Synopsis
In April 1944 The Great Western Aerodrome started its transformation from a privately owned small grass airfield to Heathrow; by 1946 one of the world’s busiest airports. Requisitioned by the Air Ministry in 1944, the site was officially earmarked as a major transport base for the Royal Air Force (RAF), which would at the end of the war evolve into London’s main civil airport replacing Croydon Airport. However it has been suggested that the official proposal as an RAF base was merely a ruse to circumvent a public inquiry and to quell criticism that the war effort was being diverted to construct a civilian airport which could await the end of hostilities. The airport opened fully for civilian use on 31 May 1946, but back then London Heathrow International Airport’s one terminal was in fact an army surplus tent situated a short walk from the aircraft.
Synopsis from TMDb
Details
- Studio
- Central Office of Information for Ministry of Civil Aviation
- Released
- 1949-01-01
- Running time
- 9 minutes
- Language
- English
- Collection
- Ephemeral Films
Subjects on the Internet Archive
- Heathrow
- ariport
- London
Reviews on the Internet Archive
★★★ · Looked different in those days · movieman · 2005-11-27
Having been through Heathrow numerous times, it was odd to see how it looked a few decades ago: about the only similarity is the runway arrangement (and the runways back then looked pretty scary compared to the ones they have today!). I never realised it was built on farmland, today it's so built-up that it's hard to imagine being any different.