HEATHROW has celebrated 60 years, a fact overlooked by BAA, perhaps with good reason. The problem is nobody will agree when the first flight took place. Work began on what was called RAF Heston in 1944 followed (or maybe even following) some clever manoeuvring by civil servants who were able to bypass building restrictions with an initial concept of a military airfield (which due to wartime considerations did not need planning consent). By Christmas 1945 one runway was finished and the irrepressible Air Vice Marshal (Pathfinder) Bennett, managing director British South American Airways, collected his first Avro Lancastrian from Waddington and with the connivance of Wimpey, the airport builder, quietly landed the aircraft just before the holidays. On 1 January a much-publicised proving flight took off from Heath Row, destination Buenos Aires with eight flight crew and just ten passengers (five fare paying) and a total elapsed time of 33 hours. The first ”official” flight did not take place until 28 May 1946, another Lancastrian, this time bound for Sydney and jointly operated by BOAC and Qantas. Alan Gallop”s fine book ”Time Flies” gives an excellent rendition.
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