My mum has told me that when she was studying and working in London in the 1960s she would check in at Gloucester Rd/Kensington before being bussed to Heathrow to catch a flight back to Ireland. Apparently when you got to the airport they'd drop everyone off in the middle of the airfield and you then had to find your plane.
Those old BEA buses with the huge luggage box on the back used to fascinate me when I was a kid in the back of dad's car. There always seemed to be a constant stream of them on the A4/M4.
Well, you could take the Heathrow Express - but you can also take the ordinary rail service from Paddington to Heathrow, which is only ten minutes longer and, at least back when I was making the journey, only cost £6.50 instead of £21
It's still disgraceful that the only way to access Heathrow without car ownership or a taxi is through central london. Why would I want to haul all my luggage in there, risking it being thieved by the locals, only to bring it out again?
No wonder they wanted terminals in London back then. I can recall from the mid 50's those lovely terminals of Heathrow although I never went inside the airport at that time. But one could see the lines of somewhat bedraggled marque tents along the fence (with impressive Super Constellations behind them) as you drove past the airport on the A4.
There was also a short-lived helicopter link between Gatwick and Heathrow. Noise complaints helped kill it, even though many of the complaints were made on days when the service was not operating.
Yes, I remember having tea at the South Bank and watching the Whirlwinds landing. Some did have floats. I believe the sadly missed Fairey Rotodyne visited the site for a sound test.
There was a heliport opposite my office on a barge on the Thames north bank, between Southwark Bridge and the line into Holborn Viaduct. I was on the 5th floor so had a good view of nervous pilots battling crosswinds. It was used by people in the City, as was I suspect the Waterloo terminus was too (which was on the other end of the 'drain'). Only the rich bankers could afford the luxury of using a helicopter but certain days it was busy with all sorts of people going on a jolly to Ascot or the Derby. It closed when the City of London school was built further along the bank (too noisy).
Great video - however the West London Air Terminal did not close in 1974 - I worked there for BA from 1979-1983 and it went on for a few years after that before the staff being relocated to Heathrow
When Jago said that BR thought helicopter’s would make railways obsolete, I immediately thought if Harold saying “I think railways are slow - they’re not much use and quite out of date” - seems BR agreed. Then one minute later who should show up but Harold himself.
Why didn’t anyone ask simple questions like - how much will this thing cost to operate (high fuel consumption, expensive maintenance and a very high staff to passenger ratio) will people put up with the noise (helicopters and Rotodynes are very noisy)? Basic questions really, which should have stopped it from getting beyond a sketch idea. Great video, many thanks.
Heathrow has just had its 75th birthday. For the first 10 years or so there was no real terminal at all, just a cluster of tents and huts strung out along the Bath Road, containing a few chairs, settees, and tables. You walked directly to your plane from these over wooden boards. No car park needed as everyone was expected to have a chauffeur. Similarly the London terminals of the various airlines had dedicated buses for a particular destination. This ramshackle arrangement persisted into the 1960s until what is now Terminal 3 opened. London Airport Northside could be a video on its own, hint.
You could always check in at the airport; no need to go into London unless that's where you lived. However, the WLAT, as it was known, and the similar terminal for Gatwick Airport at Victoria Station, were more convenient to those who lived in London. Before the extension of the Piccadilly Line in the 1970s, it was really the only way to get to and from Heathrow. You checked in your luggage (also at Victoria) and didn't need to bother about it again until you got to the other end.
Add a New York aside! There was a helicopter 🚁 service to JFK,run from the Pan Am building(over Grand Central Terminal), which was fairly well used, however,it was doomed by a fatal accident! It seems that a flight got caught in an updraft,and spun out of control,and a pedestrian was killed by a rotor blade! That blade was from about 1000 feet,with the resultant kinetic energy! Messy!! I was near the scene,literally a couple of minutes later,and only found out what happened,hours later! Scary,no end! That's a penalty for operating around high rises,because of contrary winds,and side currents,unseen,and treacherous! The departures,now operate from the heliport near South Street Seaport! Much safer,as the approaches are over the East River! London's operations,thankfully were from ground level,definitely safer!! Thanks again 😊! Jago,you are a wonder,and you fill in gaps,of history 😀!!!! THANK YOU!!
