Great thread, this. Me and my parents popped into Stansted on the way back from London in, I think, about 1986 or so and as has been mentioned, there were loads of exotic aircraft sitting around but nothing actually moving. I've got some old photos (probably not very good quality) that I'll scan and upload.

Has anyone got any aerial photos of the airfield or in particular the old terminal and apron? Would be interesting to see the contrast between then and now...

Blimey, Kate was a tad older than me. One of my favourites.

My mate Paddy lived in Tye Green. Tye Green Cottage in fact. Leather thongs to open the wood latched doors. Lovely. Handy for Lloyd.

Early 60's. Southend flying school. Auster. Land at Stansted and pay two and sixpence. Go to tower for a chat and coffee. Go back to Southend. No other aircraft movements in that time. Indeed, in 1970, regularly flew past Stansted at night in G-APGE, my little Club. It was my commute from Luton, (DAN 1-11) to Frinton. The white Stansted beacon Flash . . . . . Flash . . . Flash. Very comforting when on one engine at night. Nothing else in the sky. They were super friendly as they'd had no one else to talk to.

What a different world. Never dreamed it would change so much. In my old age I occasionally used to leave Norwich in an ATR c 21.00. I could not get a word in on the radio and once had to orbit before entering their space. Compared to 'my era' it was as though the sky was solid metal. Ugggg.

I think you'll find that the F27 AMS service was actually Air UK, sure enough on a codeshare with KLM but Air UK all the same.

During the min eighties summer seasons Dan-Air would base a jet in STN, maybe a 1-11 or 727, for bucket and spade work.

Look at post 11 and follow the link supplied by Rog 747.

If you go to Flickr there are several aerial photos of London Stansted Airport from the 1960's upto the present time. Also try doing a Google search as there are several online.

I'm obviously aware of the Air UK flight from London Stansted Airport to Amsterdam along with the code share with KLM but I could swear that I saw a separate KLM flight listed from London Stansted Airport to Amsterdam with a F27 at the same time as the Air UK flight.

(BAA) British Airports Authority used to have a newsletter which I used to collect and I thought that I could vividly remember an announcement by KLM but I've obviously got that mixed up with the code share with Air UK. (One mistake isn't bad considering)

I had completely overlooked the fact that Dan Air operated from London Stansted Airport during the 1980's.

In early 1986 Gatwick Handling Limited set up a London Stansted operation called Stansted Handling Limited to handle the Dan Air charters during 1986 with a based BAC-1-11.

After the completion of the Dan Air series of charter flights in 1986 Stansted Handling Limited kept on a staff of 35 to handle ad-hoc charters including the occasional Evergreen and Worldways Canada flights.

During the summer months of 1986.

​​Dan Air flew from London Stansted Airport to Faro, Ibiza, Malaga, Mahon, Palma.

Some additional charters for 1986 not already covered include the following,

Aviaco DC-9 to Palma Saturday afternoons
Aviogenex TU-134 to Split on Saturday evenings and B727 to Pula on Sunday evenings
Balkan Bulgarian TU-154 to Bourgas on Saturday evenings
British Air Ferries Viscount to Jersey on Sunday morning's
Hispania B737 to Palma and Tenerife on Tuesday's

Plus the Scandinavian charters

Braathens SAFE B737 to Gothenburg, Oslo (Gardermoen), Stockholm (Arlanda) on Sunday
Conair B720 to Copenhagen on Saturday evenings
Linjeflyg F28 to Norrkoping, Stockholm (Arlanda) on Sunday
Mearsk B737 to Malmö on Sunday evening's
Scanair A300 to Stockholm (Arlanda) on Sunday evening's
Sterling Airlines B727 to Stockholm (Stockholm) on Sunday evening's and Caravelle's to Copenhagen on Friday and Sunday morning's
Transwede Caravelle to Gothenburg on Sunday evening's

Also during 1986 the following scheduled flights

Air UK SD330/360, F27 to Amsterdam, Brussels, Edinburgh, Frankfurt, Guernsey, Paris
Jersey European Airways SD330 to Jersey on weekday morning's
Wardair B747 to Toronto on Saturday afternoon's (summer only)

