0:00:02 > 0:00:06RADIO: "Hello London tower, this is Trans Canada."
0:00:06 > 0:00:09Britain today has 44 public airports.
0:00:11 > 0:00:15Gateways to a web of routes that have interconnected the country
0:00:15 > 0:00:18and linked to Britain with the rest of the world.
0:00:18 > 0:00:22You step into airport X and you emerge in another country.
0:00:22 > 0:00:23They're sci-fi.
0:00:23 > 0:00:28Their promise of adventure has fired our imagination and our desires.
0:00:28 > 0:00:31Modern and racy, very racy.
0:00:31 > 0:00:33The airports are racy.
0:00:33 > 0:00:35You feel alive in an airport, I feel.
0:00:35 > 0:00:41As well as inspiring skulduggery at the highest levels.
0:00:41 > 0:00:43Things were concealed from the public,
0:00:43 > 0:00:47lies were told to those people who were losing their property.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50This series charts the development of Britain's airports.
0:00:50 > 0:00:56How they've changed our landscape and created new borders.
0:00:56 > 0:00:59Generating both freedom and panic.
0:01:00 > 0:01:04If you make it through the barrier, you're a good citizen, buy shit.
0:01:04 > 0:01:09and if you don't make it through the barrier, you're an evil terrorist who should be disappeared.
0:01:09 > 0:01:12And how airports have transformed what it means to be British.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15It just became a new world really.
0:01:15 > 0:01:18The old way of life had completely and utterly gone.
0:01:19 > 0:01:22'This is the last and final call...'
0:01:22 > 0:01:26The airport tells you a lot about the state of a nation.
0:01:26 > 0:01:28It's more than just the gateway.
0:01:28 > 0:01:32'Please proceed immediately to gate 21.'
0:01:37 > 0:01:42There was a time when airports existed only in the imagination and anything seemed possible.
0:01:47 > 0:01:52The Wright brothers' historic first flights in 1903 put man in the air.
0:01:56 > 0:02:00The question was now, just where was he to land?
0:02:00 > 0:02:05There was a quest for - what does an airport need to look like?
0:02:07 > 0:02:11Airports were regarded as buildings of the future, and I think therefore,
0:02:11 > 0:02:15airport design tends to capture always an image of the future.
0:02:15 > 0:02:18Dynamism - that was a new world, all about energy.
0:02:18 > 0:02:21The most exciting machine of all was of course the aircraft,
0:02:21 > 0:02:24and the most exciting buildings were skyscrapers.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27One of the most exciting young architects after World War I
0:02:27 > 0:02:30was an Italian called Antonio Sant'Elia.
0:02:30 > 0:02:35He sketched giant skyscrapers in which there would be railway stations,
0:02:35 > 0:02:41motorway service stations and there would be, of course, an airport.
0:02:41 > 0:02:45That was the great fantasy, we would all be on the move in this new world.
0:02:45 > 0:02:49There were some totally bonkers schemes for ultra-modern airports in London.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52This scheme, situated in the borough of St Pancras,
0:02:52 > 0:02:59in the neighbourhood of King's Cross and St Pancras station, have been before the public for some time.
0:02:59 > 0:03:02The runways would be so short that what would happen in practice -
0:03:02 > 0:03:04the air crafts would have gone... "bumf"
0:03:04 > 0:03:09bumf and fallen down in Gower Street or the Euston Road and they wouldn't have been very popular.
0:03:09 > 0:03:14Architects' early fantasies for airports were brought to earth with a bump.
0:03:16 > 0:03:21The realities of flying meant airports weren't suited to city centres but their outskirts.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27The most basic requirement for the early airports or flying fields
0:03:27 > 0:03:30were simply that they were open areas of ground.
0:03:30 > 0:03:33Moreover, the surrounding area had to be free from obstructions
0:03:33 > 0:03:36to allow the pilots to take-off and land safely.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39So you had things like farmers fields, racecourses,
0:03:39 > 0:03:41school playing fields and the like.
0:03:42 > 0:03:46But once in the air, aircraft were free.
0:03:46 > 0:03:51They had no respect for existing national borders.
0:03:51 > 0:03:56In the old days, you arrived in Britain and you thought of the White Cliffs of Dover as you sailed in.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00Now you arrive in Britain through its great gateways, the airport gateways.
0:04:00 > 0:04:05They're buildings, they're human achievements and human designs, not natural features.
0:04:06 > 0:04:10Now Britain's borders were wherever a plane touched down.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14So what the airport had to have was a customs post.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19The government put one up on an ex-RAF base on Hounslow Heath,
0:04:19 > 0:04:22making it Britain's first landlocked customs post.
0:04:24 > 0:04:32It was from here that the very first international commercial flight took off for Paris, in August 1919.
0:04:32 > 0:04:36The first flight itself was an adventure, I think it's fair to say.
0:04:36 > 0:04:38The weather was pretty atrocious,
0:04:38 > 0:04:42and it's reported that one of the first passengers to actually fly across the English Channel
0:04:42 > 0:04:44was sick into his bowler hat!
0:04:45 > 0:04:48It might have been an inauspicious start,
0:04:48 > 0:04:54but the opportunity to defy gravity was now open to anyone who could afford it.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57That meant the airfield had better shape up.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00The birth of commercial aviation meant
0:05:00 > 0:05:02the shift from the airfield to the airport
0:05:02 > 0:05:04that happened in the 1920s.
0:05:06 > 0:05:09The gaze was no longer in the sky, it was towards the ground.
0:05:11 > 0:05:16Airfields existed solely for pilots, but airports were designed for the paying passenger.
0:05:17 > 0:05:22Airports act as transformers - they prepare us from
0:05:22 > 0:05:25earthly beings on the ground to being these beings in the air.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28They step us up, they prepare us for flight.
0:05:31 > 0:05:37You were out on the tarmac and in the aircraft within a matter of minutes.
0:05:37 > 0:05:39The main feeling was the surge across the grass.
0:05:39 > 0:05:43Bumping along, bumping along, bumping along and then all of a sudden -
0:05:43 > 0:05:48up you went, and it was a funny feeling. The old tummy went a bit funny.
0:05:48 > 0:05:54You feel a bit of G-force whenever the plane takes off and it throws you back in your chair.
0:05:54 > 0:05:57So that's fun, I like that.
0:05:58 > 0:06:01With commercial flight now under way,
0:06:01 > 0:06:07the government quickly relocated Britain's only airport customs post from fog-bound Hounslow Heath.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11Instead it chose to build its first airport terminal and gateway to the world...
0:06:11 > 0:06:13in Croydon.
0:06:20 > 0:06:24When I was 14, we moved from Oxford to Croydon,
0:06:24 > 0:06:27and we moved to a house in Purdy Way
0:06:27 > 0:06:31that was only a quarter of a mile from the airport.
0:06:31 > 0:06:33We heard the planes coming over the house,
0:06:33 > 0:06:38and I used to rush out into the garden and look up at the planes,
0:06:38 > 0:06:40and it was so exciting to me.
0:06:43 > 0:06:47There was an association with genteel flying because remember in the early days,
0:06:47 > 0:06:50the man in the street couldn't really afford to fly,
0:06:50 > 0:06:53so I think it was to do with relatively well-off people,
0:06:53 > 0:06:55a sense of luxury travel,
0:06:55 > 0:07:00and I think Croydon Airport has this sort of genteel country house feel about it.