I think your videos are very informative I lived the first 20 years of my life at the Elephant & Castle and worked for 15 years after that near Waterloo Station and I had no idea there was a heliport there for a while! Still have fond memories of walking to Waterloo to look at the trains when I was a kid, I was also fascinated by the old 3 wheeled Scammell trucks moving freight around under the station. Strange to see a truck running around with a wheel missing. ;D
I can just about remember the West London Air Terminal being built. If I remember correctly they built it over the middle of a triangular junction between Gloucester Rd and Earls Court stations.
Never knew this 😲 thanks for sharing, I’m starting to think I need to fact check some of your tales 😆👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 I never imagined we done the airport thing in any other way than we do now.
I've always wanted to travel on planes such as Concorde and the De Havilland Comet, pioneers in their time despite the disasters, I reckon it would've been an experience to remember.
Salim. I was lucky enough to go on a Comet 4b. Our flight from Dublin was delayed hours, and they used an old Comet. I was thrilled, not sure many others were. It flew into the air rather than accelerated like a modern jet. It was very tatty, but so what, it was a Comet.
@@richardpentelow655 I've only flown in a Comet 4 on one occasion when BEA (or was it BA then)? used one instead of a BAC 1-11 on a Heathrow - Manchester run. Proper leather seats, if a tad worn.
Geoffrey Hobbs. Marvellous. Mine was Dublin London, and the Comet was in Silverwings livery. I think they were owned by BEA as a holiday operation. Very tatty as you noted. When we boarded, nobody was allowed to sit in the first six rows, because of weight restrictions. Then there were too many passengers so they let them be used. Different times.
I travelled in a BOAC Comet 4 from Hong Kong to Bangkok, and then Singapore to Melbourne via Darwin, in 1961. That latter flight was exciting. We hit a tropical storm and lost altitude so dramatically that the oxygen masks deployed.
This city center to city center thing never goes away. Remember the 1969 Trans Atlantic air race from the GPO tower (as I will always call it ) to The empire state building New Yor,k via St. Pancras and Bristol Basin New York, with a little help from the RAF. Never mind a train driver, I wanted to be a Harrier pilot. 😁😁
Everyone loved the Harrier jump jet. I remember being taken to see them as a little girl with our family. My brother then tried to lecture us all on the virtues of Harriers for weeks afterward
I have a 1960-era tube map on my wall - the rather ugly Harold Hutchinson one that nobody liked all that much. It mentions West London Air Terminal and BOAC Air Terminal and their nearest tube stations (Gloucester Road and Victoria according to it), plus bus connections to London Airport (Heathrow to us; from Victoria and Hounslow West). I was born long after both of those terminals (not London Airport obviously) ceased to exist so wondered what they were - I didn’t know of any airports in the middle of the city (apart from London City but that wasn’t a thing in 1960) - now I know. Thank you Jago. Why I didn’t just Google them is another matter, but finding out via a Hazzardous Production is much more fun.
Ah.... So *THAT'S* why Margaret Rutherford's character in The Runaway Bus had been taken to the wrong airport... Oh at least claimed to have been... The little minx. She'd checked in in that London.
@@stephenbridge7975 He was indeed. I love that film so much I know the whole script off by heart. I don't know why but I find the whole thing "comforting". A bit of trivia.... The film is (very, very loosely) based on "The Ghost Train", a play written by Arnold Ridley (Yes... Pvt Godfrey himself) as was the Will Hay film "Oh Mr Porter" also co-written by Val Guest. The reason it got changed beyond all recognition to a bus in the fog was that it had a negligible budget. Buses are cheaper and easier to film than trains, they fit in studios and the fog meant they didn't have to make any real effort with the scenery. Also... The telephone box scenes were ad-libbed by Frankie Howerd after the main production had finished to make it a bit longer. The film would otherwise been classed as a "short" rather than a feature.
Oh Gosh! I have just tracked down an image of the toy on the net! Memories from 45 years ago! Had a big match box collection, my brother and I, growing up in Glasgow, and then Makkah in Saudi Arabia. Lost it all in 1981 while moving...