Plus a short series of trans-Atlantic charter flights by the following

American Trans Air L1011 to Orlando (day's unknown)
Worldways Canada DC8 to Toronto (day's unknown)

Cargo flights by the following

Air Bridge Carriers Merchantman to Belfast on Saturday night's (newspaper flights)
FedEx DC10 to Memphis three day's a week (day's unknown)
Kondair Trislander/Cessna Titan to Amsterdam (newspaper flights)
Plus the Fordair flights to Cologne and Valencia by BAC-11 and Coventry and Liverpool by Gulfstream 1
Securicor/Skyguard Herald from Birmingham and on to Brussels on Tuesday to Friday evening's

This is JUST for the year 1986.

Anyone want to add the charters/scheduled flights for other year's feel free to do so.

Around 86/87 AUK also operated a Shed360 route STN/DUS, when asked by German ATC if he had a slot the ex WWll Captain replied to the effect that he didn't need a slot last time he flew the route :)

It must have been 87 that AUK started a STN/FRA F27 route, had an average load of around 2 pax but who cares about trivialities!

AUK, never mind the 360's, also had a Shed330, for sure that operated the pee-poor STN/BRU route, can't recall what else it might have done except keep engineering staff occupied.

I accidentally ommited the Air UK SD330, I will edit my post to show this.

Air UK STN-DUS started in 1987 and I believe STN-FRA started in 1988 or late 1987.

STN/FRA definitely started in 87 because it was a NWI/STN/FRA service and until late 87 we remained based in NWI, until our relocation to STN, and I recall the crack of sparrow farts departures to STN ... And on the NWI/STN sector could be onwards pax to CDG or BRU (transferring aircraft in STN).

Air UK's STN/AMS/STN service was operated by Sheds until, must be, 87 before becoming an F27 route except that the Sunday morning service remained a Shed360 STN/NWI/AMS/NWI/STN combined route.

That sorts that out then for future reference but it doesn't really matter as my post was ONLY referencing flights from London Stansted Airport during 1986.

I see from my passenger logbook (OK it's anorak time) that I flew Frankfurt to Stansted on Air UK Flt no UK725 on 5/12/86. It was one of Phileas Fogg's F27 flights which, if I remember correctly, had 4 passengers on it. There was a strong headwind and the captain came back and said words to the effect "it's going to be a long night" and opened a free bar which helped with the drone of the Darts. It actually took 2hrs and 10 minutes, almost exactly twice the average sector time of the .BAe.146s which followed the F27s on the route

Do you know the date or at least the month in 1986 that Air UK started STN to Frankfurt?

Considering that you have logged the flight for 1986 I shall edit my post to add Frankfurt from STN by Air UK for that year but I will await confirmation from yourself regarding the start date before I do so.

I'm afraid I don't have an exact date for the start of the Stansted-Frankfurt route but I would hazard a guess that it might have been the November that I flew on it. Purely on the basis that I liked to try something new and that Stansted was nearer home than Heathrow..

In that respect then I shall edit my post to add Air UK Stansted to Frankfurt, thanks for clarifying that.

Think yourself lucky, you could have been flying in a Shed :)

Yes, a load of 4 on a 44 seater sounds about right on that route!

I'm sure I remember 'racing' with other tearaway teenagers on Saturday nights in the late 60's from Braintree to STN to get a cup of coffee in the airport caff, in clapped out Minis and Anglias and even a Rover 90 or 100 (headlight in the middle?) and such. This would have been after the pubs had shut - of course. Am I correct in remembering that when you turned off the A120 you had to cross the runway as the terminal in those days was on the other side. Many years later I was based there with the late Gill Airways. Happy Days.

Thnking about it the FRA route must have started in 86, in 86 STN was purely a Shed base so they needed to utilise a NWI based F27 for the FRA route, STN only became a F27 base during 87, the route probably commenced at the start of the winter season ... whenever that may have been.

