More likely "Hero", G-ALDM.

1954. Air France. Viscount I think. I remember a lot of whistling (Dart-type) noise as we boarded but that could have been from another one nearby. BEA had them then, yes ?

Fokkerwokker
Yes, I remember them too because our parents made my elder sister, brother and I be turned out smart for our first flight as a family in December 1965.

I had visited LHR before, from our home in Cambridge, to see my sister off on a school exchange trip to Rome in 64 or 65. She was on Alitalia so it was probably a Caravelle??

On Dec 4th or 5th 1965, BOAC VC-10 for JNB via CIA (IIRC) and NBO. Being a family of five, we had a row to ourselves and I had the aisle seat of the three, so as to be nearest to my parents - yes I was the naughty one who needed to be controlled! We were smartly dressed and took it in turns to sit at the window.

Rome was just a blur but Nairobi was MAGICAL. To get off the plane and walk around the airport in the middle of the night?? was VERY exciting to a nine year old! When we got out at NBO, my sister immediately said that the night time 'sound track' was just like Daktari!

Then to JNB in the blazing morning sun ... I have made that journey many times since by Super VC-10 and 741/2/3/4 and 343 and shall be making that journey again in April on (probably) a 346. Watching the dawn come up over Africa NEVER fails to thrill me.

Yes, I too lost my Junior Jet Club log book. :sad: :\


Whilst it is true that I loathe BAA at LHR, I have an enduring love for the field itself and the many trips made from it. Even this week, dropping a friend off at T1 (SAA to CPT!) made me feel all cosy.

I cannot refrain from saying ... 8th August 2003 on G-BOAC. For me, it was altogether perfect to ride on 'BOAC' and I also have a galley container but I bought it for myself!! :O

[There is a sudden loud rustling of anorak from the wardrobe. :ooh:]

1961 before I got in a Viscount. Went to Lisbon, but that was out of LGW.
Did Bealine have them in '54? I can't keep going up to the loft to check these historical facts;)
Was the VCV in service by '54?
Fast forwarding, think last flight out of EGLL was off Rwy 23L albeit the sole surviving one at the time. Sure was a windy night.
Longest flight into Heathrow was a bit like D120's outbound but obviously not quite so inspiring as cannot remember sector times let alone seat number (but it was in a very comfortable section with a lounge above:D staff travel was great apart from offloads)
It was SIA's inaugural 747 service via.....umm, Bangkok, Bombay, Bahrein, Athens, & Frankfurt or Amsterdam. Everywhere we landed the Press came out and local dignitaries - think it was well over 22 hours. Even got a commemorative coin in a paperweight or similar.
Lucky you PAXboy - but will someone remember Concord (as it was first spelled down in Bristol) as their 1st arr/dep at LHR......there's bound to be one out there!!
I'll never know what I missed - the old man left Bristol's/BAC before it flew and I only got in it on the ground.

It would appear so.
And google turned up this: http://daveg4otu.tripod.com/sitebuil...scountprod.txt which indicates around 45 or so Viscounts were in service by the end of '54.

**** I'm getting old, they still look 'new' to me :O

PAXboy: Yes, your sister almost certainly flew on a Caravelle.
Rome Ciampino on your VC10 ... probably not, unless perhaps Fiumicino was out in fog. FCO opened in 1960 (or 1961) when Britannia 102s were still the mainstay on the African routes.

My first out of Heathrow was not as early as some: an Air Canada DC8L to Montreal in 1974. It sticks in my mind because it had smoking and non-smoking sections. One on one side of the central aisle and t'other on t'other. To a non-smoker this did not constitute a smoke-free area in any way at all!

'b

April 68 BA to Lisbon. I reckon it was a Trident as our party sat in that area with seats facing each other. I don't recall anyone paying for the drinks.

I have a BOAC timetable for 1956 with some small ads with artwork interspersed. There is one photo showing a couple in their seats on the aircraft being waited on by the steward. The man is in his EVENING WEAR, no less, black tie et al, while his wife is in full regalia including her diamonds and neclace. They seem aged about 65. This I guess is how the image was of long-haul in those days. The irony is that it was aboard primitive, excessively noisy from the props, hot in the tropics (because the air-con was poor), bumpy (due to low flight levels), fatiguing aircraft taking maybe a couple of days to reach their destinations. And they dressed like this.