Your videos are always interesting, informative and entertaining. The things I learn about London that I didn't previously know! But I am confused. You talk about the BOAC terminal being in Cromwell Road, but I thought it was opposite Victoria Coach Station. Am I having a senior moment, or were there two of them?
Good point, you’ve drawn my attention to something I hadn’t looked into. There was indeed also a BOAC terminal at Victoria, originally built for Imperial Airways. It closed in 1980.
@@MarkMcCluney There's a little Festival of Britain display in the foyer of the Festival Hall, a few mementos plus a neat scale model of how it used to look
@@jimtuite3451 I'm not sure but you can see it in old photos of the festival plus it also appears on the scale model on display at the Festival Hall. The official map shows it as an entrance building (ticket office?) and restaurant.
At least there weren't any crashes, unlike Los Angeles Airways, a helicopter service which offered flights from LAX Airport to Disneyland and other local destinations...and had two fatal crashes in just three months in 1968. They shut down just three years later. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Airways
Wasn't there a helicopter service from the West London Terminal? I seem to remember a twin rotor helicopter service landing at Heathrow on a regular basis.
in quite a few cities the service still exists.... New York, Moscow, Rio-de-Janeiro all have links from the center and its subway system by helicopter... in London, the existence of the City airport makes it less relevant, though I think original plans did consider providing a heliport link from somewhere on the Jubilee line to Heathrow.
will you do a video on the first airport to be on the Tube/local-rail network I saw a promotional video from 1925(on YT, might have been a Pathe record) , which, among other things, claimed you could get a special-train via the South-London & Hammersmith Railway direct to the terminal any information on that (the train in the footage looked like an early electric...) 'VEbeen wondering as they say
Always enjoy your entertaining and informative videos, thanks. Not sure though that you meant to leave that "TITLE TEXT HERE" at the start or is it a joke that's helicoptered over my head?
Ah, you see, when you discuss Sikorskis being sold off, as a Canadian, I have to raise my hand and say, thanks, but no thanks. Which you didn't, but I can smell a skunk from around the corner... Not you, Jago, You're toujours fragrant
I did that once when I went to the London and Berkshire areas for job interviews and flew from Scotland to Heathrow - when I came back, I was able to check in at Paddington and jump on the Heathrow Express (I only had cabin baggage).
I simply cannot understand why we don't check in _on the train to the airport._ Just leave your tagged baggage on the train. The current system seems entirely designed to waste my time.
Yes, but unaccompanied baggage is exactly how the Pan Am Lockerby disaster happened, and to wait for every passenger to board a plane before loading the baggage would be a nightmare on so many levels?!
@@defender1006 I don't understand your point? You can lose yourself in a terminal whether or not you arrived by train. I'm just suggesting that the check-in process could involve the desk clerk walking past the passengers on the train, rather than the passengers walking past the clerk in the check in area.
@@stephenspackman5573 It's all about security, there would be a much bigger window of opportunity for the passenger to disappear/not board the flight, which is exactly what happened and lead to the Pan Am flight 103 disaster in 1988,. If the passenger doesn't board the plane it can take a considerable amount of time to extricate the 'offending case from the aircrafts hold, which delays flights and adds to the costs to the airline and therefore the passengers ticket price!
@@defender1006 I understand the idea, but I honestly don't see *anything* in the current system stopping a passenger checking in, taking their boarding pass, and walking out the door into a taxi as if they had seen off a friend. OTOH, if they have checked in and cleared security *on a moving train* and then are delivered airside, someone can easily notice when they go from the departures level to arrivals and back out through security. So the concern is real, but the direction of your argument seems backwards. It's the current system that is insecure. (Maybe you're thinking about traditional North American style train service when the train routinely stops for half an hour in the middle of the wilderness and passengers get off to take a leak? Not the kind of train I'm imagining.)
![THE TOYS x NONT TANONT - ดอกไม้ที่รอฝน (spring) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/pPa1d5cC8M4/mqdefault.jpg)
I'm sure Harold the helicopter would have been happy with that mention.
My mum has told me that when she was studying and working in London in the 1960s she would check in at Gloucester Rd/Kensington before being bussed to Heathrow to catch a flight back to Ireland. Apparently when you got to the airport they'd drop everyone off in the middle of the airfield and you then had to find your plane.
