Red One to London?
 

Hello there. Many many years ago, was there ever a TV program or a Documentry made called "Red One to London"? (Not sure of the titile) but I think it may have had a lot of Trident footage in it, and I think it may have even been a BEA Promo?

Does anyone on the forum know if this can be purchased on a DVD or something by chance?

Cheers Chris
Perth, West Oz

I can remember it vaguely. A TV production shortly after the 'merger' of radar and procedural control into Mediator 1 at West Drayton. The procedural side had been there for several years (Mediator 1/2), but the radar side had stayed at Heathrow until Jan/Feb '71 when it moved to Drayton with the opening of the new control room.

Remembering a bit more now. Red 1 was of course the airway which ran between Amsterdam and London; I may be wrong (it was over 35 years ago) but I've a feeling they included a live flight deck view of a flight from Amsterdam to Heathrow in a Trident.
The old radar unit at Heathrow occupied buildings on a site the north side which used to be 'Southern ATCC' and is now a big office building (Compass Centre)

And there I was thinking that the Reds' Boss had a new posting .....!:)

Jack

I was at West Drayton at the time.

Think it was BA505, Trident, EHAM - EGLL via Red 1.

The BBC presenter was a little short bloke with big black horn rimmed glasses. He did a few programms around that time about ATC and for a journo was actually quite good. James Burke was his name. I just remembered.

C.

Ah, the days when airways had real names.

Red 1 turned SW from BPK (N)/LAM (S) to OCK to MID to ORTAC, then onwards to deep enemy territory.

GOLF BRAVO ZULU.

Not wishing to be pedantic, but Red 1 went MID - IBY - ORTAC.

The MID - ORTAC route was introduced later with a base of FL105.

Traffic flying below FL 110 was forced to go the long way round via IBY or leave controlled airspace and request rejoin south west of MID or north east of ORTAC depending on their direction of flight.

Happy days !!!

C.

Oh well, thx for the info chaps...it seems like it may not be viewable on "any" media then, which is a pity. Was hoping it may have been commercially available.

Its just such a damn shame that the internet and image technology wasnt around in 1970 (to the masses, at least) LoL

There is an entry for it on the BFI database at BFI | Film & TV Database | RED ONE TO LONDON (VERSION 2) (1973)

Made by Thames and broadcast in 1973

Philip Morten

I recall that most of it was filmed on the Standby Suite of the WD Ops Room and that James Burke suffered from BO so bad that you could almost see it.

Hi all,i have Red one to London on VHS.There were quite a few presenters on this,Shaw Taylor,Bob Holness,Alan Hargreaves and John Viner.The programme charts a BEA Trident 1C from AMS to LHR under the command of Captain Mike Channing,sadly i cannot copy the tape as i am under oath not to copy it for copyright reasons, hope this has been of help though.:ok:

Thanks for the Hu on the BFI index, guess I'll just have to hope that it turns up or is released or rescreened commercially.

Resurrecting a decade old thread but “Red One to London” is now out on You Tube. Fascinating to watch as my experience with LHR only started in 2002. I also “cough” enjoyed “cough” the casual sexism of the 70’s as the reporter basically asked (implied) if the female Heathrow approach controller (Beverley) was as good as the male controllers. His gems of questions included “No sex discrimination?”. “And she’s been through the same training”

The other thing I found of interest was the view available on the radar screens; I’ve been into area control and the VCR and seen 21st Century kit with mode S readouts. A world away from the blip on the orange screens of the 70’s.

One of the most unpopular captains on the fleet
 

Canvased us to improve our lot..was voted into balpa ..negotiated nothing and the day after it was signed went into management...poor operator as well..known as Robin as followed “Batman” ..another manager ..around.

Blind Pew.......you are referring to Captain MC I assume?

I've only watched the first few minutes so far, but isn't it amazing how empty the aprons are at both airports? Them was the days.

Yup
 

Was very rarely referred to as “captain” especially by the bomber boys who used an Anglo Saxon term.
Often seen posing holding a pipe trying to emulate those WW2 films but without a dog.
Inventor of the silent cockpit.

An interesting piece of history, both in terms of technology and fashions/hairstyles!

I was surprised to hear that they were given a Mode Alpha squawk at Schiphol. Was Mode C not used back then?

When were the airway names done away with?

And finally, was it really live? It seems way too complex for that.

I presume the on-board shots were filmed on a previous flight and then "slotted in" during the broadcast live programme. Seemed pretty advanced for 1973, though.

This diagram shows controlled airspace over southern England in the mid-1950s. I believe the airway colour designations were:

approx north-south orientation: amber and blue
approx east-west: red and green

although Blue 1 ran east from Manchester east towards Ottringham VOR. There were also airways designated white.

http://steemrok.com/CAS%201950%20v2