Old Heathrow aircraft ID please
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Old Heathrow aircraft ID please
Heathrow May 1975
From May 1975, any ID on the two aircraft top left? I'm venturing DC9 of ?? and a DC8.
Wife didn't want her face shown so sorry about the blacked out area.
Also wondering if these flights coul dbe identified as to A/C type.
BE353 Heathrow to Rome 17/5/1975
BE576 Heathrow to Geneva 25/3/1978.
Very much obliged for any info!
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I’m pretty sure the aircraft in your photo is the following...
Tarom BAC 1-11
Tarom BAC 1-11
Gnome de PPRuNe
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Certainly looks like a Tarom 1-11.
The other is outside the Pan Am maintenance hangar as I recall, so PA 707? Think the apparent length of the aircraft is an office/tech block attached to the airfield side of the hangar.
The other is outside the Pan Am maintenance hangar as I recall, so PA 707? Think the apparent length of the aircraft is an office/tech block attached to the airfield side of the hangar.
DC-8 likely a PanAm 707 as mentioned, you can make out the white fuselage and a blue roundel on the tail, BAC 1-11 of Tarom in the foreground and the smudge just to the right of the PanAm probably a Gulfstream 3.
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Thanx everyone for the info.
I did at first think Panam 707 but it looked longer like a DC8, but I see now it's just the effect of the white building behind it.
The 1-11 Tarom I see now. As I've flown on a 1-11 I should have got that!
So the ticket stub she has BE353 was the Rome return to LHR flight.
Strange about the BE576, it is a carbon copy of her ticket for Heathrow to Geneva flight. Maybe I copied the number wrong, I must check.
Can't believe how anything else can be made out - Gulfstream 3! I didn't even see the smudge!
However now I look, are there two more "smudges" in front of the Hunting hangar?
Cheers.
Goldox.
I did at first think Panam 707 but it looked longer like a DC8, but I see now it's just the effect of the white building behind it.
The 1-11 Tarom I see now. As I've flown on a 1-11 I should have got that!
So the ticket stub she has BE353 was the Rome return to LHR flight.
Strange about the BE576, it is a carbon copy of her ticket for Heathrow to Geneva flight. Maybe I copied the number wrong, I must check.
Can't believe how anything else can be made out - Gulfstream 3! I didn't even see the smudge!
However now I look, are there two more "smudges" in front of the Hunting hangar?
Cheers.
Goldox.
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OK I have re-examined the 42-year-old faint carbon copy of the ticket.
It definitely says BE576 Heathrow to Geneva. BE577 Geneva to Heathrow.
However underneath the typed BE577 there is a faint handwritten "BE625".
I have also found the boarding pass - BE625 Geneva to Heathrow 1/4/78.
So, which type would it be, another Trident? And why the change?
Many thanx.
Goldox.
It definitely says BE576 Heathrow to Geneva. BE577 Geneva to Heathrow.
However underneath the typed BE577 there is a faint handwritten "BE625".
I have also found the boarding pass - BE625 Geneva to Heathrow 1/4/78.
So, which type would it be, another Trident? And why the change?
Many thanx.
Goldox.
OK I have re-examined the 42-year-old faint carbon copy of the ticket.
It definitely says BE576 Heathrow to Geneva. BE577 Geneva to Heathrow.
However underneath the typed BE577 there is a faint handwritten "BE625".
I have also found the boarding pass - BE625 Geneva to Heathrow 1/4/78.
It definitely says BE576 Heathrow to Geneva. BE577 Geneva to Heathrow.
However underneath the typed BE577 there is a faint handwritten "BE625".
I have also found the boarding pass - BE625 Geneva to Heathrow 1/4/78.
So, which type would it be, another Trident?
And why the change?
This site quotes it as still being in use in Winter 1977/78 and your Summer 1978 timetable backs that up.
So the designator change for European flights must have occurred at the start of the Winter 1978 season, as this timetable confirms.
I remember vaguely that what happened was in S1978, flight numbers were rationalised across BA, hence the OP's flight number change (but still retaining the BE prefix) and then the designator changed from W1978 onwards, so that BE577 GVA-LHR changed first to BE625 and subsequently to BA625.
Incidentally, the legacy of that system continues to this day, over 40 years later: BA LHR flight numbers from 1 to 299 are longhaul, and departures are odd-numbered, whereas shorthaul flights are 300 upwards, with LHR departures even-numbered.
Gnome de PPRuNe
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I'm sure it's a 707. Pan Am had disposed of their DC-8s by 1970, Varig just the one in 1975.
Gnome de PPRuNe
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Pan Am 747 was probably this one which I think was there for a while being repaired. Fairly certain I saw it there a week or so later.
https://assets.publishing.service.go...981_N771PA.pdf
https://assets.publishing.service.go...981_N771PA.pdf
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Thank you all for the very informative replies.
I've managed to clean up part of the original picture a bit, any help on 100% positive ID?
SAS DC8 crossed my mind then flew out the other side .
I'm in favour of PANAM 707.
Goldox
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TCU - I could believe it's a Kuwait Varig 707 now you mention it. But would it be by the Panam maintenance?
Goldox
Goldox
Last edited by goldox; 7th Sep 2020 at 07:55. Reason: TIredness