The staff car park underneath Victoria Coach Station is still festooned with British Airways signage. I always wondered what the connection was!
Those old BEA buses with the huge luggage box on the back used to fascinate me when I was a kid in the back of dad's car. There always seemed to be a constant stream of them on the A4/M4.
Well, you could take the Heathrow Express - but you can also take the ordinary rail service from Paddington to Heathrow, which is only ten minutes longer and, at least back when I was making the journey, only cost £6.50 instead of £21
It's still disgraceful that the only way to access Heathrow without car ownership or a taxi is through central london.
Why would I want to haul all my luggage in there, risking it being thieved by the locals, only to bring it out again?
There's a Jago-ism at 2:47 ... "certain that this helicopter thing was really going to TAKE OFF". Yep, that's what they do....
No wonder they wanted terminals in London back then. I can recall from the mid 50's those lovely terminals of Heathrow although I never went inside the airport at that time. But one could see the lines of somewhat bedraggled marque tents along the fence (with impressive Super Constellations behind them) as you drove past the airport on the A4.
There was also a short-lived helicopter link between Gatwick and Heathrow. Noise complaints helped kill it, even though many of the complaints were made on days when the service was not operating.
Called AIR-LINK wasn't it ?
Can't believe the HS4Air proposal got rejected so hastily
Yes, I remember having tea at the South Bank and watching the Whirlwinds landing. Some did have floats. I believe the sadly missed Fairey Rotodyne visited the site for a sound test.
There was a heliport opposite my office on a barge on the Thames north bank, between Southwark Bridge and the line into Holborn Viaduct. I was on the 5th floor so had a good view of nervous pilots battling crosswinds. It was used by people in the City, as was I suspect the Waterloo terminus was too (which was on the other end of the 'drain'). Only the rich bankers could afford the luxury of using a helicopter but certain days it was busy with all sorts of people going on a jolly to Ascot or the Derby. It closed when the City of London school was built further along the bank (too noisy).
Great video - however the West London Air Terminal did not close in 1974 - I worked there for BA from 1979-1983 and it went on for a few years after that before the staff being relocated to Heathrow
"...or in layman's terms, Harold from Thomas the Tank Engine." As someone who *loved* Thomas, I appreciate this reference.
When Jago said that BR thought helicopter’s would make railways obsolete, I immediately thought if Harold saying “I think railways are slow - they’re not much use and quite out of date” - seems BR agreed.
Then one minute later who should show up but Harold himself.
Why didn’t anyone ask simple questions like - how much will this thing cost to operate (high fuel consumption, expensive maintenance and a very high staff to passenger ratio) will people put up with the noise (helicopters and Rotodynes are very noisy)? Basic questions really, which should have stopped it from getting beyond a sketch idea. Great video, many thanks.
Heathrow has just had its 75th birthday. For the first 10 years or so there was no real terminal at all, just a cluster of tents and huts strung out along the Bath Road, containing a few chairs, settees, and tables. You walked directly to your plane from these over wooden boards. No car park needed as everyone was expected to have a chauffeur. Similarly the London terminals of the various airlines had dedicated buses for a particular destination. This ramshackle arrangement persisted into the 1960s until what is now Terminal 3 opened. London Airport Northside could be a video on its own, hint.
"Helicopters fom Waterloo" .. ..'Title Text Here' . . . . . . . 😁😁😁
"Naaaahhh, we'll fix it in post . . . . .".
How do they spell it where you’re fom?
Got to love iMovie :)
Now this was news to me😊
Fantastic !there’s so much history to London
I really enjoyed this keep them coming 👍
You could always check in at the airport; no need to go into London unless that's where you lived. However, the WLAT, as it was known, and the similar terminal for Gatwick Airport at Victoria Station, were more convenient to those who lived in London. Before the extension of the Piccadilly Line in the 1970s, it was really the only way to get to and from Heathrow. You checked in your luggage (also at Victoria) and didn't need to bother about it again until you got to the other end.
I remember going to cubs the Hut was close to the A4 in Chiswick seeing the BEA as well as TWA and PanAm buses.
