Flite phone, thanks for posting that great BOAC pic, if I pretend the winglets and extended upper deck were not there it would be the same as my first ever flight 28-11 71 ,BA175 LHR-JFK IIRC. very close to 50 years ago which say a lot about the basic design update many times as it was.
French connection, we obviously live/lived in same part of the world I was in Egham for a while where heavy 74s especially 100s on hot days really really struggled over the town.
I lived in Stanwell for a while before that and SAA used to doa non stop to Jo burg on Mondays , all other days via Ilha do Sal back in the apartheid days so no over flying much of Africa. I deliberately went up to the airport boundary where the twin rivers are to watch this once and it was a spectacular sight as it got airborne from what was 28L , all one could hear was a thunder of all those wheels as as it hurtled along on the ground rotating around the former block 79 runway intersection -no doubt all precisely calculated by the crew but it was easily the most runway I ever saw used at LHR .