
************ 1959 London Airport (Heathrow) Scenery (EGLL) **************

by Chris Helton, Ken Lawson, Bill Douglas, and Tom Gibson

Version 1, 7/2021, for FS2004 and FSX.

Support available at the CalClassic Discussion Forum:
http://calclassic.proboards.com/board/3/calclassic-discussion

NOTE: This file, worldwide AI traffic, and lots of classic airliners can be 
downloaded free from Tom Gibson's California Classics at - 
http://www.calclassic.com/ 

*****For INSTALLATION and CREDITS refer to the London Airport 1959 Installation.txt file.

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INTRODUCTION

This scenery depicts London Airport as it was in the summer of 1959, before all international traffic had moved from the North Terminal to the Oceanic Terminal (later called Terminal #3), completed in late 1961.  London Airport was not officially renamed Heathrow until 1966, but was called that at least informally throughout its existence. Having started in the 1930's as a small grass airfield near the hamlet of Heathrow and used by Fairey Aviation, it was then officially named The London Airport at the start of passenger operations in 1946.

This scenery is designed using the 1962 Ordnance Maps from this great web site:

https://maps.nls.uk/os/national-grid/

and many pictures from 1958-1960.

Used as a background for the ADE file, this allowed an exceptional level of accuracy, often not possible elsewhere.  The taxiways, aprons, and parking layout were changed to match 1958 and 1960 aerial photos of the airport.

London Airport was a pioneer in airport infrastructure improvements and by 1959 included green taxiway centerline lights (except for the north parallel taxiway and taxiways leading to maintenance hangars) and taxiway signs.  Taxiways had no identifying letters or numbers and instead taxi routes were electronically controlled from the tower using these green centreline lights to show the route. Various red stop bars at intervals marked the limit of clearance. This light system was supplemented by the taxiway signs in very bright conditions. These signs were unusual, consisting of white diagrams on a black background portraying the taxiway junction layout with a white light controlled from the tower to indicate the route to be followed. Sadly FS cannot replicate any of that, the Progressive Taxi option is perhaps the nearest equivalent.  As FS9 offers only fixed arrows and letters on its taxi signs, this scenery as a compromise uses  more conventional taxiway letter designators and taxi signs but at least in the same white on black as were the classic era signs. You may remove the signs using the ADE source file provided, if you wish.

*Please note* that this scenery removes the London City Airport (EGLC) which opened in 1988.  You can restore it if desired by removing the EGLC_ADE9_Remove.bgl file from the scenery subfolder and EGLC_ADE9_Remove_ALT.bgl from FS2004/Scenery/World/scenery or FSX/Scenery/World/scenery.

AIRPORT DETAILS

Note:  Set your Scenery Density to Very Dense (or Extremely Dense) to see all these details.

Buildings - refer to the EGLL Airport Diagram 59.jpg in the main folder for locations. Major buildings:

Queens Building:  Theatre, restaurants, shops, rooftop garden and aircraft viewing.
Europa Terminal:  Domestic and European flights.  The west portion added later was also known as the Britannic Terminal.
North Terminal:  International flights, VIP flights, cargo area.
BEA, and BOAC Hangars:  These airlines used the airport as their main maintenance base.
Comet House, Britannia House:  BOAC headquarters offices.
Argonaut House area:  BOAC and BEA transport headquarters.
Skyway Hotel:  Opened in 1960 and shown under construction, it is now the Raddisson Blu Edwardian.
Viking Centre:  BEA training centre for the airline.  Originally housed the workers that built the airport.

Buses 

The iconic red London double deck buses brought passengers to the airport.  This scenery features Routemaster buses, first introduced in 1956 and used for decades.  It featured an open rear entrance.  Based on a Paul Mort original, it has been improved and converted for use in FS.

BEA brought its passengers from the West London Air Terminal in London to the airport with AEC Regal IV buses, which featured a deck and a half layout with luggage storage underneath.  We have modified a standard bus to properly model this variation.

BOAC also brought passengers to the airport in buses - we have modeled the single level buses that were used.  

And finally London Airport used buses on the airport itself.  When your flight was called, you walked down the enclosed walkway ramps to ground level, and usually boarded a London Airports yellow bus to take you to your aircraft.  Each walkway included a bus loading area.  Both truck hauled and "normal" buses were used, both modeled here.

GCA Trucks

When the weather was bad, by 1959 all 4 ends of both major runways (10R/28L and 10L/28R) were equipped with ILSs, and we have modeled that.  But there was also Ground Controlled Approach (GCA) available as well, using radar operators to guide you down.  We have modeled the radar trucks as were used at this time.  While only two trucks appear to have been used, narrow roads placed next to each runway allowed the trucks to be moved to the active runway(s).  In this scenery they are set to be used on runways 10L and 10R.  Note that a GCA system is available for FS2004 and can be used here.

https://www.fs2000.org/2019/11/09/fsx-fs2004-p3d-generic-gca-gauge-v2-1/

Queen's Flight

The VIP terminal on the North ramp (just west of the North Terminal) has a small facility for boarding the Royal family on the Queen's Flight aircraft.  In 1959 that was typically a DeHavilland Heron.  That loading area was a small semicircle of red gravel, just south of the VIP terminal.  We have modeled this, and the classic AI Traffic files have been updated to add a 1950s era Queen's Flight Heron (File #5) and flights for 1959 (File #9).  You can see the Heron parked there at 1023 GMT on Sunday.