Add a New York aside! There was a helicopter 🚁 service to JFK,run from the Pan Am building(over Grand Central Terminal), which was fairly well used, however,it was doomed by a fatal accident! It seems that a flight got caught in an updraft,and spun out of control,and a pedestrian was killed by a rotor blade! That blade was from about 1000 feet,with the resultant kinetic energy! Messy!! I was near the scene,literally a couple of minutes later,and only found out what happened,hours later! Scary,no end! That's a penalty for operating around high rises,because of contrary winds,and side currents,unseen,and treacherous! The departures,now operate from the heliport near South Street Seaport! Much safer,as the approaches are over the East River! London's operations,thankfully were from ground level,definitely safer!! Thanks again 😊! Jago,you are a wonder,and you fill in gaps,of history 😀!!!! THANK YOU!!
I think your videos are very informative I lived the first 20 years of my life at the Elephant & Castle and worked for 15 years after that near Waterloo Station and I had no idea there was a heliport there for a while! Still have fond memories of walking to Waterloo to look at the trains when I was a kid, I was also fascinated by the old 3 wheeled Scammell trucks moving freight around under the station. Strange to see a truck running around with a wheel missing. ;D
Was that SCARAB IRON HORSE THREE WHEELER? I had to look it up, never heard of three wheeled truck, oh well, now I know
@@pavlekodak2147 They were said to turn on a sixpence. Now you'll have to look up "sixpence" as well.
I can just about remember the West London Air Terminal being built. If I remember correctly they built it over the middle of a triangular junction between Gloucester Rd and Earls Court stations.
Never knew this 😲 thanks for sharing, I’m starting to think I need to fact check some of your tales 😆👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 I never imagined we done the airport thing in any other way than we do now.
I've always wanted to travel on planes such as Concorde and the De Havilland Comet, pioneers in their time despite the disasters, I reckon it would've been an experience to remember.
Salim. I was lucky enough to go on a Comet 4b. Our flight from Dublin was delayed hours, and they used an old Comet. I was thrilled, not sure many others were. It flew into the air rather than accelerated like a modern jet. It was very tatty, but so what, it was a Comet.
@@richardpentelow655 I've only flown in a Comet 4 on one occasion when BEA (or was it BA then)? used one instead of a BAC 1-11 on a Heathrow - Manchester run. Proper leather seats, if a tad worn.
Geoffrey Hobbs. Marvellous. Mine was Dublin London, and the Comet was in Silverwings livery. I think they were owned by BEA as a holiday operation. Very tatty as you noted. When we boarded, nobody was allowed to sit in the first six rows, because of weight restrictions. Then there were too many passengers so they let them be used. Different times.
I travelled in a BOAC Comet 4 from Hong Kong to Bangkok, and then Singapore to Melbourne via Darwin, in 1961. That latter flight was exciting. We hit a tropical storm and lost altitude so dramatically that the oxygen masks deployed.
There is a preserved Concorde at the Runway Visitor Park next to Manchester Airport which you can sit in
This city center to city center thing never goes away. Remember the 1969 Trans Atlantic air race from the GPO tower (as I will always call it ) to The empire state building New Yor,k via St. Pancras and Bristol Basin New York, with a little help from the RAF. Never mind a train driver, I wanted to be a Harrier pilot. 😁😁
Everyone loved the Harrier jump jet. I remember being taken to see them as a little girl with our family. My brother then tried to lecture us all on the virtues of Harriers for weeks afterward
I have a 1960-era tube map on my wall - the rather ugly Harold Hutchinson one that nobody liked all that much.
It mentions West London Air Terminal and BOAC Air Terminal and their nearest tube stations (Gloucester Road and Victoria according to it), plus bus connections to London Airport (Heathrow to us; from Victoria and Hounslow West).
I was born long after both of those terminals (not London Airport obviously) ceased to exist so wondered what they were - I didn’t know of any airports in the middle of the city (apart from London City but that wasn’t a thing in 1960) - now I know. Thank you Jago.
Why I didn’t just Google them is another matter, but finding out via a Hazzardous Production is much more fun.
Ah.... So *THAT'S* why Margaret Rutherford's character in The Runaway Bus had been taken to the wrong airport... Oh at least claimed to have been... The little minx. She'd checked in in that London.
Frankie Howerd was the bus driver in the film - to lightern up that part of the film.