0:07:03 > 0:07:05It was a great building.
0:07:05 > 0:07:09Loads of porters who used to carry the luggage,
0:07:09 > 0:07:11and also, we had cleaners at night
0:07:11 > 0:07:16that cleaned the place up so it was always in pristine condition.
0:07:16 > 0:07:20You had the booking hall there with all the counters either side
0:07:20 > 0:07:26with all the different companies like KLM, Air France, Lufthansa.
0:07:26 > 0:07:31You used to get the coaches coming down from London with all the passengers.
0:07:33 > 0:07:39This flight to Paris was a teatime flight.
0:07:39 > 0:07:45We got to Croydon at about 3:15pm, we were weighed, as was usual.
0:07:45 > 0:07:48I used to weigh the luggage,
0:07:48 > 0:07:50weigh the people but when I weighed the young ladies,
0:07:50 > 0:07:55I turned the scale round so they couldn't see the dial,
0:07:55 > 0:07:57and I think it was appreciated!
0:07:57 > 0:08:01Actually, if someone was too heavy, what we did was say,
0:08:01 > 0:08:04"Sorry, madam, you've got to leave some of your luggage behind!"
0:08:09 > 0:08:12It was a minor inconvenience compared to passengers' discovery
0:08:12 > 0:08:16of one of the fundamental truths of airports.
0:08:16 > 0:08:18Here, distance was dead.
0:08:18 > 0:08:20Now, only time mattered.
0:08:26 > 0:08:28I always think about places and time.
0:08:28 > 0:08:32Like how much time it would take to get there, not about the miles -
0:08:32 > 0:08:33I never count the miles.
0:08:35 > 0:08:41Airports had a very fundamental effect on how people perceived both time and space.
0:08:41 > 0:08:43One of the most important things
0:08:43 > 0:08:45was that airlines were selling this idea of time,
0:08:45 > 0:08:46principally time-saving.
0:08:46 > 0:08:50For the first time, journeys that would have taken months or weeks
0:08:50 > 0:08:52could now be accomplished by air in a matter of hours,
0:08:52 > 0:08:55so it was far easier and far quicker to get from London to Paris, say,
0:08:55 > 0:08:57in the early 1920s or 1930s
0:08:57 > 0:09:01than it was to travel to other places in the United Kingdom.
0:09:03 > 0:09:09When I flew to Paris, I didn't really know how far it was.
0:09:09 > 0:09:13I know now it's 200-and-something miles from Croydon.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16But that didn't occur to me.
0:09:16 > 0:09:20All I knew was it was going to take us 2.5 hours to get there.
0:09:26 > 0:09:32But while a lucky few were gadding from Croydon to Paris more quickly than ever before,
0:09:32 > 0:09:36the government saw the airport as a fast track to further-flung places.
0:09:36 > 0:09:40NEWSREEL: 'Merchants from Milan, farmers back to Australia,
0:09:40 > 0:09:45'wives to join husbands, Army men going back to India after leave.'
0:09:45 > 0:09:48By the time the first airports arrived,
0:09:48 > 0:09:51with Croydon in the '20s or early-'30s,
0:09:51 > 0:09:53a quarter of the world was painted red on the maps,
0:09:53 > 0:09:55so the British Empire was a reality.
0:09:55 > 0:09:59It was about to disappear, but then it was a reality.
0:09:59 > 0:10:02Very much the idea that this is an airport serving the Empire.
0:10:02 > 0:10:07- NEWSREEL:- 'Every day these services carry letters and packages all over the world.'
0:10:09 > 0:10:12Imperial Airways was created by the government in 1924.
0:10:12 > 0:10:17Within a little over 10 years, Croydon was the centre of a network that stretched as far as Brisbane.
0:10:17 > 0:10:23- NEWSREEL:- 'Letters which missed the post can be phoned to Croydon.'
0:10:24 > 0:10:25PHONE RINGS
0:10:26 > 0:10:28Croydon 3261 speaking.
0:10:32 > 0:10:36My father had been posted out to North India,
0:10:36 > 0:10:39and in 1938 when the crisis came,
0:10:39 > 0:10:41my mother said I was to come out by air.
0:10:41 > 0:10:43They decided that was the best way.
0:10:43 > 0:10:49When we arrived at Croydon Airport, I was slightly apprehensive.
0:10:49 > 0:10:55We got into this building which wasn't very exciting.
0:10:55 > 0:11:00There might have been a sort of kiosk there, but not a proper shop.
0:11:00 > 0:11:06But we didn't spend long and then we were taken out to the plane.
0:11:06 > 0:11:10I flew out accompanied by some elderly lady,
0:11:10 > 0:11:12but she was ill all the time,
0:11:12 > 0:11:15so I had to look after her, and she wasn't much use!
0:11:17 > 0:11:20Because of the limited range of aeroplanes,
0:11:20 > 0:11:23more airports and landing grounds had to be built en route,
0:11:23 > 0:11:28and they themselves became symbols of Imperial rule and power.
0:11:28 > 0:11:32NEWSREEL: 'Shoes from Bond Street tread the desert sand.
0:11:32 > 0:11:37'Shiny suitcases from Piccadilly reflect the glare of an Arabian sun.
0:11:37 > 0:11:41'Refreshment for the travellers, time to talk with strangers and have tea.'
0:11:41 > 0:11:44We came down in all sorts of places.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47In Basra, there was nothing there at all.
0:11:47 > 0:11:50Except a little restaurant with coloured lights,
0:11:50 > 0:11:53and the steward took me there for supper,
0:11:53 > 0:11:59where we had cold jellied soup which I'd never had before,
0:11:59 > 0:12:01and thought was absolutely disgusting.
0:12:03 > 0:12:07Croydon, with its empire routes, was flourishing.
0:12:10 > 0:12:14The government felt that was pretty much all the airport that Britain required.
0:12:16 > 0:12:17In the 1920s,
0:12:17 > 0:12:22there was no national plan for airport development whatsoever.
0:12:22 > 0:12:24Basically, the government didn't envisage
0:12:24 > 0:12:27that there was going to be any mass...
0:12:27 > 0:12:32that civil aviation was going to become a mass passenger transport market.
0:12:36 > 0:12:41But this view wasn't shared on the Continent where airports and their users were multiplied.
0:12:44 > 0:12:47The country at the forefront of developments was Germany.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51It had been denied a military air force after World War I,
0:12:51 > 0:12:56so instead, threw its energies into civil aviation.
0:12:56 > 0:13:01There was one man only too keen to encourage the trend.
0:13:01 > 0:13:06The 20th century politician who understood the early power of flight
0:13:06 > 0:13:08was, of course, Adolf Hitler.
0:13:08 > 0:13:11He would fly in the latest aircraft from city to city,
0:13:11 > 0:13:16town to town, land in air fields and coming out, he was a man from space, from the air,
0:13:16 > 0:13:20coming down around Germany and really exciting people.
0:13:22 > 0:13:29In the early '30s with the rallies and Nazi demonstrations that occurred at Tempelhof airfield
0:13:29 > 0:13:35where they organised a mass demonstration of hundreds of thousands of supporters,
0:13:35 > 0:13:37they used the airport to bring the community together
0:13:37 > 0:13:40and to communicate political messages.
