POLICE_WORLD_3_2016

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Aviation Memories David King Surrey Branch Secretary

On Thursday 26th May 2016 24 members from 11 Region visited British Airways Heritage Museum at British Airways Speedbird Centre Headquarters at Heathrow. T he visit had been arranged by Surrey Member Tony Suter. We met prior to the event at a nearby pub for some lunch

of British Airways from its beginning .The first slide was a welcome to British Airways for the IPA and showed Concorde when it first landed at Heathrow in 1972, The slide had a police vehicle guarding Concorde. One of our members Richard Lock was serving at Heathrow at that time and to the surprise of all present was able to give the registration number etc of the police vehicle. We were also

and refreshments, however upon arrival we were informed that they had severe staff shortages and that the Chef was off sick with “food poisoning” and that they could not cater for 24 of us. They did suggest another venue. So we all scattered in our various vehicles in all directions to find the venue just like when we had lost contact with a suspect vehicle in the job ,some did lose contact but at least we all met up at the RV point at the British Airways Speed Bird centre as arranged (oh the joy of relocating the target and regaining eye ball)

joined at this point by 2 very attractive and new stewardesses from BA who were also interested in the presentation by Jim.

in luxury seats and were served food and drinks on bone china. Imperial Airlines continued to operate out of Croydon Airport right

up to the second world war until it became BEA in 1946 when it eventually located to what we now all know as Heathrow, together with the overseas airline BOAC. further amalgamations continued until the airline became British Airways . We were all enthralled with the slides and items on display at the museum on the way people travelled in the early years of overseas flying including using flying boats to Egypt for example and the luxury sleeping arrangements together with the cooking arrangements for these long haul flights at that time. Jim and Paul’s knowledge of flying with British Airways was outstanding. The museum was thoroughly enjoyed by all as well as the magnificent British Airways Speedbird Centre. An IPA pennant was presented to Paul and Jim as a token of appreciation for such an interesting talk and allowing us to visit the museum and view the wonderful collection. Member Dave Stamp took the opportunity to try out what it is like to fly first class as can be seen in the photo, most probably his and the vast majority of us only time we will get to try out first class, unfortunately though we were not served champagne on this occasion by the 2 stewardesses

Dave Stamp trying out first class

We were we welcomed at the Museum by Paul Jarvis the manager and his deputy Jim Davies. Jim gave us an introduction tour and slide show of the 100 year old history of Commercial flying

Jim Davies took us through the beginning of Imperial Airways first commercial flight from London to Paris in 1919 ,the pilot sat outside in the Dehavilland 9b ,whilst the passengers sat

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POLICE WORLD Vol 61 No. 3, 2016