A check of my log reveals a few STN IT flights:

18.07.83 Stansted to Mahon on Dan Air BAC1-11-401AK G-AXCP
01.08.83 Mahon to Stansted on Dan Air B737-2L9 G-BKAP
02.09.84 Stansted to Palma on Aviaco DC-9 reg unknown
16.09.84 Palma to Stansted on Aviaco DC-9 reg unknown
27.08.92 Stansted to Kos on Air UK Leisure B737-4YO G-UKLA
04.09.92 Kos to Stansted on Air UK Leisure B737-4YO G-UKLA

In the late 90's I also used to connect through AMS a fair bit with KLM, with the STN flights always a KLM UK Fokker 100

My father did a fair bit of European business travel in the 80's, particularly to Holland, Belgium and the Rhinelands. I would often pick him up at STN arriving back from say AMS in an Air UK Shed. If a 23 arrival, I would sit in the car by the fence at Claypit Hill with my air band radio listening to his flight inbound (Zone 125.55 and Tower 118.15 in those days?). When I saw his Shed land, would drive back to the terminal, from which he would just be emerging. Into the car and home to Stansted village in 10 minutes for tea.....and they reckon the world has advanced?

The only place to get a late coffee. We did much the same but probably early 70s. Didn't have to travel so far though. The road you remember didn't actually cross the runway as it was outside the perimeter fence, but it did have traffic lights to stop the traffic. Good thing as I seem to remember a CL44 flattening the fence after an overweight departure.

Old Terminal and Apron Views
 

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....c41171c08e.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....4160f08ff3.jpg
Looks like Titan Shorts 360 outside hangar
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....3dafd03b5f.jpg
IL76 in Heavylift livery in background
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....50eefc0236.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....504f55eb40.jpg

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....1fa9aaab09.jpg

Stunning photos, Musket90, thanks for sharing. Such a contrast to the modern terminal. I'm sure I'm just being nostalgic but it had the feel of a 'real' airport back then. Seeing all the exotically-registered DC-8s and 707s on my one pre-EasyJet visit to STN felt like a real adventure. My photos aren't as interesting as yours but I'll upload some tomorrow.

SotonSean and Rog747, thanks for putting me in the direction of that collection of photos. I particularly like the 'outdoor departure lounge'!

This is the best I can contribute at the moment, folks. I'm looking to see if I can find my dad's old aircraft photos as his are better than mine I'm sure.
Anyway, here we have what looks like an ex-Air Canada DC-8 (could be the same one that's in Liffy 1M's photo in post #23), a ZAS Boeing 707, an ex-BA Trident and a Channel Express Herald. I'm thinking this is about 1984 or 1985.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....8ff6f749bb.jpg

One aspect of the Scandinavian charters was that, long before any EU operator could fly anywhere, the Scandinavian companies could fly from any of the countries, other than their home one. You can see this in some of the flights listed above, with Braathens of Norway operating from Stockholm or Sterling who operated from all of them. They would have a couple of aircraft based at each main city, and run them at an intensity similar to UK IT operators, down to various Mediterranean points all week. The Sunday London flights were a bit of a fill-in between these operations. It is also a Scandinavian feature, like Canada, that sun holidays have long been popular in winter as well as summer.

Sterlings Caravelles were notable for some astoundingly long-haul holiday flights they did with them in the 1970s, to Thailand (long a popular place for Scandinavia, or to San Francisco in California - the latter a bit unbelievable were it not for several photos on the web and a couple of accounts of the flights. They typically routed Copenhagen-Keflavik-Bangor-Omaha-San Francisco. They went through Bangor to and from the Dominican Republic as well - then next day the short hop to Stansted.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....ebc729d726.jpg
New terminal under construction- September 1988
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....b6de32260f.jpg
July 1995
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....fc4e43eb23.jpg
New control tower under construction - July 1995

Channex Electra but who's is the orange tail A300? Schreiner?

The Airbus looks a bit like Hapag?

For just a second I thought the IL-76 was a C-141A in the top pic! :}

I'm wondering if the lower aircraft in the middle picture is a Trident 3. For many years after their withdrawal G-AWZU was kept at Stansted and used for tug driver training. Engines removed but cowlings remained. It was kept nicely clean and retained its livery apart from the BA titles being removed. It could be seen parked at various gates of the new terminal and looked remarkably complete and ready to fly if you didn't know it or look closely. I always looked out for it. Believe it was finally scrapped in 2003.