0:13:44 > 0:13:51Ever since, politicians and leaders of all complexions have used the airport as a stage.
0:13:53 > 0:13:59Its qualities of modernity and dynamism intensifying their promise of a better future.
0:14:00 > 0:14:05REPORTERS: 'This is the moment that millions in Iran had been waiting for.'
0:14:05 > 0:14:10'There he is, the President, followed by Mrs Gorbachev.'
0:14:17 > 0:14:19CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:14:25 > 0:14:29In 1920s Britain, there were a few aviation evangelists.
0:14:32 > 0:14:36They appreciated the potential of airports and didn't want Britain to be left behind.
0:14:38 > 0:14:44Alan Cobham, a former World War I ace, set out on a crusade to make the British air-minded.
0:14:44 > 0:14:50With our aircraft, we are going practically to every town throughout the country
0:14:50 > 0:14:52in the hope of making flying popular,
0:14:52 > 0:14:56and bringing about the establishment of a landing ground in every town.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59Cobham thought that by being involved in aviation,
0:14:59 > 0:15:01by visiting an airport,
0:15:01 > 0:15:05it was almost what was described as a baptism of the air.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09In the sense that you would transcend yourself by thinking
0:15:09 > 0:15:15of what was to come with aviation, what was to be gained by building something like an airport,
0:15:15 > 0:15:20that you would gain something in yourself, you would be a new kind of person, a better person.
0:15:25 > 0:15:28The excitement really was in the audience of the people watching
0:15:28 > 0:15:33the various things like - I think somebody walked out on the wing of an aeroplane.
0:15:35 > 0:15:38But there was a general hubbub of excitement
0:15:38 > 0:15:44because it was a very rare event for an air display to come to Sundridge, very rare.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47It never happened before and has never happened since.
0:15:57 > 0:16:01For the new believers, short joy flights were offered.
0:16:01 > 0:16:07NEWSREEL: 'The object is to take people over London, that Londoners may see London.
0:16:07 > 0:16:10'It is made at a very cheap price of 12 and sixpence with the sole object
0:16:10 > 0:16:14'that poor and rich alike can see their own London from the air.'
0:16:20 > 0:16:24It showed people who thought their city was the limits,
0:16:24 > 0:16:26the horizon of all known possibilities,
0:16:26 > 0:16:30that it's just a tiny bit of a much larger sphere,
0:16:30 > 0:16:33so it immediately reminds you that the world is bigger
0:16:33 > 0:16:36and so more diverse, more exciting and more possible.
0:16:36 > 0:16:42You looked out and thought, oh, my house there.
0:16:42 > 0:16:44It was great!
0:16:45 > 0:16:49To have an airport was to be modern.
0:16:49 > 0:16:55Soon, towns across the country were scrambling to build one of their very own.
0:16:55 > 0:17:01I have now great pleasure in declaring the Luton Municipal Aerodrome open.
0:17:01 > 0:17:05Obviously, years ago, a city was defined as whether you had a cathedral or not.
0:17:05 > 0:17:09To be honest, I think nowadays, if you haven't got an airport,
0:17:09 > 0:17:11you're not really a city, are you?
0:17:11 > 0:17:16I now have much pleasure in declaring the airport of Birmingham open.
0:17:16 > 0:17:20To be a local authority of any worth, you had to have your own aerodrome.
0:17:20 > 0:17:25So, if one looks to Yorkshire and the north-east,
0:17:25 > 0:17:32there were airports at Grimsby, Doncaster, Leeds-Bradford, Hull, Newcastle.
0:17:32 > 0:17:36So, airports springing up all over the country in close proximity to each other.
0:17:36 > 0:17:42But there was one place that wanted an airport that was bigger,
0:17:42 > 0:17:45better and bolder than anywhere else in the country.
0:17:45 > 0:17:48The best city in the world is Liverpool.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51All the glamour, all the girls, all the fashion,
0:17:51 > 0:17:52the footballers and the Albert Dock.
0:17:52 > 0:17:55Liverpool is the best city in the world.
0:17:55 > 0:18:00Liverpool of course was the greatest port in the country,
0:18:00 > 0:18:01and I think the people realised
0:18:01 > 0:18:06that a good airport would be very good to have
0:18:06 > 0:18:07alongside its shipping port.
0:18:09 > 0:18:14'Their town council consulted and it took a lot of advice.'
0:18:14 > 0:18:16They wanted to put Liverpool on the air map,
0:18:16 > 0:18:19they wanted to see Liverpool as being like its port was,
0:18:19 > 0:18:20a kind of hub.
0:18:20 > 0:18:24NEWSREEL: 'Liverpool's newly-constructed civil airport,
0:18:24 > 0:18:28'the largest and most important commercial aerodrome in the North of England.'
0:18:28 > 0:18:33Speke airport was the most ambitious and expensive in Britain.
0:18:33 > 0:18:37While most provincial airports only offered internal flights,
0:18:37 > 0:18:39Speke soon had ones across the sea,
0:18:39 > 0:18:44not just to Belfast and the Isle of Man but to Amsterdam.
0:18:44 > 0:18:50We used to watch the aircraft coming in and it was very interesting to think that they had come
0:18:50 > 0:18:56all the way from Holland to Speke and how they found their way across.
0:18:59 > 0:19:04They used to park quite close, I suppose 20 yards away, and walk into the building.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09Everything was parked on the doorstep.
0:19:09 > 0:19:14Speke airport was influenced not by Croydon, not by British examples,
0:19:14 > 0:19:17but by the very latest, and that was from Germany.
0:19:17 > 0:19:22But it's not offensively modern to British eyes, it was gently curved
0:19:22 > 0:19:24and made of nice brick,
0:19:24 > 0:19:28and the interiors were very gently glamorous.
0:19:29 > 0:19:32Speke was the finest airport in Britain.
0:19:32 > 0:19:36But in Germany, the next generation was already emerging,
0:19:36 > 0:19:38as Hitler rebuilt Berlin's Tempelhof.
0:19:38 > 0:19:42NEWSREEL: 'As the gigantic buildings rise on the Tempelhof site,
0:19:42 > 0:19:45'we get an idea of the immensity of the embarkation hall.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48'Paris has just opened her new airport at Le Bourget,
0:19:48 > 0:19:50'and New York has laid the foundation of hers.
0:19:50 > 0:19:54'Britain still sticks to Croydon, a quarter of the size of any of these.
0:19:54 > 0:19:55'What is Britain doing about it?'
0:19:55 > 0:20:01Tempelhof is one of the most spectacular airport buildings anywhere, even today.
0:20:03 > 0:20:05The plane is treated like a passenger.
0:20:05 > 0:20:08The plane is welcomed at this great sweeping airport,
0:20:08 > 0:20:10which must be one kilometre long, I should think.
0:20:10 > 0:20:14The hangars are included, the passengers are included -
0:20:14 > 0:20:18all are organised in the right sequence to make the building work for passengers.
0:20:18 > 0:20:22Tempelhof was the first truly modern airport,
0:20:22 > 0:20:26and despite its Nazi origins, a blueprint for those that followed.
0:20:29 > 0:20:34Because what its architect understood was the importance of airport circulation.
