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Elmdon Airport Birmingham International Airport

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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Lloyd said:
It's likely the shop sold BEA as well as BOAC tickets - the companies were linked. (See Spanish timetable below).

View attachment 170379
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I bow to your superior knowledge. I just remember buying a ticket on Saturday and flying out Thursday 8.05. Mine and Anthony’s first ever flight. I remember Jersey did not look very big from up there. Kept our nerve because we had drunk a few Scotch and Canada Drys on the way.
 
That's a very interesting photograph.

I don't remember Peewits, before my time, but you used to hear but struggle to see
skylarks in the area before the runway was extended.

Sadly no more...
 
From 1999..

"The Northern Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus ) is a wader species commonly found on UK airfields. Because of its size, and its habit of forming large flocks, it is usually considered as a particularly hazardous species. It is also frequently involved in bird strikes and for the years 1976-1995 was the most commonly struck species in the UK. Between these years 1704 strikes were reported ni the UK, comprising 17.4 % of all strikes."


But more recently...

"The lapwing is an iconic but rapidly declining farmland bird, whose numbers have fallen by 50% since 1983 (CBC/BBS joint trend), and which is now ‘red-listed’ as a bird of conservation concern."

Lapwings on arable farmland - Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust

www.gwct.org.uk www.gwct.org.uk
 
AnnS said:
They look really smartly dressed, not like todays sun seekers...
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Yes Ann, it is a shame! The anything goes really started to get bad in the the early seventies when the airlines started to make flying more and more uncomfortable by putting more seats on the plane closer and narrower. This coupled with people wanting to travel more it’s a proverbial two way street. As a long time global business and leisure traveler, I would have to give the edge to the airline!
 
I remember one event from my first business flight out of Elmdon. I was working in Redditch then, and the company had a Dutch partner, so I was off to Holland. It was very cold weather. The plane would have been a Vanguard or a Viscount, you will remember when they used to be comfortable, unlike the later BAC111 cattle wagons. Memory is hazy, it may have been my very first flight ever, Julie and I went to Austria around the same time, but that was in a 737. We were all sat waiting, and there was a bit of a commotion on the ground round one of the engines. Suddenly a loud bang and a flash from the engine, and it started to reluctantly turn. I was told later that they used an explosive device to start engines as a last resort. After that, everything was fine.
Andrew.
 
Brummie a long time ago said:
I remember one event from my first business flight out of Elmdon. I was working in Redditch then, and the company had a Dutch partner, so I was off to Holland. It was very cold weather. The plane would have been a Vanguard or a Viscount, you will remember when they used to be comfortable, unlike the later BAC111 cattle wagons. Memory is hazy, it may have been my very first flight ever, Julie and I went to Austria around the same time, but that was in a 737. We were all sat waiting, and there was a bit of a commotion on the ground round one of the engines. Suddenly a loud bang and a flash from the engine, and it started to reluctantly turn. I was told later that they used an explosive device to start engines as a last resort. After that, everything was fine.
Andrew.
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Andrew, I remember the BAC 111, we called them noise makers! And if you were unfortunate enough to sit in the back you needed hearing protection, at least you would today. The other thing about them is that the engines leaked oil. A friend who was a USAF mechanic (the USAF purchased some BAC 111 excess inventory) said that was a good thing! If they were leaking oil at least you knew there was some in the engine :cool:
 
I had many flights in BAC 111 aircraft from Elmdon and liked them. A company named Maersk operated them on behalf of British Airways. It was always a novelty boarding up the rear air stairs with the APU roaring away above our heads. I've previously mentioned flights on them a few times in the thread ... :)
BAC111rear.jpg
 
The original variants 200 and 400 series sounded like jet fighters taking off, a number were re-fitted
with hush kits but didn't seem much better. The latter 500 series were noticeably quieter.

When they first appeared BAC (British Aircraft Corporation), marketed them as the 'bus stop' jet.
 
I still remember the Viscount and Vanguard as my most comfortable flights out and into Elmdon. A possible second place goes to Flybe out and into Bergerac on the Dash8. The resurrected Flybe now has its base at ‘Elmdon’, or Birmingham Airport as it is now. (I didn’t realise the airport was actually in Solihull). Perhaps it is the comfort of seeing propellers actually doing something.
Andrew.
 
Brummie a long time ago said:
I still remember the Viscount and Vanguard as my most comfortable flights out and into Elmdon. A possible second place goes to Flybe out and into Bergerac on the Dash8. The resurrected Flybe now has its base at ‘Elmdon’, or Birmingham Airport as it is now. (I didn’t realise the airport was actually in Solihull). Perhaps it is the comfort of seeing propellers actually doing something.
Andrew.
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I flew from Boston to St John NB on a Viscount in a snow storm in January, I thought I was in a John Wayne movie! Scared to death!
 
The longest flight I ever flew on from Elmdon (BHX) was in the early to mid 1990s when British Airways started scheduled flights direct to New York using a Boeing 757 aircraft. It seemed strange flying to the USA and not seeing London Heathrow.
 
oldMohawk said:
The longest flight I ever flew on from Elmdon (BHX) was in the early to mid 1990s when British Airways started scheduled flights direct to New York using a Boeing 757 aircraft. It seemed strange flying to the USA and not seeing London Heathrow.
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That's a long flight on what is considered a narrow body aircraft.
 
barester said:
757 not a narrow body aircraft, flew on it many times from Toronto to Heathrow!
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It's a large plane but still a narrow body.

Boeing 757 - Wikipedia​

en.wikipedia.org

Boeing 757 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
The Boeing 757 is an American narrow-body airliner designed and built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The then-named 7N7, a twinjet successor for the 727 (a trijet), received its first orders in August 1978. The prototype completed its maiden flight on February 19, 1982 and it was FAA certified on
...
See more
 
Richard Dye said:
It's a large plane but still a narrow body.

Boeing 757 - Wikipedia​

en.wikipedia.org

Boeing 757 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
The Boeing 757 is an American narrow-body airliner designed and built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The then-named 7N7, a twinjet successor for the 727 (a trijet), received its first orders in August 1978. The prototype completed its maiden flight on February 19, 1982 and it was FAA certified on
...
See more
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I stand corrected Richard!!
 
From the quote below the BHX to JFK service did start with the widebody 767 but was soon changed to a single aisle 757. I remember the aircraft I flew in was a single aisle but we were in business class so it was a nice flight.
On April 1, 1993 British Airways reinstated a transatlantic link from Birmingham to New York/JFK, last served by BOAC in 1973. Initially operated by a Boeing 767-300ER, the service was later extended to Toronto. Following a drop in demand, the flight was downgraded to a narrowbody 757 in January 1995, before being withdrawn completely in October 1998.
When American Airlines (AA) became one of the founding members of the oneworld alliance along with BA in 1999, they moved their daily Chicago/O’Hare service to Eurohub. The flight, then operated by a 767-300ER, was sadly removed from the schedules in October 2002 following the September 11 terror attacks.
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