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Elmdon Airport

Two lovely 1939 views of the airport. The first air- liner. Viv.98D38FD1-D664-46FF-A2EE-B0426CE9B75F.jpegEF62108E-F221-48AD-85FC-E21793844920.jpeg
Source: British Newspaper Archive
 
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I vaguely remember being at the opening of the Airport in 1939 as a 9 year old child, my father worked for Bryant's the main contractors for building the airport and all employees and their family's where invited to the opening. Eric
 
Eric. Would have loved to have seen the airport building when it opened, with all its original features and pristine. Viv.
 
Vivienne, MY late Wife and I actually flew from the old/original airport in the late 70's to Tunisia, no airbridges then you had to walk to the aircraft a Boeing 727 I think. I don't know when the new part opened, perhaps some one will enlighten me. Eric
 
cookie273uk said:
Vivienne, MY late Wife and I actually flew from the old/original airport in the late 70's to Tunisia, no airbridges then you had to walk to the aircraft a Boeing 727 I think. I don't know when the new part opened, perhaps some one will enlighten me. Eric
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I flew from the old terminal a few times in the 1970s and early 1980s but most of my international flights in those days I made by driving to Heathrow. The new terminal openned in 1984 and since then all my flights have been from Birmingham except for a couple from Gatwick.
 
David, I have always flew from Birmingham because I only live 3 miles away, apart from once from Heathrow and once from East Midlands. Eric
 
LucyHolland said:
Morning everyone

Firstly thanks for the add to this wonderful forum.
Following on from the Austin Aero works thread we thought you may like to watch the attached video about the Elmdon Airport Terminal.
Both Gary and myself have an interest in the 1940s time period, with Gary also being a big band vocalist.
We put this video together to show a little of the history and published it to coincide with the anniversary of the opening.

Travel back in time with Gary and enjoy the terminal in all it's magnificence.

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Excellent video,brought back so many memories of my plane spotting days at Elmdon.Much appreciated.
 
oh happy days my mom was a waitress there for many years,the airport christmas parties were great and every now and again the were air shows with blackburn beverley and bristol freighters royal navy helecopters which we went all over,on bank holidays the viewing area were packed a proper day out.
thanks again
 
Avolon said:
My Dad worked at the Elmdon Airport when Nikita Khrushchev came to Birmingham
Attached is a Photo of Khrushchev arriving at the airport, my Dad is also in the photo
Does anyone know what year it was
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We visited Elmdon to see the first visit of the BOAC Comet. Big event then
 
Avolon is no longer logging in but if anyone else is interested there is a you tube video of the arrival of Bulganin and Khushchev at Elmdon in 1956.
My dad was one of the police motorcycle outriders in the parade.
 
Don't remember a BOAC Comet at Elmdon, the first Comet to visit was from RAF Air Support Command.
 
"Air Anglia commenced operations with a small fleet of Douglas DC-3 "Dakota" piston-engined airliners (see heading image) as well as a number of smaller, "executive" type of aircraft inherited from its predecessors. With these aircraft it mainly operated oil and gas industry support flights from Norwich and Aberdeen as well as Humberside Airport."

Norwich presumably being more a hub than a destination! Air Anglia went on to be part of AirUK which, with its links to KLM, became quite an important regional airline in the 1980s, especially when it started using Stansted as its main hub.

Landing at Stanstead used to be a joy. One would arrive at one corner of the square terminal building and the lady at the car hire desk diagonally opposite would see us come in and have the paperwork all ready by the time we reached her desk. The hire car would be waiting just outside the door. That's what air travel should be like!
 
I remember doing a survey of business travellers at Birmingham Airport in 1970. I think at that time Air Anglia flew from Birmingham to Norwich with an onward connection to Stavanger. It amused me to see the Air Anglia check in operator ask one passenger to stand on the baggage scales as they were weighing the passenger as I think it was only a small aircraft on the service.
 
Radiorails said:
I guess it certainly rattled the cups and saucers on the dresser (assuming they had one). :laughing:
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Just seen the photo of the Spantax CV-990 landing at Elmdon. I lived in the house on the left of the photo from 1952 until December 68 when it was purchased by the Airport and demolished. The photo was taken in June 1967 and recorded the arrival of the first of many weekly Spantax CV-990 flights to/from Palma. The house stood on the A45 about a quater of a mile west of The Clock public house and AP Motors (Ann's Pantry) petrol station. Many thanks for the photo.
 
DavidGrain said:
I do not think that BOAC would have flown to Jersey as they were a long haul operator. Do you mean BEA?
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Well all I really remember was buying the ticket on the Saturday in the BOAC shop in New Street on the Saturday. We landed in Jersey as Guernsey airport could not accommodate a plane of that size and Guernsey passengers caught a connecting flight.
 
I was with the RAF in Nairobi when comet 1 came out for it's tropical trials in 1950, do not know date of first commercial flight but believe it crashed shortly after. Eric
 

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