Paul Filmer’s London Heathrow Airport photographic series continues as he looks back at 1984.
1984 was a bit of a lean year for me photography wise at Heathrow Airport.
British Airways HS121-3B Trident G-AWZB © Paul Filmer – Global Aviation Resource
The photos mostly consist of HS121-3B Tridents in the process of being slowly scrapped.
British Airways HS121-3B Trident G-AYVF © Paul Filmer – Global Aviation Resource
The one exception is the older HS121-1C Trident G-ARPR, which was still lingering around at the time. She was being held for the Civil Aviation Authority and was eventually taken to Teeside as a Fire Trainer.
British Airways HS121-1C Trident G-ARPR © Paul Filmer – Global Aviation Resource
As already mentioned in the 1980 article, G-ARPR was the world’s first commercial aircraft with revenue passengers on-board to make a fully automated landing on 6 October 1965, when she was operated by BEA on the BE343 flight LBG-LHR, so with the scrapping of this airframe a lot of history was thrown away.
RAF Tristar K.1 ZD949 © Paul Filmer – Global Aviation Resource
One of the first RAF Tristars I shot was K.1 tanker ZD949 fresh out of the British Airways paint shop. This shot was taken before the full tanker conversion and was a British Airways L-1011-500 G-BFCB.
RAF Tristar K.1 ZD949 © Paul Filmer – Global Aviation Resource
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ZD949 was the first ever TriStar I flew in. Back in 1984, the RAF could only do basic checks on the aircraft, i.e. check the tire pressures, wipe the bugs off the screens lol!, so the aircraft had to come back to LHR on a regular basis. I flew from Brize to LHR on ZD949, on what I believe was one of the first of these trips. We taxied in, and I too a few pics as we trundled past a Manx Viscount amongst the gems. When we stopped by what is now the Virgin Atlantic Hangar, on our way to the long-haul engineering, we were stopped at the level crossing. A guy in a security van stopped in front of us, got out, opened the gates on the famous level crossing, and signalled us to taxy across the road! The RAf pilots looked at each other and thought oh well he must know what he is doing, so off we went. When we parked on the other side, there was security vans all over the place. Apparently it transpired that all aircraft had to be towed across the road, due to risk of FOD, but this security guy had not been told! Not sure if this was the only time this ever happened, but glad to have witnessed it!
Really sad to see Tridents like this. But we have the last complete 1C, G-ARPO, and we’re restoring her up in Sunderland. She was flown from LHR to Teesside in December 1983. See http://www.savethetrident.org
The usual great photos. I first went to LHR as a teenager in what I believe was 1948-9, did not keep my logs but recall the following: DH Dragon Rapide were selling trips over Feltham Sand Pits and return-my first flight. They left from the wooden fenced public enclosure quite close to the ATC Tower. Tents were erected for refreshment sales and wooden pallets were the walkways due to weather. Bus tours were sold and took us spotters right over to BOAC hangars and PAA were close by. Stratocruisers were common. Avro York was the best ‘OLD” bird.
All that being said I have yet to locate a book/magazine/website providing details of those days. Super Connie was my favourite and the BEA Airspeed Ambassadors were a close second. How many times did I go? Probably ten/twelve, some of those were by bicycle from Romford-Essex for the day! Keep up your good work. Regards-Derek