In pictures: 70 years of Heathrow Airport
A new book, Heathrow in Photographs, commemorates seven decades of Europe's busiest airport
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Your support makes all the difference.Heathrow has been a hub for aviation enthusiasts for nearly seven decades, and it is celebrating its 70th anniversary of the official opening on 28 May 2016.
Before 1930, Heathrow was a hamlet – an isolated row of cottages on Hounslow Heath called Heath Row, approximately where Terminal 3 is now.
The history of Heathrow as an airfield can be traced back to 1929 and the Fairey Aviation Company’s Great West Aerodrome. On a grass site, experimental and test flying was carried out during the 1930s, while Croydon was London’s main airport at the time.
During the Battle of Britain, Heathrow became a satellite airfield for Northolt and operated Hurricane fighters. In the following years, RAF Transport Command and the Air Ministry started looking for sites close to London suitable for long-range transport operations.
It was decided to establish Heathrow as London’s primary airport and expansion work continued. The work enlarged the pre-war airfield, demolishing Heath Row hamlet in the process to make room for it. The RAF never got to use the airport.
Heathrow Airport was officially opened by the then minister of Civil Aviation, Lord Winster, on a very wet Thursday 31 May 1946 as "London Airport", with just the single runway.
Heathrow in Photographs - Celebrating 70 Years of London's Airport, by Adrian M Balch, is published by The History Press (£25, thehistorypress.co.uk).
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