And thank you for that; I think it was actually what I based some notes I made at the time on, which also incorporate some dates from a Caravelle book (in French), which of course gives a notably partial view :)

Interesting about the Pan Am 727 in USA, which is not so well known. I have seen "carefully worded" statements elsewhere, such as the BEA one being "the first triple-redundant automatic landing", which of course it would be.

I wonder what the distinction between autoflare and autoland is.

As well as the certificate, BEA and then BA apparently used to give a "gift" to all pax who experienced and autoland - a tie for the chaps and a scarf for women. Not handed out at the gate like the inaugural flight, you had to send away for them if the captain announced it. They turn up on e-Bay from time to time. I've never seen one.

Flash I’m only repeating what the guys said a couple of years ago and how neither were asked to attend the lane inquiry despite their written submissions. The Viscount skipper with whom I was to fly with several times on the gripper asked for a block take off after it became apparent that Key wasn’t going to roll anytime soon. If you were on the trident fleet then you would know whom I’m talking about.
WHMB..There was much discussion about the guys who jumped ship and how much more practical the Tristar system was. Incidentally I was invited by Peter Hearne to a BBQ at his french home after we had been rock polishing in the Alps where we had a very stimulating discussion and he revealed his roll with Smiths amongst other flight systems. We touched on the Russian artificial horizon and how more natural it was; this was before an ex Aeroflot pilot rolled one of Crossairs kites inverted and stuck it in the ground at Rumlang. Peter was trying a new thermal centering vario out, the centris, which was way ahead of the game then but is common place now. His obituary was interesting but have no links ..could have been posted by the Guild.

Perhaps apocryphal, perhaps an embellishment of the truth . . .

In the early days of BEA autoland operation a Trident is inbound to LHR, which is stubbornly below limits for Cat I ILS, with little improvement likely for a while. The three pilots find––a rarity––that not only are all of them autoland certified, but so is the Gripper's autopilot. So they carefully brief themselves on the procedures and calls required.

Checking in with London Airways (as it used to be) they are instructed to maintain FL350 and call entering the hold at Lydd. So they play their master card, announcing their special capabilities and requesting descent for an approach and autoland.

'Roger, Bealine, the RVR is now 700 metres and you're number 17 in the landing sequence.'

Had the opposite flying with an ex Luftwaffe starfighter always minimum fuel skipper from a london night stop back home to Zurich. Left him to the planning whilst I went to Smiths to buy a load of mags for the mrs and the Sunday sport. Looked at the planning whilst strapping myself in and yet again minimum fuel in spite of prob temp below minimum as well as our alternate dodgy. His dad had a cannon shell go through his head whilst approaching to land in a Focke wulf 190 courtesy of a septic.
As often happened sunrise saw a thickening of the fog and we got reduce to minimum speed expected approach time xxxx which meant we were off to Stuttgart soon. Luckily the fog thickened which closed the airfield to most of the other traffic so I stated our capabilities and we were taken out of the hold for a direct approach. I didn’t mention it and after that we got on well, so well that he later gave me the only flight that we were to do to Caracas and when I asked for a visual from 12 grand downwind he just sat and watched...dropped down onto the glide slope from above and spooled the DC10 engines up at 700ft.
and you tell that to the youngsters and they won’t believe you..manual of course and no flight director...
PS I even flared it properly and didn’t fly into the runway.