Early memories of Heathrow Airport.

Just remembered again, very recently, my earliest memories of visiting Heathrow Airport!
The first memory was around 1966, when I got taken there by my parents to pick up my uncle arriving on a flight from from New York.
I can just remember being in a car and driving towards the tunnel, from the perimeter road, and could see several interesting looking pale blue and white aircraft, that were Pan Am Boeing 707's parked around Terminal 3.
We then picked him up from the Pan Am arrivals area, which all seemed very 'exotic' and interesting at that time, and that was my first memory!

The next experience of Heathrow, was around 1972, when we went to meet my grandmother, who flew on an Austrian Airlines (nicknamed AUA by the Austrians) flight from Vienna. The area near Hounslow West and Henley's roundabout, was now a large building site, with a rough looking temporary road provided for the traffic going to the airport. All this building effort over several years, was the construction of the new underground rail link, to Hatton Cross and the airport from Hounslow West station. This time, when being driven to the Central Area, I saw both Pan Am and the red and white colours of TWA, plus a couple of South African Airways Boeing 707's, with their colourful orange tails.

We had to wait around for some time on the viewing terrace, which in those days, was one of the best around. Unfortunately that morning, it was a grey dull cool late summer's day, with the typical airport windy conditions, and I remember that it was also feeling damp.
There were no aircraft movements for some time, and very few parked around the stands, giving the impression that this part of the airport was deserted! Feeling bored, I was glad to see the eventual arrival of the sleek and elegant looking, red and white Austrian Airlines Caravelle 6R airliner, taxying up to the Terminal 2 parking stand with the distinctive high pitch compressor wailing sounds of it's Rolls Royce Avon turbojet engines.

                                                         With thanks to RinkRatz / Flikr for the picture

The 'AUA' flight was running a bit late, and we were glad to make our way to the warmth of the Terminal 2 arrivals area, where I met my grandmother. She complained a bit about the cramped seats at the back of the aircraft cabin, next to the engines, and the engine noise as well during the flight!

Many years later, I eventually got a chance to fly on a CTA Caravelle 10R, and found it comfortable with plenty of legroom and relatively quiet in the cabin, regarding engine noise, so I must have been lucky!