aaaaahhhhhhh southend

was my first airport i ever went to as a kid in the early-mid 60’s

i was an eastend / essex lad and my dad took me there to watch the planes and i woz hooked!

channel viscounts screaming around with holiday makers off to france and majorca and jersey…
one fri evening i remember about 6 or 7 channel viscounts loading up and whizzing off to the holiday places…very busy in the summer.

carvairs, dc 4’s heralds 748s’ hermes, and bristol freighters i think too

my first jet i saw there and we were able to walk over it for 2 shillings on a sunday afternoon open day was a channel airways bac 1-11 brand new!
http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=0223120&photo_nr=69&prev_id=0265700&next_id=0223119&size=L
mr alan brown took this pic and you see me ME under the nose of the a/c (little lad wiv brown hair lol!)

we did that visit too on one of their new tridents as well but it might have been at stansted for that one in 1968
i do remember channel putting on 99 seats on a 1-11 400 and 139 (or was it 149?) on a trident 1e which was 7 abreast yikes !!!

i know on bks/northeast we put in 117 pax on a trident 1e