Oh the memories! Joined BEA at LHR as a pilot in 1972 straight onto the Trident 3B as a second officer, fresh from graduating from the College of Air Training, Hamble. Eventually retired off the B744 in 2006. Halcyon days. Thanks for posting the video. 😀
to think a year later in 1972 was the staines trident crash. was captain key to blame. i remember it well as i was a local. 7 years old. great video thank you.
What a lovely time...just stopped working in the cabin after 30years of duty..1994-2024...glad it's all behind me ...lowcost shit...the last years. Had the joy of flying all business class 737BBJ and A319 ACJ
Thanks for sharing, this incredibly nostalgic video of what life was like growing up in the halcyon days of the 1960's and 1970's. This brings back so many memories to me of plane-spotting down at Elmdon Airport in Birmingham (BHX) and the excitement of early foreign holidays. Life appeared to be so much simpler then.
Thank you for this great video. I love the service, the make-up and hair session and the trident. As I was a child BEA guaranteed the liberty of West Berlin.
Lovely post! My favorite memory of the Trident was a flight from Heathrow to Stavanger, Norway--with a hefty tailwind, the pilot announced we had attained a groundspeed of 740 miles per hour, shaving almost half an hour off the scheduled flight time. The entire BEA branding was elegant and colorful, quite memorable. Thanks for sparking these good memories again!
Oh the BEA livery - as a kid in the 70's used to love watching the Trident shuttle flying out of Glasgow, and flying on the Viscount down the west coast of Scotland to Islay and Campbeltown.
A lovely video. I remember the Trident very well between Heathrow and Hannover. The outbound flight was always via Bremen, whilst Hannover to Heathrow flight was always direct. It was usually a Trident 3B, but sometimes it was a Trident Two. Those were the days when flying was so much more enjoyable, unlike the 'lowlife' air travel of these days.🛫✈🛬
Thanks for posting. Back in the '50's, the morning BEA Viscount from Elmdon (now BHX) to LHR used to be my final alarm-call as it passed overhead shortly after take-off.
when i moved to london i met a Norwegian girl and i later flew with ba on a boeing 757 to visit her in norway. i was 25. i got the travel bug and i haven't stopped travelling since. london was a great base for finding cheap flights. last week i flew on the airbus a 380 for the 1st time. i liked it but my favourite plane will always be the 747.
The halcyon days of aviation. Only problem was that the average working class person could only dream of flying BEA to an exotic overseas destination. A great historical record though, thank you for posting it
May I point out that the mid-late 60's and early 70's were the period of cheap package holidays to the Med and those who took such holidays were certainly not rich. Not sure what you mean by 'exotic overseas destination' as BEA were an intra-European carrier. I accept that choosing to travel on a scheduled BEA flight would have been a bit more expensive than travelling on a holiday charter airline but even so this idea that by 1971 (the date of this video) flying BEA was so expensive that it was beyond the means of the average working class person is really a myth.
As a 10 year old i would fly out to Malta with BEA and then I was flying Air Malta on the other flights. Do not know why I flew sometimes with BEA and sometimes with Air Malta. I would love to go back in time. It was a better time. Loved Malta.
I assume that you are not asking why your parents sometimes chose to travel with BEA and sometimes chose to travel with Air Malta but are referring to the fact that prior to Air Malta KM obtaining their own aircraft (Boeing 720's if I recall correctly) their flights to/from the UK were operated by BEA on their behalf and therefore irrespective of if you were travelling on a BE or a KM flight you would be on a BEA aircraft. This was not a 'codeshare' in the modern sense. The flights operated as either BE flights or KM flights, not joint flights with both a BE and a KM flight number. This situation was not unique. The same arrangement existed right up to about 1979 and again from about 1982 (for a short period of time) on the LHR-GIB (subsequently LGW-GIB) route where the GibAir (the former name of GB Airways) GT flights were operated by BEA/BA on their behalf so again if you were travelling on a BE/BA or a GT flight you would be on a BEA/BA aircraft. Again, the flights operated as either BE/BA flights or GT flights, not joint flights with both a BE/BA and a GT flight number. I visited Malta in 1974. We flew on a Trident with the flight routed LHR-NAP-MLA. Full hot meal in Y on the LHR-NAP sector and a full cold meal (starter, cold main course, desert, cheese) on the 1 hour NAP-MLA sector.
