On board my flight, taxiing to Runway 27 Left, I catch sight of Concorde, symbol of a bygone age of supersonic travel that started nearly fifty years ago - on 2 March 1969. Less than a month after the first flight of the Boeing 747 - which still remains very much in service today. Concorde G-BOAB was retired in 2000, the last Concorde flight was in November 2003. A short era - but I can recall watching (and hearing!) Concorde flying over my school in my last year, having entered regular service in 1976.
Going back to the 1960s, my father would often take me to Heathrow to see the planes - the photo below was snapped in June 1965 and reveal an interesting mix of aircraft - Hawker Siddeley Trident, Vickers Viscount, Boeing 707, Airspeed Ambassador, De Havilland Comet...
...and a two Vickers Vanguards and a Viscount, taken in summer 1962. Photos: Bohdan Dembinski
We lived just over eight miles from Heathrow Airport. A place of real glamour - international air travel; the Britannic, Europa and Oceanic terminals (to prosaically become Terminals 1, 2 and 3), and the ongoing sense of change (during the 1960s the airport was systematically being extended and developed). The best place of all at Heathrow for me was the Queen's Building - below the control tower, on the viewing gallery. Here, the roar of the engines, the smell of kerosene, the romance of flight was at its most tangible.
This time three years ago:
Radom line modernisation will change the face of Jeziorki
This time four years ago:
How do we perceive good and evil?
This time five years ago:
Civilisation and a civil society
This time seven years ago:
Strong, late-winter sunshine
This time eight years ago:
Jeziorki's wetlands freeze over
This time nine years ago
Kensington, a London village
This time ten years ago:
Lenten recipies
This time 11 years ago:
A walk through Sadyba
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