At the time, those of us working at STN did expect to see Maersk at STN, as they already had a full charter operation there with 737-200s.

And here it is at STN back in the early 80’s (what a lovely livery for that era)…

Thanks, VeeOne…it was a strategic error shooting black&white though 🙂 Did you use transparency or colour neg? A close one with the TWA 747 then …a bit of JT9D throttle and you could have flipped over

I started using Tri-X (black and white) because it was cheap to take lots of pics and develop and print them myself. But then I went to transparencies which were difficult as I had to under expose an aeroplane shot by 1/2 stop because of the white body of the airliner. If I got it wrong the slide film had very limited exposure tolerance and a picture could be too burned out or too dark.

I seem to have lost many of my old photos from my flying days. I was looking for photos I took of a Trident inside and out at BEA Base but no, they’re gone, like my figure!

I like your shot of the BKS Trident after takeoff from 10R with the viewing area on T2 behind it. Oh, think how it would have looked in colour! I notice you also tried colour in some of your photos.

Do you remember a website in the late 1990s called the Airline History Website? Well that was me. I am sure I must have contacted you for permission to use some of your photos on the site. I contacted just about everyone on Airliners Net who posted such photos from the golden era. Pity we cannot post some of these pictures that others have taken back then. There are some truly good photographs of Tridents, Vanguards, etc from the time you were at lhr. I still have some of them from the history website days in a folder.

Great thread VeeOne, and wonderful pics too. They do bring back so many nice memories of that era thats sadly gone now. God, the times, I as a 14yr old in the early 70’s with pals caught the coach from Southampton to Hatton or the Travellers rest for a days spotting, bus to the Queens building and pure bliss, what great days. As you say each aircraft was so easily recognisable then. and the noise!!! thats probably has something to do with me being a bit mutton jeff now, but would never have missed it for the world.
May I ask what you used to fly?

Keep em coming Sarah

Easty

Wow! You travelled all that way for a day at LAP? That’s dedication. 🙂 I never got beyond General Aviation flying. I agree, our ears are more delicate in childhood and a 707 crossing the hedge 200 feet above would hurt. that pain must have indicated sound well over 120 db, so yes, what with P&W engines and discos ears probably were damaged. When I went for a medical at British Airways they found I had a diminished hearing ability at the high end of the sound spectrum. JT-9 engines for sure (and discos)! 🙂

Hi Interflug62M

What makes it beautiful to you? It is not well proportioned is it? Small flaps must have meant no stol ability. The An-10 was ugly and the An-12 is a massive improvement on that Soviet disaster. I once saw an An-12 with triangles (Iraqi Air Force maybe) flying overhead. It sounded sweet and looked rakish and interesting. But beautiful? hmmm… 😉
Sarah

Wonderful. Some lovely liveries in there too!
Always was partial to the Manx livery.
I never knew Maersk operated into LHR at one point.

You are right! This was a one-off charter by scientists coming to a convention. I believe Maersk operated this type on scheduled services to Southend at the time.

Interflug62M – yes that is where I saw it.

Well, sort of. I worked at STN for Servisair from 1982 until 1989 and then Gatwick Handling, but I was employed at STN. Initially, I didn’t know why we weren’t called Stansted Handling, turned out that someone local already owned the name. I finished at GH in 2001. At Servisair we used to handle many of the aircraft arriving at STN for maintenance work at what was then ATEL. Most were 707s including th blue tail Biman that I mentioned. Happy (and interesting) days;)

What an interesting life! I only visited Stansted a couple of times and recall 707s and DC8s. I flew in once before it became too expensive to land there, and noticed the THY 707 fleet on the north of the airport.

Here are some memories for you!

British Cargo Airlines DC-8-50F at Stansted 1983

Intercontiniental DC8-50 at Stansted 1983

Southern international Cargo viscount at Stansted 1983

TAAT Trans Arabian Air Transport DC8-50 at Stansted 1980’s

Interesting image. I have to say that it looks like a film fault to me, but I’m no expert. I have to admit however, that the object in the right hand box, does seem to look as though it is something solid being illuminated on its left side. A mystery indeed. Yes, I like the Fokker jets too, my particular favourite being the F28.

I do agree, the Fellowship was an elegant aeroplane. Fokker airliners were classy. The Fellowship had those air brakes in the tail in the style of a military aircraft which made it look unusual on finals. I wonder if it caused the aeroplane to feel rough. I once flew on a Carevelle and into Paris we had to lose altitude due to a runway change. While the wing air brakes were deployed the aeroplane virbrated unpleasantly.