Great memories for me. I enjoyed a very happy time from 1968 to 1982 (then it was British Airways) and I was a management colleague of the featured Swiss Executive Chef
The food looks really nice. Funny, I was just wondering if the Swiss chef is still with us. I guess he'd be in his 80's or even 90's now. I was born in 1971 and I guess I'm old now too.😊
Yes you took the tube to Hounslow West. To continue to Heathrow you could either catch a non-stop London Transport bus (route A1 I think) for which a premium fare was charged or else just go to the bus stop and catch a normal red bus onwards to the airport if you didn't want to pay the premium fare. My favourite way of getting to LHR from London at that time was to use the railair link from Waterloo via Feltham. You caught a normal BR train from Waterloo Main Line to Feltham (the fast trains to Reading and Guildford via Ascot used to stop there) and then transferred to a special bus which entered the airport via the other tunnel at the rear of the airport which private cars could not use. The BEA buses operated from the West London Air Terminal in Cromwell Road where you could also check-in for the flight. I also recall that for a period of time for certain trunk-route UK domestic flights BEA used to offer a coach from the steps of the arriving aircraft direct to the West London Air Terminal for passengers with hand baggage only.
My mum was in the travel business & they had comic names for the airlines based on their initials. BEA was known as the Bacon & Egg Airline, BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation) was Better On A Camel. It is surprising how the numbers have increased.
As a kid I could always tell if a trident was flying over my house because the under wing was painted red. I flew on a trident only once and boy was is noisy at the back on take off. Very sleek and exciting plane tho 👍
I remember reading that Hawker Siddley wanted to make the initial Trident longer and larger, but BEA fought them on this….. the Americans were shown the project and lo and behold, the Boeing 727 was born and was far more successful.
I feel even at the start of another decade life seemed more glamorous and flying was more enjoyable. Obviously the amount of passengers was of the time and now Heathrow caters for many millions more as the 🌎 has grown with the trials and tribulations of this. And security - know where were there high tech scanners There were no lap tops, mobile phones and you did not have to take your shoes off 🏴🏴🇬🇧🇬🇧😭😢
I remember the trident and the 1 -11 Of BA they noisy black smoke used rise out there engines over our house In southall 😂 it was like a air show Now I live near Heathrow with my family and 58 yrs old the only thing I hear now is the reverse thrust . I worked on the ramp at Heathrow since 2002 till present . The first jet I flew on was a B 707 Pakistan PIA from Heathrow to Karachi was 7 yrs old going along with my mother I presume the London flight to Karachi was the 340C coming back from Lahore to London Was I think 320B . As I was a child I think the Karachi To Lahore was the B720 . John Cunningham also flew the first PIA Trident delivery flight with PIA chief pilot shaket H khan Sometime in the 1960 s
They were to merge with BOAC shortly after. The tridents were also operating in China and a few other exotic places. They could land and take off in fog too.
They must have knken, even when this was made, that British industry was in terminal decline, and that everything would shut up shop within a decade? The electronics industry, the ship building industry, the motor industry, the general manufacturing, cutlery, steel, Manchester/ fabrics just to name a few, and of course the aeronautical industry? .. This was the era of Leyland. Rationalisation. Union power. Progressive ideals like short working weeks. Japan was booming.
When BOAC and BEA worked before it became BA which worked well through the 80's but now a shadow of its former self because the accountants messed up, AGAIN.
