BOAC Sports Festival at Heston Airport

[lawrence hole]

Recently I received a copy of a tape recording made in 1952 ,whereby BOAC celebrated a further sports day at their sports club at Heston Airport, although the weather was reported as being good, it would appear that no further fly-in by aircraft of the Airways Aero Association was made this time.
Miles Thomas, the BOAC Chairman however made a short speech on declaring the sports day open.
The copy has since been sent to the BA Heritage Centre for their records.

[lawrence hole]

Since Heston Airport had officially closed in 1947, this was the biggest event here since that time, being BOAC's participation in the 1951 Festival of Britain celebrations.
Obviously the Airway's Aero Association's DH Dragon and Auster aircraft had to keep to a right hand circuit when taking off towards the west to avoid any airline traffic joining Heathrow on runway 27R, the approach being about 400m parallel due south to their take off run from Heston. Also they had to make a turn shortly after being airborne to prevent flying directly over the public and sports arena and were therefore well away from any crowd. The short pleasure flights would have entailed flying to the east over parts of Osterley Park no doubt but again not straying into the airline approach lane to Heathrow 27R if that was being used at the time rather than 27L. Perhaps there was a NOTAM to advise LHR airlines that due to the activities at Heston this day 27L was to be used , unfortunately as I was only a schoolboy 12 years old just interested in aviation, this is too far back to remember. However apart from BOAC's own records I have been the only person to record the event at all and few photos exist from the archive at the Airways Aero Association.

[Talkdownman]

28R / 28L in those days.

Fascinating stuff. NATCS HQ was at Heston Aerodrome for a while.

[A30yoyo]

Runway #1 (28R/10L) was shut down and used for aircraft parking while the central tunnel was dug by cut and cover at the time of the Heston display, I think
bath road | london airport | terminal area | 1951 | 1622 | Flight Archive

Runway #2 (23L/05R) conflicted with Heston but they had 23R/05L available, I suppose

[lawrence hole]

The NATCS was probably known then as the MTCA Southern Division as there was a noticeboard by the main entrance to the Airport. I wonder if there was any control of the aircraft movements at all from here, although I was unaware of any air traffic school being located here, they might have been able to help me with some later ad-hoc movements at Heston which I have referred to in another forum on this website.

[lawrence hole]

http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/a...l/P1020446.jpg

[A30yoyo]

Heston (and Imperial A/W?) in colour BBC4 2000 tonight

BBC Four - The Thirties in Colour - Episode guide

Part I is Rosie Newmans 1930s British footage ...some aviation...next week American Harry Wright and his travels

[lawrence hole]

Having just acquired a new photo of G-ACIT ,the D.H.Dragon aircraft that participated at the BOAC Sports Festival on the 9th June 1951 taking visitors for local joyrides at 5s per person, I have just realised, judging from the aerial photograph, that the air strip which had been cut into a cornfield on the old airfield was located much further away from the southern side from The Vale at Heston than I first thought,. The aerial view taken from an aircraft from the Airways Aero Association based at the time at Denham Airfield, shows a band of lighter vegetation which reaches almost as far as the top marquee. This to my mind must have been the extent of the landing strip, although in practice the Dragon and Auster aircraft took off and landed well before the end was even reached, so in effect was a generous safety margin. In fact I remember that the aircraft always turned off to the north, well away from the Sports arena and probably flew just skirting the northern perimeter of the airfield and then probably overflying Norwood Green and part of Osterley Park which kept them away from any Heathrow traffic before returning. I was unable to find out the registration of the Auster, even though it flew over with the contingent of 5 Airways Aero Association aircraft and circled near to my house, most unexpectedly that morning, before they all landed. It was most likely G-AGYO an Autocrat owned by the AAA, which unfortunately crashed later in Kent 28th August 1951. No pictures were taken by anyone of the Auster at Heston at this time, possibly due to the fact that cameras were not in such common use then, which is a shame.

[lawrence hole]

[lawrence hole]

[A30yoyo]

Nice photos, Lawrence. In the aerial shot (just behind the furthest long marquee) you can see the BOAC Dove the company chairman Whitney Straight arrived in. Closer to the control tower 2 other aircraft probably the Hawk Trainers (edit)Miles M.14A Hawk Trainer 3, G-AKKV, Airways Aero Association

[lawrence hole]

BOAC Sports Festival 1951

Just for the record A30yoyo, all the AAA aircraft arrived together since it was an unexpected pleasure to see the 5 assorted aeroplanes, Tiger Moth, Dragon, Auster and the 2 Hawk Trainers circling nearby, shortly after a heavy rain shower that morning. I seem to vaguely remember seeing and hearing the BOAC DH Dove during glimpses of it at as it passed by gaps between the bungalows in The Vale, which lay at right angles to the end of my road. ATC Heathrow would have given all aircraft a limited time slot to get to Heston in spite of runway 28R being out of action due to the tunnel to the central area of Heathrow being built.
The latest picture of the Dragon G-ACIT shows the backlog of queuing passengers for their 5s pleasure flight over the local area. Probably a bargain even in 1951 !

[lawrence hole]

BOAC Sports Festival 1951

The next photo shows BOAC Chairman, Sir Miles Thomas looking at an aircraft model with Mr Scott-Hill, Chairman of the Airways Aero Club Denham and opposite Mr Lobley, Managing Director of the Airways Aero Association presumably with his family. To complete the hierarchy, Mr Whitney-Straight, Deputy Chairman of BOAC can be seen second from the right.

[lawrence hole]

BOAC Sports Festival 1951

[Georgeablelovehowindia]

The tall third person on the left is the late Harold Blank. He was Austrian by birth and worked for BEA at Ruislip. His leisure time revolved around the flying club where he was a part-time instructor. When he died, he had a genuine 3,000 plus hours in his logbook, which for a part-timer was no mean achievement.

[Allan Lupton]

I'd say that it's Diana Barnato Walker next to Whitney Straight

[lawrence hole]

BOAC Sports Festival 1951

I am unable to see any likeness from early pictures of Diana Barnato Walker. It seems most likely to be Whitney-Straight's wife as it was an official BOAC function.

[lawrence hole]

The person on the far left looks like Mr L.Wenman, the CFI at Denham Airfield at the time, although why he appears in white overalls is odd.

[lawrence hole]

The second person next to him in white overalls also looks like Mr D.Wright,
deputy CFI judging from the AAA archive photos ,which makes sense.

[lawrence hole]

BOAC Sports Festival 1951 at Heston

Question remaining is who is the bespectacled gentleman with the on the far right with an official tag on his coat collar, could he be one of the BOAC board of directors ?