0:20:37 > 0:20:41The science of logistics, the science of moving huge numbers of people
0:20:41 > 0:20:44very efficiently and very quickly without panic
0:20:44 > 0:20:49lies at the heart of the post-war civil aviation miracle,
0:20:49 > 0:20:51if you can call it that.
0:20:51 > 0:20:56The pressure on getting people in and out of terminals
0:20:56 > 0:21:00quickly and comfortably and efficiently
0:21:00 > 0:21:02is more important than anything else.
0:21:02 > 0:21:05And hopefully, they get a good experience.
0:21:06 > 0:21:10And direct - no corners if possible.
0:21:10 > 0:21:12Getting the bags going in a straight line is a good thing.
0:21:12 > 0:21:15It's a fantastic magnet at the other end.
0:21:16 > 0:21:21You want to be sitting in that aeroplane with a Bloody Mary in your hand waiting for take-off.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26It's called intuitive way finding.
0:21:26 > 0:21:30You simply move through it because you're kind of pulled through the terminal
0:21:30 > 0:21:33by certain unconscious cues like the feeling of the floor under your feet
0:21:33 > 0:21:36or by the way in which that flooring looks.
0:21:36 > 0:21:37It hasn't changed to carpet,
0:21:37 > 0:21:41or it hasn't changed from a limestone floor to a different kind of flooring.
0:21:41 > 0:21:45So we feel we are carried along like a river through the building.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51The design process is characterised by lots of arrows
0:21:51 > 0:21:54and lots of flows and arrows of different thicknesses.
0:21:54 > 0:21:59Big arrows for big flows and small arrows for small flows.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02Blue ones for departures, red ones for arrivals,
0:22:02 > 0:22:04orange ones for transfers,
0:22:04 > 0:22:08so you get this nest of increasing complexity of passenger flows.
0:22:09 > 0:22:12Sometimes it's just - keep moving, keep moving,
0:22:12 > 0:22:14where are we going, we don't know.
0:22:14 > 0:22:17I don't feel processed, no.
0:22:17 > 0:22:20I might quite enjoyed feeling processed, then I wouldn't get lost!
0:22:20 > 0:22:23Where do we go, where do we go? Upstairs, departures.
0:22:23 > 0:22:26If you don't go in a certain way in an airport, then it all goes wrong.
0:22:26 > 0:22:30It's like playing chess, you're just getting moved and moved,
0:22:30 > 0:22:33and in the end, you're going to go, check mate, I'm out, next.
0:22:38 > 0:22:43Not just logistics but plane navigation and runway development
0:22:43 > 0:22:46were all hugely accelerated by World War II.
0:22:50 > 0:22:52Airports came of age,
0:22:52 > 0:22:57transformed from small-scale affairs into industrial complexes.
0:22:57 > 0:23:02We have built airfields from Iceland to the Azores,
0:23:02 > 0:23:05from Crete and Malta to Bel-Air
0:23:05 > 0:23:11and in this country alone, during the war, we reconstructed 444 airfields.
0:23:11 > 0:23:16At one period, we were turning out three aerodromes every week.
0:23:18 > 0:23:21In the Air Ministry, there was one man who saw the war
0:23:21 > 0:23:26as a golden opportunity to construct a major new civil airport for London.
0:23:26 > 0:23:28Even if he had to use subterfuge to do it.
0:23:31 > 0:23:37"Almost the last thing I did at the Air Ministry of any importance was to hijack for the Civil Aviation,
0:23:37 > 0:23:43"the land on which London Airport stands, under the noses of resistant ministerial colleagues.
0:23:43 > 0:23:50"If hijack is too strong a term, I plead guilty to the lesser crime of deceiving the Cabinet committee."
0:23:50 > 0:23:53It was an Orwellian exercise.
0:23:53 > 0:23:57Things were concealed from the public, lies were told.
0:23:58 > 0:24:01The perpetrator of this plot was World War I ace
0:24:01 > 0:24:05and Under-Secretary of State for Air, Harold Balfour.
0:24:07 > 0:24:11Balfour took a celluloid grid and placed it over a large map of London,
0:24:11 > 0:24:15and he found the only place suitable for building a large new airport
0:24:15 > 0:24:19was a village called Heathrow which lay in Middlesex.
0:24:20 > 0:24:24It was all fields. It was pretty area, yes,
0:24:24 > 0:24:27because there was the blossom from the fruit trees.
0:24:27 > 0:24:32Little farms and smallholdings and market gardeners, really.
0:24:34 > 0:24:38Balfour knew that the civil authorities would never approve
0:24:38 > 0:24:41his bold project on such prime arable land,
0:24:41 > 0:24:45so he resorted to lying, to the Cabinet and the country,
0:24:45 > 0:24:48and claimed an airport at Heathrow was vital for the war effort.
0:24:50 > 0:24:56Within months, emergency requisition powers had secured the land.
0:24:56 > 0:25:00NEWSREEL: 'It was in April 1944 that history came to these country fields.
0:25:00 > 0:25:04'An airport was required to finish off the Japanese.
0:25:06 > 0:25:10'The landscape was changed and the past obliterated.'
0:25:10 > 0:25:14It was pretty horrendous. People didn't want to move or relocate.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17A lot of people lost their businesses but then, the majority
0:25:17 > 0:25:22of people that lived in the area eventually worked on the airport.
0:25:22 > 0:25:29My father went to work there actually because he had a market garden business,
0:25:29 > 0:25:31but eventually it went and got swallowed up.
0:25:36 > 0:25:42The driving force behind the demolition was the need for longer and stronger runways.
0:25:43 > 0:25:47Runways have always pushed the boundaries of engineering.
0:25:47 > 0:25:50A typical wheel load applied through a modern aircraft
0:25:50 > 0:25:54is about 10 times the load that is going down through the wheel of a lorry.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59Before the war, the only area that you'd find concrete on an airport
0:25:59 > 0:26:02would be where the aircraft were being parked
0:26:02 > 0:26:04and were passengers were embarking.
0:26:04 > 0:26:11Elsewhere, it would be a grass runway and they were entirely appropriate for the aircraft of the time.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15During World War II as aircraft got bigger and heavier,
0:26:15 > 0:26:17particularly the big British bombers,
0:26:17 > 0:26:21they needed longer runways and eventually harder runways,
0:26:21 > 0:26:26so concrete runways was the future of both military and civil airfields.
0:26:26 > 0:26:30But to get sufficient lift,
0:26:30 > 0:26:32planes still needed to take off into the wind.
0:26:34 > 0:26:41So to allow for changing wind direction, they built six runways at Heathrow in a Star of David pattern.
0:26:42 > 0:26:47It was the biggest engineering project that Britain had ever seen.
0:26:47 > 0:26:55No other airfield in the UK had been built anywhere near the scale of Heathrow.
0:26:57 > 0:27:03On site there was a laboratory to determine the strength of the concrete that was being placed.
0:27:03 > 0:27:05Tested to destruction.
0:27:12 > 0:27:15At peak, the labour force approached towards 2,000 people.
0:27:15 > 0:27:18That is a lot of men.
0:27:20 > 0:27:26It gave you a far more exciting range of what was out there for you.
0:27:26 > 0:27:31I had a few dates with a lad from Doncaster,
0:27:31 > 0:27:33so that's what it brought to us - meet new people
0:27:33 > 0:27:38and have new boyfriends, a different one every night!