With respect and assuming that you are referring to a journey originating in London, I would question the fare stated, my purpose being to address the so often repeated myth that flying in the 1970's was very expensive and evidence my doubt as follows: You state that the Y class rt fare LHR-MLA in 1974 was £300.00. Unfortunately I do not have access to 1974 fares on this route but I do have access to 1978 fares. The period between 1974 and 1978 was a period of high inflation, rapidly increasing fuel prices and increasing fares. There is no reason to imagine that 1974 fares would have been higher than the 1978 fares. The 1978 fares on this route were as follows: FULL FARES - valid 1 year, refunds permitted without penalty, changes permitted without penalty, stopovers permitted etc First Class F ow £163.00 rt £326.00 Economy Class Y ow £108.50 rt £217.00 SPECIAL (DISCOUNTED) FARES (i.e fares with restrictions on minimum/maximum stay, changes, refunds etc) Economy Class Excursion fare YE1M rt £165.50 day flights/ £129.50 night flights Economy Class Apex fare YAP3M rt £87.00 day flights/ £77.50 night flights There would have also been an unpublished fare available to tour operators for sale as part of a package holiday An ID90 discount would have been applied to the full Y fare rather than any form of discounted fare type. The majority of passengers would not be paying this type of fare and therefore, even if the amount stated were correct, £300 does not represent the round trip fare that would have been paid by the vast majority of passengers.
LOL @ "fast working, fast talking world", today it would labelled as slow and sedate by comparison. Flying back then was more personal, felt like you were going on a real adventure, not impersonal check-in kiosks or passport control. A lot of jobs when you think about have either been completely eliminated or down-sized. There is no longer that social, person touch. Yes I know we can bitch about the delays, the slowness of the system, the hassles at times...automated systems are not much better either. People dressed nicely, not like the slobs of today.
It was Captain King as stated, but I understand that he'd had a heated argument with other pilots in the crew room prior to his taking command of his flight. It was suggested after the crash that this left him flustered and agitated, and that he possibly suffered an heart attack during takeoff. I believe it was also the opinion of the enquiry experts that his co-pilots were too inexperienced and that more experienced co-pilots should have been seconded to the crew, but due to an ongoing strke action none were available...
Oh the memories!
Joined BEA at LHR as a pilot in 1972 straight onto the Trident 3B as a second officer, fresh from graduating from the College of Air Training, Hamble. Eventually retired off the B744 in 2006. Halcyon days.
Thanks for posting the video. 😀
Glad that you enjoyed it!
to think a year later in 1972 was the staines trident crash. was captain key to blame. i remember it well as i was a local. 7 years old. great video thank you.
Glad that you enjoyed it, Thanks for following!
What a lovely time...just stopped working in the cabin after 30years of duty..1994-2024...glad it's all behind me ...lowcost shit...the last years. Had the joy of flying all business class 737BBJ and A319 ACJ
When passengers were treated as valued customers, not potential criminals.
Or cattle.
@@escapetheratracenow9883 When flying was for a minority and much unsafer than now.
@FranciscoCamino And we're still treated as criminals.
I agree with you sir!
Mainly because people could behave themselves back then.
Excellent upload, really enjoyed this. The 70's glamour and kitsch and formality and respect would be lovely today.
I am glad that you enjoyed it!
Thanks for sharing, this incredibly nostalgic video of what life was like growing up in the halcyon days of the 1960's and 1970's. This brings back so many memories to me of plane-spotting down at Elmdon Airport in Birmingham (BHX) and the excitement of early foreign holidays. Life appeared to be so much simpler then.
Glad you enjoyed it
The Hawker Trident is so aesthetically pleasing to me anyway
I agree with you!
Thank you for this great video. I love the service, the make-up and hair session and the trident. As I was a child BEA guaranteed the liberty of West Berlin.
Thanks for sharing!!
Great to see these historic images of a different airline scenery with all those airlines and aircraft that are now a thing of the past.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Sweet advert! Loved BEA with my ❤ and especially the Trident
Glad you enjoyed it!
@@joluqamalta2815 ❤️🥰
Lovely post! My favorite memory of the Trident was a flight from Heathrow to Stavanger, Norway--with a hefty tailwind, the pilot announced we had attained a groundspeed of 740 miles per hour, shaving almost half an hour off the scheduled flight time. The entire BEA branding was elegant and colorful, quite memorable. Thanks for sparking these good memories again!
Glad that you enjoyed it!
The Trident was quite a unique trijet but it was so loud on takeoff.!
