The last flight I had at Filton was a flypast in the RAF's last VC10K2 on its way to the scrapyard at St Athan. The purpose being to honour the memory of Brian Trubshaw who had passed away a few days earlier.

My first flight at Lulsgate was in 1962 - my first ever flight! A family friend flew us in a brand new Piper Caribbean for an hour around Somerset...I was hooked!

Road access to Lulsgate is diabolical and the runway is still too short for large, intercontinental airliners - I recall when it was extended 'for the Viscount' in 1963. The A38 was rerouted, but even so, the RW is only just over 2000m in length with a displaced threshold on RW27, some 20% shorter than Filton, which is also 400 ft lower, has excellent road connections and the potential for direct rail connection.

Nope, Lulsgate was the wrong decision; Bristol should have moved from to Lulsgate to Filton when the limitations of Lousy Bottom became all too obvious. But it used to be fun for a little lad in short trousers to watch the comings and goings from the viewing area on what we called the 'new' terminal - the exciting new Aer Lingus Fokker Friendship being particularly memorable, shortly after the airport opened.

Can anyone tell me about this building on the A38? Was it the HQ of the Bristol Aeroplane Company?

https://goo.gl/maps/vncvp

That's Pegasus house, which was not the original HQ of the Bristol aeroplane company as that's the grade one listed building on the other side of Pegasus house, behind the set of gates. Pegasus house was built in the 1920's / 1930's and became the HQ / drawing office of the Bristol Aeroplane company. The building is itself grade 2 listed I believe as it has many Art Deco / Art Nuvelle features including a fantastic stain glass window which runs the full height of the building by the main stair case. The directors offices and boardroom also feature wood paneling and a mix of 1950's / 1960's office architecture with appropriate decoration and bright colour schemes !. The building was latterly used as storage for numerous company documents and office furniture.

Hope this helps

Best regards

W.G

Yes, thanks very much. It is a handsome building.

Mutatis mutandis (as the lawyers say) that's pretty much exactly same as Leeds/Bradford and lost alternatives to S and E of Leeds.