0:27:38 > 0:27:42When you see a beautiful piece of concrete finished,
0:27:43 > 0:27:46that's as good as gold.
0:27:47 > 0:27:51Some of the original concrete is indeed still in use today.
0:27:51 > 0:27:54We probably have a runway thickness now of about one metre,
0:27:54 > 0:28:00but the very early concrete is down at the bottom of that one-metre depth.
0:28:01 > 0:28:07- NEWSREEL:- 'The smoothness of the finished concrete is an important sector in runway construction.
0:28:07 > 0:28:10'Rough surfaces cause excessive wear to aircraft tyres.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13'For this reason, after the passage of the mechanical plant, the surface
0:28:13 > 0:28:16'is usually belted by hand to give the best possible finish.'
0:28:19 > 0:28:22We are looking for any surface defects
0:28:22 > 0:28:26such as any break-ups, lighting defects,
0:28:26 > 0:28:27any spillages.
0:28:27 > 0:28:31- RADIO:- 'Vacate runway two - I suggest you go right.'
0:28:33 > 0:28:34Vacate runway two to right.
0:28:38 > 0:28:42Runways here are inspected six times in every 24 hour period,
0:28:42 > 0:28:43so roughly every four hours.
0:28:43 > 0:28:46TALKING ON RADIO
0:28:50 > 0:28:56Bravo Zulu One into runway to vacate Delta Zulu One. That's copied, Leader Three.
0:28:56 > 0:29:00I've just been given permission to re-enter the runway.
0:29:04 > 0:29:09We can't afford to have any potholes or any large amounts of rubber build up or that kind of thing.
0:29:09 > 0:29:13It does have to be kept in the prime condition to enable good braking action.
0:29:13 > 0:29:15So the runway friction has to be monitored.
0:29:17 > 0:29:22We usually have two people in a vehicle when carrying out a runway inspection.
0:29:22 > 0:29:27We have to adopt a sterile cockpit which means that we don't talk unless we have to,
0:29:27 > 0:29:32but it requires an immense amount of concentration from both people.
0:29:36 > 0:29:40That's inspection complete, thank you. Runway status is wet, wet, wet.
0:29:40 > 0:29:43Anti-icing needed and serviceable. Thanks, Leader Three.
0:29:44 > 0:29:48On this first day of the new year,
0:29:48 > 0:29:54this probing flight starts off from Heathrow
0:29:54 > 0:29:59which will be the future civil airport of London.
0:29:59 > 0:30:02It takes off from the finest runway in the world.
0:30:02 > 0:30:071st January 1946 here at Heathrow was an amazing day.
0:30:07 > 0:30:11Although the weather was cold and bleak, very depressing,
0:30:11 > 0:30:16it was nevertheless, the first international departure from Heathrow.
0:30:18 > 0:30:21I was just a young 16 year-old traffic apprentice
0:30:21 > 0:30:24with British South American Airways.
0:30:24 > 0:30:26I just felt so proud, as we all did.
0:30:28 > 0:30:31- NEWSREEL: - 'Civil flying gets going again,
0:30:31 > 0:30:34'and Britain begins to fight for her old place on the skylines of the world.'
0:30:34 > 0:30:40Usually, a little puff of blue smoke would emerge when the engines started,
0:30:40 > 0:30:44and very comforting to see all four engines started all right,
0:30:44 > 0:30:49and away she was, 12:07pm, the first leg of the journey which was to Lisbon.
0:30:53 > 0:30:58It was an exciting era. New routes, new developments coming along,
0:30:58 > 0:31:03and Britain needed that sort of boost and it just captured the atmosphere.
0:31:05 > 0:31:09Obviously it was exciting to see planes in the sky.
0:31:09 > 0:31:12We had never seen anything like it in our lives.
0:31:12 > 0:31:15My sister worked there at the time.
0:31:15 > 0:31:18She was a teleprinter operator and she was working in a tent.
0:31:21 > 0:31:23I found that quite intriguing.
0:31:28 > 0:31:31Duckboards etc, people squelching about.
0:31:31 > 0:31:34Foreign passengers must have been horrified.
0:31:34 > 0:31:39The first time I went to Heathrow, I think it was on my honeymoon,
0:31:39 > 0:31:41and I had an argument with my wife.
0:31:41 > 0:31:46I thought it was a tent we left from, and she said it was a shed.
0:31:46 > 0:31:48I think I'm probably right!
0:31:48 > 0:31:50It was like an army camp.
0:31:52 > 0:31:57There was an enormous gap between what Britain could achieve in terms of Engineering in the aviation world
0:31:57 > 0:32:01and what it could produce in terms of passenger experience.
0:32:01 > 0:32:04Because it was a ration book world, an austerity world,
0:32:04 > 0:32:10there was a feeling, I suppose, that luxury wasn't something people should have.
0:32:12 > 0:32:14Heathrow has struggled to shake off
0:32:14 > 0:32:18the army surplus make-do-and-mend mentality on which it was built.
0:32:22 > 0:32:28In fact, Heathrow operated without proper terminal buildings for 10 years.
0:32:30 > 0:32:33The man tasked with finally providing them
0:32:33 > 0:32:36was architect Frederick Gibberd.
0:32:36 > 0:32:41The first thing I think I should say about this scheme, which I found so fascinating,
0:32:41 > 0:32:44was that the whole scheme is right in the middle of the airport.
0:32:45 > 0:32:46Good thinking!
0:32:46 > 0:32:50Doesn't that Star of David runway layout give you a bit of a problem?
0:32:51 > 0:32:56One had to get across the runway to avoid interrupting the aircraft movements.
0:32:56 > 0:32:59What the devil are you going to do about that?
0:32:59 > 0:33:01You get there by a tunnel.
0:33:01 > 0:33:04It's pretty unsatisfactory.
0:33:04 > 0:33:06You come from a tunnel over there.
0:33:06 > 0:33:09The terminal building was going to be constrained.
0:33:09 > 0:33:15It could only take place within the island at the centre of the runways.
0:33:15 > 0:33:18Access by the creation of tunnels.
0:33:18 > 0:33:24In order for Heathrow to expand properly, new terminals would have to be built beyond the island.
0:33:24 > 0:33:30It had to be moved around like a game of chess, here and there around that Star of David pattern.
0:33:30 > 0:33:36There was no clear idea or clear vision of what a truly modern airport might be.
0:33:40 > 0:33:44One could see the greater numbers, of course,
0:33:44 > 0:33:48but no-one could ever believe it could grow to the extent it has done.
0:33:50 > 0:33:57Expansion of Britain's airports has been driven not just by technological but political changes.
0:34:00 > 0:34:04As the old imperial powers gave way their colonies,
0:34:04 > 0:34:08a whole new generation of nations and airlines were born.
0:34:25 > 0:34:28It's very important to have your national carrier
0:34:28 > 0:34:29flying to different parts of the world.
0:34:29 > 0:34:34Because you fly your flag, and you fly it well.
0:34:35 > 0:34:37Watching planes at Heathrow Airport
0:34:37 > 0:34:41was like watching the United Nations Assembly played out in front of you,
0:34:41 > 0:34:44and the aircraft would come from all parts of the world
0:34:44 > 0:34:48and were symbolic of the achievements of those countries.