Yes it was loud .
super capable tho'
Incredible just 36 years ago it still resembled what this video from 1970s shows. Incredible memories, TWA, JAL, Qantas, 747s in the background
Glad you enjoyed it!
Oh the BEA livery - as a kid in the 70's used to love watching the Trident shuttle flying out of Glasgow, and flying on the Viscount down the west coast of Scotland to Islay and Campbeltown.
me too..I even listened on an air band radio I bought in the barras.. I can still remember the flight numbers..5050 5052 5054
@@briancarno8837 lol - I forgot that I used to listen to atc too .... :)
A lovely video. I remember the Trident very well between Heathrow and Hannover. The outbound flight was always via Bremen, whilst Hannover to Heathrow flight was always direct. It was usually a Trident 3B, but sometimes it was a Trident Two. Those were the days when flying was so much more enjoyable, unlike the 'lowlife' air travel of these days.🛫✈🛬
Thanks for posting. Back in the '50's, the morning BEA Viscount from Elmdon (now BHX) to LHR used to be my final alarm-call as it passed overhead shortly after take-off.
Thanks for the info!
Wonderful nostalgia!…🇬🇧💕
when i moved to london i met a Norwegian girl and i later flew with ba on a boeing 757 to visit her in norway. i was 25. i got the travel bug and i haven't stopped travelling since. london was a great base for finding cheap flights. last week i flew on the airbus a 380 for the 1st time. i liked it but my favourite plane will always be the 747.
Trident aircraft ? Beautiful ❤️ ?as good as anything else in it's class if not better in the world 🌎🌍.
Very interesting. Had no idea that BEA was spun off from BOAC. Remember flying both, as well as British Caledonian, as a child.
Thanks for watching!
The halcyon days of aviation. Only problem was that the average working class person could only dream of flying BEA to an exotic overseas destination. A great historical record though, thank you for posting it
May I point out that the mid-late 60's and early 70's were the period of cheap package holidays to the Med and those who took such holidays were certainly not rich. Not sure what you mean by 'exotic overseas destination' as BEA were an intra-European carrier. I accept that choosing to travel on a scheduled BEA flight would have been a bit more expensive than travelling on a holiday charter airline but even so this idea that by 1971 (the date of this video) flying BEA was so expensive that it was beyond the means of the average working class person is really a myth.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for your comment!
@@Ben-xe8psand then Freddie Laker appeared……and the world changed
Not true I was a Geordie Miners daughter - I was on this film & reading the announcement.
good sharing 👌 thumb up 👍
Thanks for visiting
BEA Was the best European Airline, and trident 2 was a BEAutiful plane
As a 10 year old i would fly out to Malta with BEA and then I was flying Air Malta on the other flights. Do not know why I flew sometimes with BEA and sometimes with Air Malta. I would love to go back in time. It was a better time. Loved Malta.
I assume that you are not asking why your parents sometimes chose to travel with BEA and sometimes chose to travel with Air Malta but are referring to the fact that prior to Air Malta KM obtaining their own aircraft (Boeing 720's if I recall correctly) their flights to/from the UK were operated by BEA on their behalf and therefore irrespective of if you were travelling on a BE or a KM flight you would be on a BEA aircraft. This was not a 'codeshare' in the modern sense. The flights operated as either BE flights or KM flights, not joint flights with both a BE and a KM flight number.
This situation was not unique. The same arrangement existed right up to about 1979 and again from about 1982 (for a short period of time) on the LHR-GIB (subsequently LGW-GIB) route where the GibAir (the former name of GB Airways) GT flights were operated by BEA/BA on their behalf so again if you were travelling on a BE/BA or a GT flight you would be on a BEA/BA aircraft. Again, the flights operated as either BE/BA flights or GT flights, not joint flights with both a BE/BA and a GT flight number.
I visited Malta in 1974. We flew on a Trident with the flight routed LHR-NAP-MLA. Full hot meal in Y on the LHR-NAP sector and a full cold meal (starter, cold main course, desert, cheese) on the 1 hour NAP-MLA sector.
