London Airport in the 1950s

Read the forum code of contact

Member for

18 years 1 month

Posts: 2,123

There has just been an interesting thread on the Dragon Rapides used for sightseeing from London Airport in the 1950s. The thread began to drift (as is quite natural) and it was suggested that we start a new thread on memories (photographic or otherwise) from that period of what is now LHR. Maybe it has already been done, but I cannot find it in the Search. There are snippets, but nothing extensive.
I think we could extend the dateline for a year or two before or after the 50s, but what we are looking for are the piston-powered days.
While I sort out some pictures, maybe someone would like to kick off with pictures, sightings or memories.

Laurence

Original post

Member for

18 years 1 month

Posts: 2,123

Here are a couple to start with while I scan some more.

Argonauts awaiting disposal Northside, July 1959
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc39/apollo-fox/167.59LHRArgonauts.jpg

Pakistani Super Constellation AP-AFQ leaving for (? coming from) Karachi, July 1959
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc39/apollo-fox/16759LHRAP-AFQ.jpg

Laurence

Member for

16 years 7 months

Posts: 10,647

I would love to see pics of the older buildings, especially the original VHT control tower which was northside along the Bath Rd, and the original Fairey Great West hangars.

Member for

15 years 5 months

Posts: 633

I remember a spotting visit to Heathrow ("LAP") in April 56(Royal Blue coach from Southampton) and finding the 3 Tu-104s and 2 Il-14s there - the occasion being the visit to the UK of Bulganin and Kruschev.Sadly I have no pictures.

Member for

14 years 10 months

Posts: 1,020

As a met assisstant I worked at LAP Heathrow from Dec 49 to Jul 50. The office was close to the old control tower off the Bath Road. I did observations which included being sent out to the runway controllers caravan in times of poor visibility, to give visibility ranges from there.
I also remember an Air France pilot coming into the office wanting the person responsible for reporting the cloud base. That was 17 year old yours truly, part of whose observation job was to go outside, look up at the clouds, and report on their type and cloud base. Mr Air France was really, really mad at me as he had landed at below his minima, based upon my guesswork. I gave, I guess, a good Gallic shrug, and told him I had done the best I could. The rest of the office was trying hard not to laugh.

Member for

16 years 7 months

Posts: 10,647

Hi Peter, very interesting, do you have any more stories or even pictures?
I assume you worked in one of the 'SECO' huts near the base of the tower, and wasn't the met. square just to the front and right of the tower if looking out of the front?

Member for

14 years 10 months

Posts: 1,020

Yes, you have reminded me that the met square with its Stevenson screened box for the thermometers etc was just as you say. Somewhere I have a couple of scruffy pics of me working? in said square and office. Cannot lay my hands on them now but will have a dig round later.
One of my other duties was to plot observations on the "Atlantic" chart. Weather reports came from all round the world via teleprinter into the printer room where there were some 12 teleprinters chattering away. When doing these charts one had to go and tear off whatever strips of obs one needed and painstakingly plot them out, using two pens strapped together, one red, one black. It was necessary to plot very quickly as the duty forecaster would be hassling for it. One was produced every six hours and he had to plot the isobars and fronts using the information gleaned from the obs, so one had to be neat and precise plotting them. The East seaboard of America, Greenland, Iceland, Weather ships, the Azores and N Europe all had to go on the chart. Dozens of reporting stations had to have wet and dry bulb temps, pressure, and a symbol for how the barometer moved, cloud types and cloudbase hts and one or two other figures or symbols had to go on at the rate of about two stations a minute.
Then every six hours there would be a telephone conference between the chief forecasters at Heathrow, Prestwick and head office, who between them would thrash out the forecasts to be passed to the BBC etc. The arguments could become quite heated until a consensus was arrived at.
I had had a six? week training course at the Met Office in Kingsway, where we learned how to do obs on the famous Air Ministry roof, before doing about 4 months at Lympne in Kent and then being posted to Heathrow. So my experience when confronting the Air France man was pretty minimal, but of course being a stroppy teenager, I was quite right. LOL
Incidentally at Lympne the met assisstant was on duty on the airfield alone at night. One of his duties was to fill a balloon with hydrogen in a little wooden shed, hang a chinese lantern with a birthday cake candle in it. This contraption was then released into the sky to be tracked with a fancy theodolite to obtain winds at height. This was done at 1400 hours AND AT 0200 hours, Elfin Safety anyone.
A little off historic aircraft perhaps so bear with me.

Member for

16 years 7 months

Posts: 10,647


A little off historic aircraft perhaps so bear with me.

It is historic aviation, so we should be ok this time!
Fascinating stuff, I'm so interested mainly because St Mawgan was the only other place that had the same tower as Heathrow, complete with the SECO huts and met. square all laid out the same, it's all still there - even down to the met. balloon filling shed!