0:34:52 > 0:34:55Croatia became a nation in 1991,
0:34:55 > 0:34:59and Croatia Airlines was formed shortly after.
0:35:00 > 0:35:06For a small carrier from a country that was still at war that was being formed,
0:35:06 > 0:35:10to see the name Croatia Airlines here at Heathrow Airport,
0:35:10 > 0:35:14it was a nice feeling, it was a feeling of pride.
0:35:15 > 0:35:21The national airlines had their own identity and one got used to their different ways of doing things.
0:35:21 > 0:35:26For example, the Swiss were super-efficient, the Germans were very efficient,
0:35:26 > 0:35:28the French more laid-back.
0:35:29 > 0:35:34One could sense the international atmosphere very early on indeed.
0:35:36 > 0:35:41The frontiers of nations had now effectively moved to the ticket desk of their national carrier.
0:35:44 > 0:35:47Airports had changed political geography,
0:35:47 > 0:35:51but the physical geography around them couldn't be ignored.
0:35:53 > 0:35:57The surrounding area has been brought under the airport's influence.
0:35:57 > 0:35:59The environment managed...
0:36:00 > 0:36:02..and local residents kept under control.
0:36:09 > 0:36:11HE PLAYS TAPE OF RECORDED BIRD SQUAWKING
0:36:17 > 0:36:19The rooks are the cleverest, I have to admit.
0:36:19 > 0:36:21They give us the run-around,
0:36:21 > 0:36:22they really do.
0:36:22 > 0:36:26You're looking out, once you've dispersed them off field,
0:36:26 > 0:36:30you see them go a long way off and then settle down in some field.
0:36:30 > 0:36:33The next minute you'll see one pop up above the trees,
0:36:33 > 0:36:35and he's looking directly over to the airfield
0:36:35 > 0:36:38just to see if you're in that same position,
0:36:38 > 0:36:41and then he'll go back down.
0:36:42 > 0:36:45Jets high-powered engines suck in air,
0:36:45 > 0:36:48and in the rare event of a bird being ingested too,
0:36:48 > 0:36:52the blades can be dangerously damaged.
0:36:53 > 0:36:57Vans broadcasting bird distress signals were developed,
0:36:57 > 0:37:00with calls tailor-made to scare off different species.
0:37:02 > 0:37:03The first one is a rook.
0:37:03 > 0:37:06ROOK SQUAWKING
0:37:06 > 0:37:07The next one is a starling.
0:37:07 > 0:37:09STARLING SQUAWKING
0:37:09 > 0:37:11Now we're going on to the gold species.
0:37:11 > 0:37:13Herring gull.
0:37:13 > 0:37:15HERRING GULL SQUAWKING
0:37:16 > 0:37:18I can make that one move now.
0:37:21 > 0:37:23Human decoys have been deployed.
0:37:25 > 0:37:2924 beats a minute was found to be a particularly effective deterrent.
0:37:33 > 0:37:37But sometimes, something even more startling has been required.
0:37:42 > 0:37:44LOUD GUNSHOT
0:37:46 > 0:37:48That was a kestrel.
0:37:49 > 0:37:51You've got to be careful when you move them.
0:37:51 > 0:37:54Obviously with aircraft taking off,
0:37:54 > 0:37:57you don't want to send the birds up in front of the aircraft.
0:37:57 > 0:38:01So, it's probably like a game of chess where you are protecting something,
0:38:01 > 0:38:05you are protecting the runways at Manchester airport.
0:38:05 > 0:38:09I'll just stop you there, we've got a heron that's just flying over.
0:38:11 > 0:38:14He's going off field to the north.
0:38:15 > 0:38:17LAPWING SQUAWKING
0:38:25 > 0:38:31Back in the 1950s, though, birds had little to fear at Britain's regional airports.
0:38:33 > 0:38:35Certainly not aeroplanes.
0:38:39 > 0:38:41At Speke airport in Liverpool,
0:38:41 > 0:38:45the glorious terminal was now functioning more as a local amenity
0:38:45 > 0:38:47than a thriving airport.
0:38:47 > 0:38:51Every Saturday they would have dances there,
0:38:51 > 0:38:53and they were just wonderful.
0:38:53 > 0:38:55The ladies with all their long dresses
0:38:55 > 0:39:00and sweeping up those beautiful staircases.
0:39:00 > 0:39:01It really was lovely.
0:39:01 > 0:39:05The orchestra in the background - magnificent.
0:39:05 > 0:39:10Of course you had the noise of the aeroplanes of an evening which added to it, I thought.
0:39:10 > 0:39:12It wouldn't detract from it.
0:39:12 > 0:39:16It wasn't as if they were coming in by the droves but just one an hour.
0:39:16 > 0:39:19Great excitement.
0:39:19 > 0:39:23The balcony was very popular among families,
0:39:23 > 0:39:27and they would spend the day waiting for the aircraft to come.
0:39:27 > 0:39:31Of course people in those days used to bring their knitting with them,
0:39:31 > 0:39:34and games of football played on the balcony
0:39:34 > 0:39:38where the children had got disinterested in waiting for the next aircraft.
0:39:41 > 0:39:42Like most airports in Britain,
0:39:42 > 0:39:48Speke had been swept up in the post-war Labour government's nationalisation plans.
0:39:48 > 0:39:51In the 1950s, the government didn't anticipate
0:39:51 > 0:39:56this new mass market of people holidaying in Palma, et cetera,
0:39:56 > 0:40:01but at the same time, I'm not even sure that had that been predicted by the government,
0:40:01 > 0:40:06they would necessarily have thought of actually putting facilities in place
0:40:06 > 0:40:09to enable people to fly out of their local airport.
0:40:09 > 0:40:14Economically, it seemed to make sense to concentrate on developing the capital.
0:40:14 > 0:40:19But there was one city that begged to disagree.
0:40:19 > 0:40:21We've always had a saying up here -
0:40:21 > 0:40:24what Manchester does today, London does tomorrow!
0:40:24 > 0:40:29Manchester Council fought nationalisation of their airport,
0:40:29 > 0:40:31determined it should stay locally-run.
0:40:31 > 0:40:35Forward-thinking front people involved within the city.
0:40:35 > 0:40:38The ship canal - who would have thought of building a canal
0:40:38 > 0:40:40from Liverpool to Manchester, which they did.
0:40:40 > 0:40:43It was the same with the airport.
0:40:43 > 0:40:44Exactly the same there.
0:40:44 > 0:40:47Forward thinking, entrepreneurs that were involved.
0:40:47 > 0:40:49It was a calculated risk.
0:40:49 > 0:40:56In 1953, Manchester inaugurated England's only transatlantic service outside the capital.
0:40:58 > 0:41:00They'd splashed out on extending the runway,
0:41:00 > 0:41:02and could soon handle the new jets.
0:41:04 > 0:41:08Their next-door neighbours, though, had noticed they'd omitted one thing.
0:41:08 > 0:41:11Manchester airport didn't have a terminal.
0:41:11 > 0:41:16I can remember walking along the planks on the ground,
0:41:16 > 0:41:19and they used to have little huts.
0:41:19 > 0:41:22There was no terminal building like Liverpool has.
0:41:22 > 0:41:24Liverpool was far more advanced.