Great memories for me. I enjoyed a very happy time from 1968 to 1982 (then it was British Airways) and I was a management colleague of the featured Swiss Executive Chef
Glad you enjoyed it
The food looks really nice. Funny, I was just wondering if the Swiss chef is still with us. I guess he'd be in his 80's or even 90's now. I was born in 1971 and I guess I'm old now too.😊
@@wingnut71 Sadly the Swiss Chef August Pfyffer passed away a few years ago.
@andrewabel3927 Aww, that's too bad. RIP.
The BEA buses are a reminder that there was no tube station serving Heathrow until several years later.
Interesting comment!
Yes you took the tube to Hounslow West. To continue to Heathrow you could either catch a non-stop London Transport bus (route A1 I think) for which a premium fare was charged or else just go to the bus stop and catch a normal red bus onwards to the airport if you didn't want to pay the premium fare.
My favourite way of getting to LHR from London at that time was to use the railair link from Waterloo via Feltham. You caught a normal BR train from Waterloo Main Line to Feltham (the fast trains to Reading and Guildford via Ascot used to stop there) and then transferred to a special bus which entered the airport via the other tunnel at the rear of the airport which private cars could not use.
The BEA buses operated from the West London Air Terminal in Cromwell Road where you could also check-in for the flight. I also recall that for a period of time for certain trunk-route UK domestic flights BEA used to offer a coach from the steps of the arriving aircraft direct to the West London Air Terminal for passengers with hand baggage only.
Gold time to fly❤not really now😢
good old days！❤
BOAC Operations used to call BEA the 'Hounslow Flying Club'
Thanks for your comment!
My mum was in the travel business & they had comic names for the airlines based on their initials. BEA was known as the Bacon & Egg Airline, BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation) was Better On A Camel. It is surprising how the numbers have increased.
SABENA - Such A Bad Experience Never Again
SAS - Same As Sabena
@ TWA - Try Walking Across
Thanks for your commrnt!
BEA, Back every afternoon ( for crew)
Those inflight meals look far more appetising than what's on offer today lol,and the steps down from the aircraft don't look as steep.
Thanks for your comment!
As a kid I could always tell if a trident was flying over my house because the under wing was painted red. I flew on a trident only once and boy was is noisy at the back on take off. Very sleek and exciting plane tho 👍
I remember reading that Hawker Siddley wanted to make the initial Trident longer and larger, but BEA fought them on this….. the Americans were shown the project and lo and behold, the Boeing 727 was born and was far more successful.
Yes sir they did.
A great aircraft and part of British aviation history but one tends to believe that BEA would have been a lot better off financially with 737s.
The days when flying was “Klasse” and now it’s “Masse”……
When you could drive up to the airport front door!!
😅great video from a different age…
Thanks for following!
Anyone else thought it was named trident because it had three Engines?
Three Engines three pilots and three computers...Thanks for following!
Any other Hamsters watching this in 2024?
Put a Courtline Lockheed l1011 tristar next to a Trident and the Trident looks old and small.
@@matthewpayne42 that makes sense, since the TriStar is a large widebody, so it should look much bigger than the Trident
Is that because it was bigger?
Court LIne. The Ryanair of the 1960's and early 70's.
I feel even at the start of another decade life seemed more glamorous and flying was more enjoyable.
Obviously the amount of passengers was of the time and now Heathrow caters for many millions more as the 🌎 has grown with the trials and tribulations of this.
And security - know where were there high tech scanners
There were no lap tops, mobile phones and you did not have to take your shoes off
🏴🏴🇬🇧🇬🇧😭😢
Glad that you enjoyed it!
I remember the trident and the 1 -11
Of BA they noisy black smoke used rise out there engines over our house
In southall 😂 it was like a air show
Now I live near Heathrow with my family and 58 yrs old the only thing
I hear now is the reverse thrust .
I worked on the ramp at Heathrow since 2002 till present .
The first jet I flew on was a B 707
Pakistan PIA from Heathrow to Karachi was 7 yrs old going along with my mother I presume the London flight to Karachi was the 340C coming back from Lahore to London
Was I think 320B .
As I was a child I think the Karachi
To Lahore was the B720 .