Stored BOAC Aircraft

There are 5 stored aircraft at the old RAF hangars, 3 Constellations and 2 Stratocruisers.  These are visible if you use the classic AI Traffic package.  Download and install the updated AI files (Files #1, 7, and 9).

Fuel

At this airport two companies competed for fueling aircraft, Esso and a Shell-BP consortium.  We have modeled both fuel loading stations on the west edge of the airport, and both company's trucks can be found around the airport.  By the way, the dark area west of the fuel loading area is a sewage treatment plant!

Alcock and Brown Statue

This statue can be found just west of the North Terminal.  The limestone statue was commissioned by the British Government and designed and sculpted by artist William McMillan. It was unveiled at Heathrow in 1954.  The statue features the pilots dressed in aviator clothes, including caps and goggles.

In April 1913 the Daily Mail offered a prize of £10,000 to “the aviator who shall first cross the Atlantic in an aeroplane in flight from any point in the United States of America, Canada or Newfoundland to any point in Great Britain or Ireland in 72 continuous hours.” The competition was suspended with the outbreak of war in 1914 but reopened after Armistice was declared in 1918.

John Alcock and Arthur Brown departed from Newfoundland, Canada on 14th June 1919 in a modified First World War Vickers Vimy and flew across the North Atlantic Ocean in just 15 hours 57 minutes, crash-landing in Derrygimlagh Bog, near the site of the famous Marconi radio station in Connemara. 


NAVIGATION

We have included a 1962 Terminal Area Map originally found in an Esso pamphlet of the airport - approaches in 1959 were essentially identical.  The file name is EGLL1962 Terminal Area.jpg in the main folder.  All required navaids have been included to allow realistic arrivals and departures to/from London Airport in 1959. Approaches in 1959 were probably quite similar.  Stock navaids include a Heathrow VOR and NDB but it is doubtful that these were operative in 1959.

If you would like to fly to/from London Airport using real BOAC and BEA schedules:

British Overseas Airways (BOAC) September 1959 Timetable:
http://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/ba59.htm

British European Airways (BEA) Septermber 1959 Timetable:
http://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/be5909.htm

We have also included a map of the taxiway system, EGLL Airport Diagram 59.jpg in the main folder.  This includes all taxiway designators as well as the location of reserved user parking (occasionally occupied by AI aircraft) and transient parking (GA, private, corporate, etc.).  VIP parking was located at the North Terminal.  

Take care to follow ATC's taxi clearance exactly to avoid conflict with AI aircraft. 

If you wish to delete the taxiway signs and use the map to navigate the taxiways, you may use the ADE source file to edit the airport as you wish (see the Installation file for details).

FRAME RATES

This is a very complex airport with many buildings and details.  Because of this, some users with older computers may have an issue with frame rates.  We have adjusted the scenery objects so you can set your Scenery Density in Options/Settings/Display/Scenery to adjust your frame rate.  You can set the density to Normal while on approach to maximize your frame rate, and once you have landed change it to Extremely Dense to see all the details while on the ground.

Normal:  
On Airport: All terminals and hangars, many medium and small buildings, 1 London bus.
Off Airport:  No buildings or details.  
Adds 17 fps to the frame rate vs Extremely Dense.

Dense:
On Airport:  All terminals and hangars and most buildings.  Some buses and fuel trucks.
Off Airport:  Major buildings.
Adds 11 fps to the frame rate.

Very Dense:
On Airport:  All terminals, hangars, and buildings.  All buses, cars, fuel trucks, and ramp equipment.
Off Airport:  All buildings and vehicles.
Adds 2 fps to the frame rate.

Extremely Dense:
On Airport:  All buildings and vehicles.  Adds sign markers alongside each runway.
Off Airport:  All buildings and vehicles.

If this is not sufficient, we suggest choosing Options/Settings/Traffic and moving the Air Traffic Density slider to 50%.  This should result in about a 12 fps frame rate increase.  There will still be plenty of AI traffic - this is a busy airport.

ABOUT THE AIRPORT

The history of classic era London Airport from Wikipedia:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathrow_Airport

"1955: Queen Elizabeth II opened the first permanent passenger terminal, the Europa Building (later known as Terminal 2) as well as the Queens Building. These buildings stood in the central area in the middle of the star pattern of runways and were reached by a twin access tunnel from the Bath Road (A4) passing under Runway 28R/10L .

1 April 1955: A new 38.8 metres (127 ft) control tower designed by Frederick Gibberd opened to replace the original 1940s tower.

Late 1950s: BEA Helicopters ran an experimental helicopter service to Heathrow Central from London's South Bank and other destinations. The roof gardens on top of the Queens Building and Europa Terminal were popular with the public, and above the tunnel there was a ground enclosure from which sight-seeing flights operated.

1955: The first central terminal building was named Building 1 Europa.

1956: The second central terminal building (an extension on Building 1) was named Building 2 Britannic.

1957: The West London Air Terminal, a downtown check-in facility for British European Airways, began operations.


NOTE: This file, AI Traffic for this scenery (and the world), and lots of classic 
airliners can be downloaded free from Tom Gibson's Classic Airliner web site at - 
http://www.calclassic.com

**************************************************************************
Now the legal stuff:

COPYRIGHT 2021 BY CHRIS HELTON, KEN LAWSON, BILL DOUGLAS, AND TOM GIBSON.  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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