0:41:24 > 0:41:28If you've not got a runway that's long enough to take long-haul aircraft,
0:41:28 > 0:41:32it's a waste of time having any terminal buildings at all.
0:41:32 > 0:41:35The strategy paid off.
0:41:35 > 0:41:38Within a few years, Manchester airport was in profit,
0:41:38 > 0:41:41and it had saved up for a spanking new terminal of its own.
0:41:41 > 0:41:46REPORTER: 'The crowning glories of the new terminal are the four Venetian glass chandeliers,
0:41:46 > 0:41:50'each one weighing two tons and containing 1,300 pieces of glass.'
0:41:50 > 0:41:55I'm afraid Manchester went ahead and Liverpool just went down and down.
0:41:55 > 0:41:57Manchester just got bigger and bigger.
0:41:57 > 0:42:00It was very upsetting for us all.
0:42:01 > 0:42:09For years, Liverpudlians suffered the indignity of driving past their own airport to use Manchester's.
0:42:09 > 0:42:11Until that is, the British love of a bargain kicked in.
0:42:20 > 0:42:24I'm from Manchester and obviously we have a wonderful airport.
0:42:24 > 0:42:27However, I'm flying from Liverpool today,
0:42:27 > 0:42:30which is also quite a nice airport.
0:42:30 > 0:42:32Obviously not as nice as Manchester!
0:42:32 > 0:42:34But to be honest, the flights were cheaper.
0:42:37 > 0:42:41Liverpool's old art-deco terminal has been turned into a hotel,
0:42:41 > 0:42:44servicing a brand new airport building.
0:42:46 > 0:42:49But having cornered the low-cost market,
0:42:49 > 0:42:52Liverpool Airport still felt it needed something extra.
0:42:52 > 0:42:54The development team went to the States
0:42:54 > 0:42:56and looked at an airport in Orange County,
0:42:56 > 0:42:59which happened to be called John Wayne airport,
0:42:59 > 0:43:02with a big statue outside of John Wayne with his stetson.
0:43:02 > 0:43:04It set the seed in their minds - what a great opportunity,
0:43:04 > 0:43:08why don't we rename the airport, change the name.
0:43:08 > 0:43:10MUSIC: "Help" by The Beatles
0:43:15 > 0:43:18Here in the UK, we're quite a boring lot, really,
0:43:18 > 0:43:22and we never name our airports after anything but the city or the region that it serves,
0:43:22 > 0:43:23so there was a real coup here.
0:43:23 > 0:43:27- REPORTER:- 'It's the first time a British airport
0:43:27 > 0:43:31'has been named after a celebrity and Yoko said she was honoured.'
0:43:31 > 0:43:32As John said,
0:43:32 > 0:43:36there's no hell below us,
0:43:36 > 0:43:38above us, only sky.
0:43:38 > 0:43:40MUSIC: "Imagine" by John Lennon
0:43:54 > 0:43:56Liverpool airport is wonderful,
0:43:56 > 0:43:59it's what it should have been all the time.
0:43:59 > 0:44:01Love it.
0:44:01 > 0:44:04Now we can go to Barcelona and everywhere from Liverpool,
0:44:04 > 0:44:05which is brilliant stuff.
0:44:05 > 0:44:09Sorry, Manchester are going to lose out and let Liverpool prosper.
0:44:09 > 0:44:11It does make it easier for the people of Liverpool.
0:44:11 > 0:44:15You're only a few miles away from the airport, no motorways...
0:44:15 > 0:44:17it's great stuff!
0:44:19 > 0:44:22Passenger numbers flowing through Britain's airports each year
0:44:22 > 0:44:27have risen since the war from 700,000 to 250 million.
0:44:29 > 0:44:33But as the country's airports have become more successful,
0:44:33 > 0:44:36regional and even national identity
0:44:36 > 0:44:40has had to give way to an international airport culture.
0:44:40 > 0:44:43Airports are machines that are fundamentally designed
0:44:43 > 0:44:46to facilitate international flow and mobility so passengers arrive,
0:44:46 > 0:44:49they are processed, put on the right aircraft and dispatched.
0:44:49 > 0:44:52As a result of this, it's really important that the language
0:44:52 > 0:44:56at the terminal is, to a certain extent, universally standardised.
0:44:56 > 0:45:00Where you should check in, where the security lanes are -
0:45:00 > 0:45:02everything is coded.
0:45:02 > 0:45:05The airport is entirely structured around signs.
0:45:12 > 0:45:14There are some Japanese over there I could try.
0:45:15 > 0:45:18- Could ask what your nationality is? - Zambian.
0:45:18 > 0:45:22- Filipino.- Filipino? Yep.
0:45:22 > 0:45:25- If you saw that sign, what would that mean to you?- Departures.
0:45:25 > 0:45:28- Take off.- The gate.
0:45:28 > 0:45:31'There are some pictograms which are absolutely extraordinary,
0:45:31 > 0:45:34'and I think it's Schiphol airport in Amsterdam,'
0:45:34 > 0:45:36which has a special sign for porn shop,
0:45:36 > 0:45:38and unluckily, I've forgotten what that is!
0:45:38 > 0:45:41Washing your hands?
0:45:41 > 0:45:44Anything else you think it could mean?
0:45:48 > 0:45:50- It's a customs security point. - Oh right, OK.
0:45:50 > 0:45:53So, you were virtually there.
0:45:53 > 0:45:56And now this one.
0:45:56 > 0:45:59- You can use it.- Wi-Fi.
0:46:02 > 0:46:07- I would think it's a ladies' toilet. - You are exactly right!
0:46:07 > 0:46:11But even as late as the 1960s,
0:46:11 > 0:46:15this international language was one the British were reluctant to learn.
0:46:15 > 0:46:18REPORTER: Foreign tourists meet signs in English and English only.
0:46:18 > 0:46:21Why aren't there any pictorial signs there to help them?
0:46:21 > 0:46:25Because there's been no great international standard for pictorial symbols.
0:46:25 > 0:46:28Ever since I was a lad, and that's some time ago,
0:46:28 > 0:46:31continental airports have had these signs on their toilets.
0:46:31 > 0:46:32Why are we only getting them now?
0:46:32 > 0:46:37I think it's because of innate conservatism, the thought of a lady in skirts
0:46:37 > 0:46:39as being an indication of a ladies' lavatory
0:46:39 > 0:46:41has not been widely accepted.
0:46:41 > 0:46:46A lady in skirts may attract a Middle Eastern or a Far Eastern gentleman
0:46:46 > 0:46:49into misinterpreting what the room is for.
0:46:51 > 0:46:54Heathrow may have reflected British conservatism...
0:46:56 > 0:46:58..but a revolution had started.
0:46:58 > 0:47:02When London's new international airport, Gatwick, was developed,
0:47:02 > 0:47:05the architects took a more open-minded approach.
0:47:05 > 0:47:11They commissioned a tutor at the Royal College of Art, Jock Kinnear, to design the signs.
0:47:11 > 0:47:15He was assisted by his student, Margaret Calvert.
0:47:16 > 0:47:22Nobody had ever signposted an airport and Gatwick was a big event then.
0:47:22 > 0:47:27One wanted something more European, more all-embracing.
0:47:27 > 0:47:31It was very much an engineer's and architect's world - hard hats and that.
