ?
Air Aero 1920- (2 Folders) - Hosted by Google

Northside apron view ca.1946, Bricklayer's Arms? (later The Air Hostess) and row houses visible on the Bath Rd (A4)


Lancastrian G-AHBU by Stephen Greensted, on Flickr

[A30yoyo]

You could see more military types at Heathrow in its first few years, e.g.

WE139 by David Whitworth, on Flickr

and Air-Britain : Air force Heathrow 1952

Air-Britain : Air force Heathrow 1953

Air-Britain : air force heathrow 1954


Air-Britain : air force heathrow 1956

Air-Britain : Air force Heathrow 1958

[Anthony Appleyard]

I found that the older man who used to run the snack shop in the Precinct Centre arch in Manchester University (UK), in 1943 had been a motorcycle dispatch rider, and he had to take a message to Heathrow when it was still countryside before the airport came, and he went to the Great West Aerodrome there (about half a mile each way, all grass) , and there he shook hands with King George VI.

[foreverhappy7]

Old Technical Block 'A' Hatton Cross Heathrow

I used to work in the old Technical Block 'A' in Hatton Cross at Heathrow and have loads of Really Happy Memories from then and wonder if anyone else out there remembers this place. I specificially remember my fun days in my purple triumph spitfire which are well collectable now though mine is sadly long gone, and there was one other girl there who had one also except hers was in
yellow and I wondered if she is still around and if she also has the same Happy memories of there, and how she is now, Would Love to hear back, Dawnx.

[76fan]

Great thread ...... I used to cycle from Ruislip Manor via Hayes and spent many hours/days "spotting" at Heathrow in the late 50's , just wish I had kept my spotters handbooks! The sights and sounds of Constellations, Stratocruisers, Vikings, Ambassadors, Yorks, DC 3's 4's 6's, Comets, Caravelles, smoke trailing 707's (and the horrible shrill Darts on the Viscounts as witnessed from the top of the Queen's Building), will remain with me forever.

63/64 I worked for a year in the Met Office at SATCC (where the controllers worked in pitch blackness at their radar screens) on the North Side Bath Road. My boss was Reg Needham, lovely gentle pipe-smoking man with a modern Triumph Herald, my transport very soon upgraded to my brother's 1927 Austin 7 ....

[IcePack]

Scotbill that chart proves it. LHR was nicknamed the Star of David.

[2 sheds]

I don't think that the Airport itself was so nicknamed (what constitutes a recognised nickname, anyway?) , but that pattern of all-embracing runway directions was certainly colloquially known as a Star of David pattern.

2 s

[DaveReidUK]

Originally Posted by foreverhappy7

I used to work in the old Technical Block 'A' in Hatton Cross at Heathrow and have loads of Really Happy Memories from then and wonder if anyone else out there remembers this place.

TBA is still there, of course (it's a listed building, so it probably will be for ever). My abiding memory of it is how big it was and how long the walk from the front entrance to the canteen (my usual reason for visiting as a change from the runway canteen or Hatton Cross).

That, and almost getting run over on the roundabout by a mad woman driving a purple sport car ...

[Amos Keeto]

There is a superb new hardback book just published by The History Press entitled "Heathrow in Photographs -celebrating 70 Years of London's Airport" by Adrian M. Balch. It has colour photos throughout of many of the airliners seen there from its opening in 1946 right up to date. A lovely Christmas present for any Heathrow nostalgic aviation enthusiast. Check it out in WH Smiths, Waterstones and on Amazon!

[India Four Two]

but that pattern of all-embracing runway directions was certainly colloquially known as a Star of David pattern.

I'm sure that the designers thought they had found the optimum solution for the location of the terminal buildings - right in the middle of the runways. Little did they know how unsuitable that would become!

Two questions:

1. What is the Air Station on the chart?

2. When did the last diagonal runway close?

[DaveReidUK]

Originally Posted by India Four Two

Two questions:

1. What is the Air Station on the chart?

2. When did the last diagonal runway close?

Can't help with the first question (there are actually two "Air Stations" on the chart), but the last cross runway (05R/23L) was closed in 2002.

[Jhieminga]

Here's the 1968 landing chart:

[Warmtoast]

A30yoyo
Re. the photo of Lancastrian G-AHBU in your post #143. This crashed and was destroyed at Belfast whilst engaged in the Northern Island to mainland Britain 'Milkrun' on 3rd October 1947. Further details on PPRuNe here:
http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...-tales-12.html

[A30yoyo]

Boeing 707-351C - Northwest Orient Airlines | Aviation Photo #0718299 | Airliners.net
airsmiles #141....34/16 (edit... not L/R) was closed because it ran right through the planned Central Terminal area
Jhieminga #154 23R/05L was closed soon after your map was released to allow building of T3 piers for the 747 (which entered service in1970) but 05R was certainly still used for a couple more decades on occasion...see top link

[DaveReidUK]

Originally Posted by A30yoyo

34L/16R was closed because it ran right through the planned Central Terminal area

Heathrow actually had two runways designated 16R/34L (at different times). The first of those was closed to create space for the CTA. The replacement 16R/34L (later 15R/33L) was further west and is the one along the line of which Terminal 3 Pier 7 was built. Both the older one (just) and newer one can still be discerned on present-day aerial photos.

23R/05L was closed soon after your map was released to allow building of T3 piers for the 747 (which entered service in 1970) but 05R was certainly still used for a couple more decades on occasion.

Runway 05R/23L survived for another 30-odd years, as per my previous post, until 2002.

[A30yoyo]

India Four Two #152... the double triangle or 'Star of David' runway pattern evolved because Middlesex County Council would not or could not move the Perry Oaks sewage plant to permit the E-W runway to run through the middle of the site....accordingly the main runway was laid much closer to the A4 road (the 09L/27R we have now, corrected per DaveReidUK) with crosswind runways 23/05 and 34/16 making up the first triangle....the second inverted triangle allowed a second E-W runway to pass to the south of the sewage plant (the latter finally removed a half century later to permit T5 construction.)

[DaveReidUK]

Originally Posted by A30yoyo

India Four Two #152... the double triangle or 'Star of David' runway pattern evolved because Middlesex County Council would not or could not move the Perry Oaks sewage plant to permit the E-W runway to run through the middle of the site....accordingly the main runway was laid much closer to the A4 road (the 27L/09R we have now) with crosswind runways 23/05 and 34/16 making up the first triangle....the second inverted triangle allowed a second E-W runway to pass to the south of the sewage plant (the latter finally removed a half century later to permit T5 construction.)

The County Council's intransigence turned out to be of benefit in the end.

With a runway through the middle of Perry Oaks, it would have been very difficult to construct a second parallel runway either to the north or south with sufficient separation to allow even semi-independent operations on both.

accordingly the main runway was laid much closer to the A4 road (the 27L/09R we have now)

I think you mean the present 27R/09L, more usually referred to as 09L/27R (the convention with runways is to put the smaller number first).

[pax britanica]

Re the purple sports car woman . I was hit by mauve Spitfire in my Mini Clubman at the Hatton Cross A30 junction going north. She was in the centre lane ansd iwas in the LH one and she just drove into me as she assumed I was turning into the airport.

I heard from the insuarance loss adjuster, ex copper, (her hubby was a lawyer and he sent me a very nasty letter trying to make me admit it was my fault) that she was a bit too well know for driving incidents (as Dave Reid points out -has to be the same woman) for that to have any credibility.

Dawn, a close friend of my wife's from those days (they both worked at Speedbird London radio) also possessed a shiny red spit.

Talk about memory flashing back on a prompt