Regarding "Captain Jasinski", an article in Propliner magazine a while ago about the BOAC Canadair Argonauts in the 1950s said that BOAC at the time had a couple of Polish flight deck crew, ex-Polish Air Force Spitfire pilots based in Britain in WW2 who had married British girls and stayed on. Possibly the same.

This strange arrangement lasted longest on Eastern European airlines, into the 1980s. Can't imagine why but there must have been some basis for it.

Both BEA and Air France were among the earliest customers for Viscounts, they came on line in 1952-3.

It never fails to amaze me the number of children from BOAC days who remember these, and indeed possibly still have them. What a gift to airline promotion they were, possibly the most cost-effective bit of airline PR there was. Are you listening, someone in BA marketing over at Waterside ?

Yes, greatest arrival, of course. 3 hours 8 minutes from JFK. Once only, alas.

For me, it was July 1964, LHR-BSL. But I can't claim to remember anything as I was only 5½ weeks old.

My Junior Jet Club logbook is, fortunately, safe at home. Unfortunately, it only starts in 1974. I think I could probably reconstruct much of my previous flying from the collection of ticket receipts, though, which I have continued to maintain even though recently they have been far less glamorous than they used to be.

I recall about the last three rows down the rear of Royal Brunei 767's set aside for smoking into the 1990's - I think 92 was about the last time I flew in one.
No alcohol served on board, but you could take your own and cabin crew would chill a bottle for you to have during the meal service:ok:

First flight into Heathrow was in BEA Vangaurd G-APEL in May 1968. Fare was 29 shillings.

Last flight into Heathrow was in a PA31, G-CITY in 1996. Landing charges 624 quid!

First LHR departure was by BEA Trident to LeBourget, July 1966.
On the same holiday, Icelandic CL-44 JFK to KEF to LUX and
return. Surface LUX to London and Paris to LUX.
====
First flight - Piper J3 at age about 13,
Next, USAF C-47 ADW <> Stewart AFB, New York,
probably 1951.

First commercial DCA to LGA, Martin 202 or 404, about 1954
then continued by Sikorski helicopter of NY Airways to EWR.
I worked for an aviation enthusist :)

Heathrow- Your first flight
 

I arrived at Heathrow in 1959 (I think, you´ll have to forgive me as I have a lousy memory except for the important things in life one of which is mentioned below) after a memorable flight ( my very first) from Singapore.

I was 19 years old in the M.N. and having been away form home 11 months my Company paid for me to fly. The plane was a Brittania whose 4 engines kept going all the way.

We were treated royally, I seem to remember most of our meals being served on the ground at properly laid tables and waiters smartly dressed.

1. We flew Singapore-Colombo-Bombay-Karachi-Beirut-Rome then Heathrow. Due to the runway being blocked at Bombay (a plane ahead of us crashed on landing-so we were told, we had to make it to Karachi instead.

2. On the Singapore to Colombo leg we were able to view a couple one of whom had flown from Sydney and one who got on board at Singapore ( who had presumably never met before) join the "mile high club" decently covered by a tartan rug.

That was our in-flight entertainment and very enjoyable too.

Thanks to all the BOAC pilots who I flew with and BA also, having spent many happy cockpit hours since that first flight ( The good old days)

Peter

12th April 1990 - LHR-CDG (and coincidentally T4's 4th Birthday so free chocolate).

This was in a BA 763 G-BNWC. 16.5 years later I was in the driving seat. Full circle.
:D

PeterPallet - of course all four Proteus engines kept going - GK430 senior along with his colleagues spent hours testing them in all sorts of places and climates.
However, one quit on him many years later and after a diversion to Entebbe, the crew became restricted guests of the Ugandan Gov't:uhoh:

According to my Junior Jet Club Log Book, my first flight into Heathrow was on 27th May 1958 on Stratocruiser G-ANTY leaving Kano the previous day and routing via Rome. 8hrs 15 mins flying time to Rome from Kano and 3hrs 10 mins to LHR. I can't make out the captains name. It looks like it might be Squires. A later one is Capt. Fletcher on Britannia G-ANBH on 29th August 1959 Kano-Barcelona-LHR.

GK430
Yep, tou are right. I landed at Payar Lebar, and departed Changi. Next trip was as [unofficial] P2 in a PA31 :ok: , then MAN-LHR-SIN-BNE ans back
watp,iktch

August 1963, BEA Comet 4B, Reg unknown, LHR to Fornebu. Aaah!, them was the days... :cool:

- P. :D

GK430
 

Thanks for the reply.

Re: GK430 Senior, do you keep up the family tradition ??

Peter