John Cunningham also flew the first PIA Trident delivery flight with PIA chief pilot shaket H khan
Sometime in the 1960 s
Thanks for your interesting comment!
They were to merge with BOAC shortly after. The tridents were also operating in China and a few other exotic places. They could land and take off in fog too.
They must have knken, even when this was made, that British industry was in terminal decline, and that everything would shut up shop within a decade? The electronics industry, the ship building industry, the motor industry, the general manufacturing, cutlery, steel, Manchester/ fabrics just to name a few, and of course the aeronautical industry? .. This was the era of Leyland. Rationalisation. Union power. Progressive ideals like short working weeks. Japan was booming.
Thanks for your interesting comment!
@3:41 QANTAS 707 😍
Was the Trident underpowered, especially at higher weights?
Patrick Allen narrating i think.
When BOAC and BEA worked before it became BA which worked well through the 80's but now a shadow of its former self because the accountants messed up, AGAIN.
Thanks for your comment!
Nowadays who cares about chefs for economy passengers, throw them anything and they will eat without complaining
I agree with you sir!
They were to merge with BOAC to become British Airways
People wore suits on trips
Great viewing I remember flying to Luca airport Malta, for the airline staff discount of £30 that was 10% of the fare, so £300 return in 1974.
Thanks for the info!
With respect and assuming that you are referring to a journey originating in London, I would question the fare stated, my purpose being to address the so often repeated myth that flying in the 1970's was very expensive and evidence my doubt as follows:
You state that the Y class rt fare LHR-MLA in 1974 was £300.00.
Unfortunately I do not have access to 1974 fares on this route but I do have access to 1978 fares. The period between 1974 and 1978 was a period of high inflation, rapidly increasing fuel prices and increasing fares. There is no reason to imagine that 1974 fares would have been higher than the 1978 fares.
The 1978 fares on this route were as follows:
FULL FARES - valid 1 year, refunds permitted without penalty, changes permitted without penalty, stopovers permitted etc
First Class F ow £163.00 rt £326.00
Economy Class Y ow £108.50 rt £217.00
SPECIAL (DISCOUNTED) FARES (i.e fares with restrictions on minimum/maximum stay, changes, refunds etc)
Economy Class Excursion fare YE1M rt £165.50 day flights/ £129.50 night flights
Economy Class Apex fare YAP3M rt £87.00 day flights/ £77.50 night flights
There would have also been an unpublished fare available to tour operators for sale as part of a package holiday
An ID90 discount would have been applied to the full Y fare rather than any form of discounted fare type. The majority of passengers would not be paying this type of fare and therefore, even if the amount stated were correct, £300 does not represent the round trip fare that would have been paid by the vast majority of passengers.
LOL @ "fast working, fast talking world", today it would labelled as slow and sedate by comparison. Flying back then was more personal, felt like you were going on a real adventure, not impersonal check-in kiosks or passport control. A lot of jobs when you think about have either been completely eliminated or down-sized. There is no longer that social, person touch. Yes I know we can bitch about the delays, the slowness of the system, the hassles at times...automated systems are not much better either. People dressed nicely, not like the slobs of today.
So, what went wrong? This Airline doesn't exists anymore.
They merged with BOAC and named it British Airways, Thanks for following!
Third world was looking that time for the west as civilized community and their life style was elegant
A pity cannot read either Pan Am or TWA 747s serial numbers...
London Airways now sadly.
at 4.45 is that the captain that crashed the trident over staines ?
No it's Ron Gillman I believe. It was Captain Key on the fateful flight that crashed near Staines. RIP
It was Captain King as stated, but I understand that he'd had a heated argument with other pilots in the crew room prior to his taking command of his flight. It was suggested after the crash that this left him flustered and agitated, and that he possibly suffered an heart attack during takeoff. I believe it was also the opinion of the enquiry experts that his co-pilots were too inexperienced and that more experienced co-pilots should have been seconded to the crew, but due to an ongoing strke action none were available...
@@aubreydrinkwater3236 Captain Key (not King).
Miss those old whining RR Darts, and deafening dirty Speys... 😍
BEA……..back every afternoon…….really not my kind of flying