Hi,
My photos from East Midlands seem to have gone down well, so I thought that you may be interested to see some pictures I took at Heathrow during the latter half of the 1980s.
I was living in the Midlands at the time, but my annual visit was always a highlight of my year. This was still in the days of Pan Am and Trans World at the airport, and in this 1989 photo Clipper Empress of the Skies is on her way to the runway:-
N9670 by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr
How I miss the fantastically evocative names of the Pan Am 747 fleet!
Another 747 operator was Varig, who operated the -300 variant between Heathrow and Brazil. The flight continued onto Copenhagen, which is where PP-VOA was bound for:-
PP-VOA by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr
The BA 747-400s are commonplace at Heathrow these days, but G-BNLB was one of the highlights of my 1989 visit, having just been delivered. Here she is crossing the runway on her way from Terminal 4 to start a flight to Philadelphia and Pittsburgh:-
G-BNLB by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr
My 1988 visit was particularly interesting as there was a problem with the ATC system in the morning. As a consequence, Air France and KLM both used 747s on later flights, with the evening Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt being operated by DC-10 D-ADLO:-
D-ADLO by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr
BA also sent a 747 to Paris.
European widebodies were frequent visitors, though, with the A.300 being operated by several airlines, including SX-BEF from Olympic:-
SX-BEF by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr
Narrowbodied types visiting the airport included, as they still do, SAS MD-80s, although the attractive livery of the 1980s has been replaced by something rather duller:-
OY-KGT by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr
The Eastern European airlines were always interesting – the Airbus and Boeing fleets we are now used to were unthinkable then, with Russian built equipment being used such as Tu-154 CCCP-85293:-
CCCP-85293 by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr
Bangladesh Biman have just started 777 services to Heathrow, replacing their DC-10s. When this photo was taken, the DC-10s were just coming into service, replacing the 707:-
S2-ACE by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr
Biz Jets were much more frequent back in the 80s than now, and former airliners operating in such a role were also regular visitors. Here is Qatari Government 727 A7-AAB, at a time when Qatar Airways hadn’t been thought of and aircraft from the country were rare:-
A7-AAB by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr
To end, I’ll return to the 747. I believe that at the time something like 10% of the global 747 fleet visited Heathrow each day. A small number were 747SPs, with South African regularly sending the short bodied variant to the airport:-
ZS-SPE by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr
I hope the photos are of interest – more are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/indiaecho/
Neil
By: longshot - 11th December 2011 at 19:35
Surprisingly the last balcony of the Roof Gardens
lingered on (and often off!) until 2002, and it was free!….see http://www.abpic.co.uk/results.php?q=m+west+balcony&fields=all&sort=latest&limit=10
It was the Iraq invasion that killed it
By: Arm Waver - 11th December 2011 at 19:28
A brilliant trip down memory lane for me.
Thank you for sharing.
My Dad and I used to go very regularly – especially as my Nan lived not that far away. It was always part of a weekend at Nan’s. Up early Saturday, packed lunch in a bag with a flask of coffee, quick stop at the newsagents for a Puzzler for Dad and a Commando comic for me, (still have most of them), then onto the Routemaster working the 140 service and then in for the day… Many, many happy hours spent on the QB…
By: Al - 3rd December 2011 at 22:21
Takes me back – from around 1985 to 1989 I worked in the ATC tower, and also in an office which was closer to the main runways than any other on the airfield.
One day I saw a guy outside my office, standing on top of a Range Rover, watching the aircraft take-off with his young son. It was fairly quiet, so I invited them in to watch from my office’s fenced roof – turned out to be James Hunt, F.1 driver…
By: Arabella-Cox - 3rd December 2011 at 19:24
Nice pictures guys and gals!
By: Indiaecho - 3rd December 2011 at 15:05
Thanks very much for all your replies, and thanks especially to Veeone for the excellent photos.
The one of the viewing area is particularly welcome – it is great to see somewhere I spent so much time at again.
Neil
By: VeeOne - 2nd December 2011 at 15:40
aaah, another glass of nostalgia for me please, and make it a large one:)
I will happily drink to that!
By: waco - 1st December 2011 at 21:27
Excellent…take a bow…..
By: EGTC - 1st December 2011 at 20:07
Wonderful 🙂
By: MSR777 - 28th November 2011 at 16:48
Alas, most if not all, never to be seen again. As usual V, some lovely shots. Especially the SPs, the JATs, and that Balkan. Imagine working that apron on a staple diet of DC3s, 4s, 6s, 7Cs etc, not too mention the early turboprops and jets…………aaah, another glass of nostalgia for me please, and make it a large one:)
By: nuuumannn - 28th November 2011 at 02:29
Terrific images! It was about this time I first visited the UK and got to see the vastness of Heathrow first hand. Seeing all those aircraft and their stately colour schemes is a real treat.
By: VeeOne - 27th November 2011 at 23:59
Thanks for posting these 1980s EGLL photos.
This was Heathrow just prior to it becoming unrecognisable in my opinion. When it lost the PanAm and TWA slots to other carriers and the viewing area finally died off. This photo was taken about 1989…
TWA – classic airline. This was in the mid 1980s.
PanAm – An iconic giant of an airline. Sad to see it go from Heathrow.
I loved the 1980s British Airways livery most of all. The first BA livery and the current one doesn’t do it for me. This 1980s livery is the closest to the old BOAC markings.
The 1980s was also the time when the first tier European carriers were getting rid of all their old equipment for newer Airbus and Boeing types. So lots of interesting long-haul types on medium haul schedules.
This JAT 707 for instance…
…was taking up the slack until the introduction of 737-300 jets as the old DC9 and 727 types were phased out.
There was still some interesting turboprop types in service at Heathrow too..
Yup, 1980s was the last good decade for Heathrow. 🙁
From there on in everything started looking rather samey.
By: Speedbird002 - 24th November 2011 at 17:55
awesome, brings back the memories, i flew on PANAM lots of times, sorely missed
By: MSR777 - 22nd November 2011 at 19:05
Excellent pics! I used to love my bi-annual visits to the T2 rooftop. It used to be a real thrill to see the big names ‘up close’ My main interest was, and still is, the ‘eastern bloc’ stuff, an array of Tupolevs and Ilyushins…..Happy Days! Thanks for sharing those, and more anytime please:)
By: widmeister - 21st November 2011 at 21:38
Enjoyed your post. Good narration to a selection of nostalgic niceties.
By: EGTC - 21st November 2011 at 21:07
Brilliant. I grew up by Heathrow in the 80’s and 90’s and saw most of the planes in your set of shots. Wonderful memories.
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November 21, 2011 at 8:28 pm