Regarding DC8s there, I arrived back in the early 1990s on a humdrum Air UK 146 from Edinburgh, we parked alongside an MGM Grand DC8-62. They were a notably high end US operator with an all first class fitout, who ran schedules from New York to Las Vegas and Los Angeles for the wealthy. Must have been a charter over to London.

Don't think Hapag ever had A300F. Looks a lot like ZS-SDG from SAA!

The Trident looking aircraft in the middle picture may be a DC9-30 or 40. I vaguely remember SAS used to operate a schedule in the early days of the new terminal but not sure of the exact year.

I think you be right! Didn't know SAA had a A300F! She seems to be still going with an ER- reg wherever that is.

A few from 2005
 

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....a88d8e3672.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....e378195008.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....acb5fca67f.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....3c09f0a4eb.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....4346f053a1.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....28729e389f.jpg

Another short-lived operator; Flying Finn, which we took (week after I took the photo) Stansted to Helsinki in 2003. Former Finnair MD-80, and also the crew. They had previously been a Finnish travel agency who had a short-lived go at schedules. Not part of the Sunday Scandinavian set, this was a daily operation. Took it with a Russian passport holder with a Finnish visa - only in Finnish. Stansted handling agent at check-in had no training in reading these, but said they just looked for a date somewhere that was in the future.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....7cad601c59.jpg

WHBM: I arrived back in the early 1990s on a humdrum Air UK 146 from Edinburgh. :=

Now that is slander!!. AirUK 146's were never humdrum. ;) "Gentleman's horseless carriage" more like.

I remember one evening about 2000 ish, we were being loaded for a UPS flight to CGN (Channex A300). Parked next to us was an Ethopian IL76. The Service air ramp supervisor told us that the captain had locked the cockpit door and was demanding to be taken to Tesco before they departed.
We left, but the following evening we heard that the Ethopian captain had his wish and came back from a 24hour Tesco with 3 taxis full of stuff.

Indeed. Very impressively, one was the only aircraft I've been in that was struck by lightning, same route, EDI-STN one evening, which was regular for me then. Big flash but handled it perfectly, lights didn't even dip. Bit of a noise though. These were the days before London City ran to Edinburgh, which I transferred to - and before AirUK moved on to Buzz, then Go took over the route, and finally Easyjet.

AirUK had a holiday flight side, badged as AirUK Leisure, with 737-400s, including one or two based at Stansted. They must have had a separate AOC, because one low-season morning at Stansted one was standing in for a 146 to Edinburgh, and check-in were thus having to inform each passenger about the substitution. Elderly couple in front of me are told in best Essex girl accent "Edinburgh, yeah, it's a Leisure flight this morning, yeah?". Which of course was completely meaningless to them.

How sad, Go B in it's vile new orange livery.

I was working at Stansted in the early 1980s and remember very well the 3th June 1983 when the space shuttle visited. I doubt I will ever see such a sight again.

https://nats.aero/blog/2014/06/space-shuttle-stansted/

Can't believe that crowd of spectators! When I had an airside pass for BAA it was forbidden to take a camera airside.

Scandinavian flights to STN
 

As a student in the summers of 1986/87/88, I worked at the Regent Palace Hotel, in Piccadilly, as a hall porter. Our sundays were completely taken up with the storage of departing Scandinavian's bags, left with us whilst the guests enjoyed a final day in London, before an evening flight home. I still have one of the colourful Spies tags somewhere,and remember the flight numbers being for Scanair and Conair flights to Gothenberg, Stockholm and Copenhagen. As a further aside, as a 5 year old in snowy January 1971, my parents treated me to a mini cruise on Tor Line, aboard the 'leaping' Leda, from Newcastle to Bergen and Stavanger. Fond fond memories!

An Air UK incident from 1987.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....1d3e10ffe.jpeg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....feaa00653.jpeg