Member for

16 years

Posts: 705

Those Argonauts bring back the memories! Attached is my log for 29 November 1958. As you will see there were quite a few Connies and Strats in outdoor storage as well as the Argonauts.Pity I couldn't afford a film for the camera at the time!!! Oh, for a time machine!
Jim
PS: I've just noticed that the file is labelled 1959 but 1958 is the correct year!

Member for

18 years 1 month

Posts: 2,123

Thanks for the log Jim. In July 1959 some of the ones you mention were still present. Some were cocooned, such as Constellations G-ALAK, LAL, NUP and Super Cons VH-EAN and EAO. Some of these were Skyways, as were the Yorks GNV, GOB and HFE. A surprising cocoon was Heron G-AOTI.

A few more old photos below. Sorry about the quality. Brownie level, as I was a poor teenager!

DC4 (C54A) F-BELS June 1952
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc39/apollo-fox/LHRF-BELSmaybe2652.jpg

Britannia G-AOVL Northside July 1959
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc39/apollo-fox/Brit-LHR16-7-59.jpg

Illfated G-ALYP in April 1953, a few months before it went down off Elba in January 1954
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc39/apollo-fox/4453G-ALYPLHR.jpg

A later Comet 4, in July 1959
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc39/apollo-fox/16759LHRG-APD.jpg

Laurence

Member for

16 years 7 months

Posts: 564

Heathrow C1956

I have more somewhere!

Member for

15 years 11 months

Posts: 361

Here are a few taken sometime in the mid-50s.

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/ww110/Jetflap/John%20Read%20aviation%20photos%20-%201950s/0021Viscount.jpg

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/ww110/Jetflap/John%20Read%20aviation%20photos%20-%201950s/0022Convair240.jpg

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/ww110/Jetflap/John%20Read%20aviation%20photos%20-%201950s/0023Elizabethan.jpg

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/ww110/Jetflap/John%20Read%20aviation%20photos%20-%201950s/0024Stratocruiser.jpg

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/ww110/Jetflap/John%20Read%20aviation%20photos%20-%201950s/0025Viscount.jpg

Member for

18 years 1 month

Posts: 2,123

Lovely pictures Jetflap. Better than mine!

Laurence

Member for

14 years 10 months

Posts: 1,020

Excellent pics, brings back the good old days.
What beautiful aeroplanes we made then, the Ambassador and the first Comet were really works of art.

Member for

19 years

Posts: 2,895

It is historic aviation, so we should be ok this time!
Fascinating stuff, .......

I agree. (not a mention of a Spitfire anywhere :diablo: )

Roger Smith

Member for

14 years 10 months

Posts: 1,020

As threatened I found my old album. These snaps were taken of me doing an observation sometime in the first half of 1950. Note even 17 year old Met Office employees wore a tie at all times LOL
http://i345.photobucket.com/albums/p398/navrad/HeathrowMetOffice.jpg

Member for

16 years 5 months

Posts: 5,999

Yes some lovely pics guys, especially the two Viscounts.. you can almost hear them whistleing along the peri-track.

Incidentally, the brown marking on the fins of the Ambassador.. is that muck from the Centaurus engines?

Member for

14 years 5 months

Posts: 4,956

London Airport in the 1950s

What a marvellous collection of pictures - hard to believe the coloured ones were taken that long ago, they are so sharp. And they evoke long forgotten memories of Viscount and Ambassador(Elisabethan) trips.

And at the old North Terminal you felt so close to the planes and the crews. Anyone got any pictures of Vikings in BEA livery and Dakotas in BEA or Air France livery?

Member for

15 years 11 months

Posts: 361

A few more. The Convair 340 (?) was taken in 1956 and the others in 1958.

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/ww110/Jetflap/John%20Read%20aviation%20photos%20-%201950s/0039Convair340.jpg

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/ww110/Jetflap/John%20Read%20aviation%20photos%20-%201950s/0049DC-3.jpg

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/ww110/Jetflap/John%20Read%20aviation%20photos%20-%201950s/0050DC-5.jpg

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/ww110/Jetflap/John%20Read%20aviation%20photos%20-%201950s/0052Viscount.jpg

Member for

14 years 5 months

Posts: 4,956

London Airport in the 1950s

Terrific pictures, Jetflap - thanks. I am back as a teenage plane spotter. You wrote 340? - I think it is a 340.

Member for

17 years 6 months

Posts: 346

Terrific pictures, Jetflap - thanks. I am back as a teenage plane spotter. You wrote 340? - I think it is a 340.

I thought all the Lufthansa Convairs were 440s and called metropolitans

I loved the 50s at LAP, used to lurk down the A30 by the Pan Am Hangar