gustavmahler

I saw this in the Guardian this morning and thought it might be interesting to the BA board. Some great photos, I think.

https://www.theguardian.com/business...70-in-pictures

missdimeaner

Thank you, great pictures..I remember spending some happy days on the roof (spectator area) in the 60s.
I'd forgotten they had children's rides there.

Doc Savage

Thanks, maestro, very interesting photos.

flatlander

The map from 1956 already shows "BOAC workshops", interesting to see that the BA (and predecessor) engineering buildings have been there for a long time.

The current simulator building is Grade II Listed, too - though I think it is slightly newer than 1956.

dsf

No photos from 1969 to 1994, nor 1996 to 2014!?

T8191

A nice burst of nostalgia ... thanks for reading The Guardian!!

Personal nostalgia from the yellow map (Image #5) showing Southern ATC Centre beside the Bath Road, where I worked in 1964. Black wooden wartime huts back then, unlike the modern facilities of today.

Also ... whatever happened to "Runway No. 3"? I assume it's that short stub in the NW corner*, but why build just a bit of it? Something I have often wondered about when looking at old images of LHR in its multi-runway days. Looking at the 1945 imagery on Google Earth, it seems they built 2 runways with that orientation(Runway No. 6 and 'the other one') and then disposed of the latter as it would slice through the whole central area, leaving just the stub.

* The stub is now about the mid-point of 27R.

robertf999

In short, you've worked it out yourself. There was an original RAF 'triangle' pattern before this progressed to the Star of David pattern with the centrally placed terminal and control tower. The original NW/SE-aligned runway was subsumed by this development. I guess concrete was cheaper back then...

You might find this book interesting:
http://www.zebedeelist.co.uk/zebedee...irst-50-years/

T8191

ah, the 3-runway triangle! That makes sense. Cheers!

Rubecula

I landed on the third runway in December 1977 due to a strong Southerly wind. BA Boeing 707 from Cairo. Runway went from the North East corner towards what is now terminal 4 if my memory serves me well.

fourspoons

When I first glanced the title I thought it said 'From tents to tenants' which ironically might have actually been appropriate.

Greenpen

I notice from the 1955 photograph that the airbridges served both the left and right sides of the areoplane. Nowerdays you only ever get on the left side of the plane.

Why do we only board from the left and when did it change?

Sean Bhalach

Rubecula - Remarkable that you can recall this from 39 years ago! Not many of the present travellers will be able to recount in 39 years time. You must divulge more! How was the 707?

Genius1

Those are stairs/ramps from the Queen's Building. Passengers would walk down them to the aircraft across the apron parked a little way away.

Rubecula

The only years I flew in the 70s were 75 and 77 so not many flights to remember plus I was very keen on civil aviation. Also there is a particular family reason for recalling this flight.

As for the landing I remember it so well because it was my first ever "sporting" arrival. Seem to remember the captain saying we are using an unusual runway because of the wind.

Apart from remembering it was a 707 and a night flight, the only other recollection is seeing a plane going in the opposite direction switch off and on its navigation lights as it passed us in the cruise.

andrelux

vivid memories – especially of T3 in the late sixties, which is just how I remember it. At the time, wasn’t T2 check-in a set of rabbit holes downstairs, before being allowed up into the glory of the main terminal itself, with its chandeliers?

Don’t know whether it was on the cross runway, but I do remember an emergency landing at LHR, complete with brace positions and accompanying emergency vehicles (no Coke wagons though). Captain was quite laconic (Pan Am, so perhaps Korean War/WW2 veteran?). Other passengers may not have appreciated an eight-year old kid, shouting loudly and excitedly ‘Wow, mummy, are we going to crash?’. The fact that I’m still around 50 years later shows that we didn’t. Although, clearing my parents’ attic, I came across an old school book of mine that they’d kept in which I’d written that it was ‘brilliant’.