@@stephenbridge7975 He was indeed. I love that film so much I know the whole script off by heart. I don't know why but I find the whole thing "comforting".
A bit of trivia.... The film is (very, very loosely) based on "The Ghost Train", a play written by Arnold Ridley (Yes... Pvt Godfrey himself) as was the Will Hay film "Oh Mr Porter" also co-written by Val Guest. The reason it got changed beyond all recognition to a bus in the fog was that it had a negligible budget. Buses are cheaper and easier to film than trains, they fit in studios and the fog meant they didn't have to make any real effort with the scenery.
Also... The telephone box scenes were ad-libbed by Frankie Howerd after the main production had finished to make it a bit longer. The film would otherwise been classed as a "short" rather than a feature.
I remember the BEA West London terminal and the distinctive BEA buses.
Ian Helps. With the luggage trailer. Aer Lingus had a terminal in Knightsbridge. I say!
Were there Matchbox editions of the bus and the trailer? I might have had them when I was 3-4, during the mid 1970s.
Oh Gosh! I have just tracked down an image of the toy on the net! Memories from 45 years ago! Had a big match box collection, my brother and I, growing up in Glasgow, and then Makkah in Saudi Arabia. Lost it all in 1981 while moving...
@@richardpentelow655 I'm sure I went there with my parents when I was about 4 or 5. Train to Waterloo, tube, then bus, then plane.
@@stephenbridge7975. You have left out the walk from Gloucester Road tube station, but the adults carried your bags! I was older and had to help.
Another fascinating piece of lost history, thank you!
these helicopter things will take off bahahahaha...
I remember that in the late '70s flying from Luton Airport meant going to a coach station near Kings Cross.
The Airfix S55 kit was in BEA livery
Your videos are always interesting, informative and entertaining. The things I learn about London that I didn't previously know! But I am confused. You talk about the BOAC terminal being in Cromwell Road, but I thought it was opposite Victoria Coach Station. Am I having a senior moment, or were there two of them?
Good point, you’ve drawn my attention to something I hadn’t looked into. There was indeed also a BOAC terminal at Victoria, originally built for Imperial Airways. It closed in 1980.
Great video. I believe the air terminal building was actually part of the Festival of Britain and was repurposed afterwards
Ah, interesting. I’ll look that one up.
The Festival of Britain is fascinating. It's a shame there doesn't seem to be more colour film of it.
@@MarkMcCluney There's a little Festival of Britain display in the foyer of the Festival Hall, a few mementos plus a neat scale model of how it used to look
so what was the buildings purpose during the Festival?
@@jimtuite3451 I'm not sure but you can see it in old photos of the festival plus it also appears on the scale model on display at the Festival Hall. The official map shows it as an entrance building (ticket office?) and restaurant.
At least there weren't any crashes, unlike Los Angeles Airways, a helicopter service which offered flights from LAX Airport to Disneyland and other local destinations...and had two fatal crashes in just three months in 1968. They shut down just three years later. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Airways
I wish they'd kept the BEA heliport, but found a different use, maybe an events space of gallery would have been great
It’s futuristic in that wonderfully anachronistic 1950s view... would have been some great views over London though on your flight to Heathrow!
like you dont get those views on, like, I don't know, every flight approaching Heathrow from the east in good weather...
Haha brilliant video sir.
Wow. I had no idea. That was amazing.
Flying is safer than crossing the road. The airport bus drivers have strict instructions to keep the statistics favourable. (Donald Swann)
OHhhhh yeah. The BEAs really hit, man.
Jago: HELICOPTERS FROM WATERLOO
TITLE TEXT HERE
it was an interesting idea that helicopter idea, not necessarily a good one, but interesting
you can still get a helicopter from down the Thames ... could this come back !! LOL
Winnie's giving the naughty sign. The hand should be the other way round for Victory. This probably explains his naughty smile.
"Up your bum!"
@@Inkyminkyzizwoz "And Yours" ( unison )
Congregation will now be seated.
@@neilbain8736 I was quoting Darkest Hour, where his secretary said what it meant
@@Inkyminkyzizwoz Aha! Thanks, That explains it. I thought the phrasing and quotation marks were a bit odd.
If only the Fairey Rotodyne had caught on.
Of course one always tales the 'copter from Nice airport to Monaco.
Wasn't there a helicopter service from the West London Terminal? I seem to remember a twin rotor helicopter service landing at Heathrow on a regular basis.
I like the idea of city centre ckeck in. Urbanite here with no car.
"The quickest way was to go to waterloo and change for a helicopter. It's kind of a funny story." ...sounds pretty normal to me
in quite a few cities the service still exists.... New York, Moscow, Rio-de-Janeiro all have links from the center and its subway system by helicopter... in London, the existence of the City airport makes it less relevant, though I think original plans did consider providing a heliport link from somewhere on the Jubilee line to Heathrow.
Appreciated the Loadsamoney reference. Shut your mouth and look at my wad! Etc.
Wedge, sir. Wad is a tad vulgar.
will you do a video on the first airport to be on the Tube/local-rail network
I saw a promotional video from 1925(on YT, might have been a Pathe record) , which, among other things, claimed you could get a special-train via the South-London & Hammersmith Railway direct to the terminal
any information on that (the train in the footage looked like an early electric...) 'VEbeen wondering as they say
Always enjoy your entertaining and informative videos, thanks. Not sure though that you meant to leave that "TITLE TEXT HERE" at the start or is it a joke that's helicoptered over my head?
1:13 how rude
Ah, you see, when you discuss Sikorskis being sold off, as a Canadian, I have to raise my hand and say, thanks, but no thanks. Which you didn't, but I can smell a skunk from around the corner... Not you, Jago, You're toujours fragrant
Hmm now if apache helis in the offing....(I know a decade or so difference)....buzz Tower Bridge because....we got time folks!
When the Heathrow Express started you could check in and bag drop at Paddington.
I did that once when I went to the London and Berkshire areas for job interviews and flew from Scotland to Heathrow - when I came back, I was able to check in at Paddington and jump on the Heathrow Express (I only had cabin baggage).
Likewise with the Gatwick Express at Victoria
Bring back luggage vans!
Bloody good, too.
With some airlines you can do this at HK Central - sadly, not BA last time I looked)
Forty years ago, flying SwissAir you could check in your luggage at any Swiss railway station.
Jago your do dislikes persentage is very good well done
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Flake?wprov=sfla1
The sign intrigued me and i do love a good wiki rabbit hole . . . .
So, it is safe to say that British European Airways were being quite ahead of their time with their name change, well in advance of Brexit!
What about Battersea Heliport?
I remember Sikorsky (?) flights rising on a regular basis from there, well into the 80s - when I moved away.
@@chazzyb8660 There's a pub in Wandsworth, I think called "The Helicopter"; it's got a replica helicopter above the door.
I simply cannot understand why we don't check in _on the train to the airport._ Just leave your tagged baggage on the train. The current system seems entirely designed to waste my time.
Yes, but unaccompanied baggage is exactly how the Pan Am Lockerby disaster happened, and to wait for every passenger to board a plane before loading the baggage would be a nightmare on so many levels?!
@@defender1006 I don't understand your point? You can lose yourself in a terminal whether or not you arrived by train. I'm just suggesting that the check-in process could involve the desk clerk walking past the passengers on the train, rather than the passengers walking past the clerk in the check in area.
@@stephenspackman5573 It's all about security, there would be a much bigger window of opportunity for the passenger to disappear/not board the flight, which is exactly what happened and lead to the Pan Am flight 103 disaster in 1988,. If the passenger doesn't board the plane it can take a considerable amount of time to extricate the 'offending case from the aircrafts hold, which delays flights and adds to the costs to the airline and therefore the passengers ticket price!
@@defender1006 I understand the idea, but I honestly don't see *anything* in the current system stopping a passenger checking in, taking their boarding pass, and walking out the door into a taxi as if they had seen off a friend. OTOH, if they have checked in and cleared security *on a moving train* and then are delivered airside, someone can easily notice when they go from the departures level to arrivals and back out through security. So the concern is real, but the direction of your argument seems backwards. It's the current system that is insecure. (Maybe you're thinking about traditional North American style train service when the train routinely stops for half an hour in the middle of the wilderness and passengers get off to take a leak? Not the kind of train I'm imagining.)