0:47:31 > 0:47:33So we went up ladders and scaffolding,
0:47:33 > 0:47:37and holding damp pieces of cartridge paper
0:47:37 > 0:47:41with the builders helping us and looking at them
0:47:41 > 0:47:45from a distance to see what size they should be, the lettering.
0:47:45 > 0:47:52Of course, the essential innovation was that we used lower case letters
0:47:52 > 0:47:55so that was actually the very beginning.
0:47:55 > 0:47:59Calvert and Kinnear went on to sign many of Britain's airports,
0:47:59 > 0:48:02where their use of colour was striking.
0:48:02 > 0:48:08It's essential that the actual sign is what you notice first
0:48:08 > 0:48:10before the information on it, the legend.
0:48:10 > 0:48:16Black on yellow is the most noticeable combination.
0:48:16 > 0:48:20Aesthetically, an ugly combination if you think.
0:48:20 > 0:48:23You don't wear black and yellow but it is very striking, very strong
0:48:23 > 0:48:27and if you get all the elements right, it can look very good.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31Yellow and black has a nice sort of glow.
0:48:31 > 0:48:34I think it would be nice for my own home. I quite like signs.
0:48:34 > 0:48:38I would like signs for my life saying, this way for this, that way for that.
0:48:38 > 0:48:43I think we all want somebody to come and design us our own road maps.
0:48:51 > 0:48:56When you enter the airport, you abandon a certain kind of free will.
0:48:57 > 0:49:00It's a relief, you're relieved,
0:49:00 > 0:49:03you're on the travelator, I'll change some money.
0:49:03 > 0:49:07I'll buy some things I need, I'll get on the plane.
0:49:09 > 0:49:11By giving in to the machine,
0:49:11 > 0:49:15passengers become part of an airport waltz.
0:49:19 > 0:49:23There is a highly-choreographed dance and the aeroplane flows,
0:49:23 > 0:49:26the baggage flows and the people flows
0:49:26 > 0:49:31all have to act seamlessly together in one holistic system.
0:49:31 > 0:49:37Out on the tarmac, the pilot's subject to as many instructions as the passengers in the terminal.
0:50:16 > 0:50:18For me, the airport is the ramp area.
0:50:18 > 0:50:22It's about where all the activity comes together.
0:50:22 > 0:50:25It's like a hidden world that the general public don't see.
0:50:25 > 0:50:31We orchestrate baggage loading, push backs, the fuelling.
0:50:31 > 0:50:33It's vital.
0:50:33 > 0:50:36If there's a hold-up, or things don't turn out right,
0:50:36 > 0:50:39it would snowball and cause a lot of disruption.
0:50:40 > 0:50:46With increasing complexity, not just the airport but the airfield itself,
0:50:46 > 0:50:48there's needed an organising intelligence.
0:50:54 > 0:50:58A new airport breed was born to take control.
0:51:09 > 0:51:10I thoroughly enjoy controlling.
0:51:10 > 0:51:13You sit up in the tower, you conduct the whole system,
0:51:13 > 0:51:15you've got aircraft coming in, aircraft going out.
0:51:15 > 0:51:17Big aircraft, small aircraft,
0:51:17 > 0:51:20deadlines to meet, slots,
0:51:20 > 0:51:24and you really just have to orchestrate the whole thing to make it work safely.
0:51:25 > 0:51:29When I started in air traffic control, the pilots were in charge.
0:51:29 > 0:51:35Mostly, they were ex-World War II pilots who had done some pretty challenging stuff,
0:51:35 > 0:51:39and they came out and expected to be able to carry on flying their aircraft,
0:51:39 > 0:51:43and air traffic control were largely there to make their life a bit difficult.
0:51:47 > 0:51:50It was more fun because you were very much on your own,
0:51:50 > 0:51:52and you had to make your own decisions all the time.
0:51:54 > 0:51:57There were the odd cases where people have landed on the wrong airfields.
0:51:57 > 0:51:59You kept rather quiet about it, normally,
0:51:59 > 0:52:02because you didn't want anybody to know,
0:52:02 > 0:52:05and quietly fly back to your own airfield and not say a word!
0:52:05 > 0:52:08Work out roughly how long it would take you,
0:52:08 > 0:52:12and then you would do it visually by first landmarks, pinpoints.
0:52:12 > 0:52:15Railways were very useful, you could follow railways.
0:52:15 > 0:52:17Quite good fun, really.
0:52:17 > 0:52:20Not very safe!
0:52:20 > 0:52:25In April 1922, two pilots navigating in poor visibility and both following the same railway line
0:52:25 > 0:52:28sadly flew into one another with tragic consequences.
0:52:28 > 0:52:35As a result of that, a number of radio navigation beacons were installed to help pilots navigate.
0:52:35 > 0:52:38You had your radio aid which had a pointer on it and you flew towards that.
0:52:38 > 0:52:42You flew designated routes and they had various reporting points.
0:52:42 > 0:52:46The controller told you which course to fly and what height to fly at.
0:52:46 > 0:52:50You just followed his orders, rather like following a TomTom or something!
0:52:51 > 0:52:56I should think that at any moment now, the speed bird will be calling over Dean Cross.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59The individual waypoints are given names.
0:52:59 > 0:53:06Pilots flying between England and the Republic of Ireland, for example, encounter the waypoint Ginis.
0:53:06 > 0:53:10Pilots occasionally also encounter the waypoints Beano and Dandy.
0:53:10 > 0:53:14Hotspur, around here you've got Lesta and Pigot.
0:53:14 > 0:53:15Needle and thread.
0:53:15 > 0:53:17A huge sense of humour!
0:53:17 > 0:53:20It's just very rare that you're allowed to express it,
0:53:20 > 0:53:23not when you're flying at any rate!
0:53:32 > 0:53:35French was once the language of the air.
0:53:35 > 0:53:37But after World War II,
0:53:37 > 0:53:41the international regulations of aviation were established,
0:53:41 > 0:53:44and English was designated the official language.
0:53:47 > 0:53:51HE SPEAKS IN CODE
0:53:55 > 0:54:00'International regulations apply to just about everything we do.'
0:54:00 > 0:54:03At its basic level, we use Greenwich Mean Time,
0:54:03 > 0:54:06and the whole aviation world uses Greenwich Mean Time,
0:54:06 > 0:54:11and the time will be exactly the same in a control tower in Hong Kong as it is here.
0:54:13 > 0:54:17But there's one thing that has been outside the control of the controllers.
0:54:18 > 0:54:20The weather.
0:54:22 > 0:54:25We are surrounded by water, oddly enough.
0:54:25 > 0:54:29There's the reservoir, so obviously it's prone to fog.
0:54:29 > 0:54:33I'm surprised they ever thought of putting an airport there, really!
0:54:33 > 0:54:36The first attempts to guide aircraft down
0:54:36 > 0:54:39included a string of lighthouses,
0:54:39 > 0:54:41beacons on airfields,
0:54:41 > 0:54:43and even firing rockets.
0:54:43 > 0:54:48During World War II, the RAF developed a system,
0:54:48 > 0:54:53of burning hundreds of thousands of gallons of petrol alongside the runway.
0:54:53 > 0:54:57Somebody once said, it's just like going into hell when you go into this mass of flames,
0:54:57 > 0:55:01and hope you don't turn off the runway - keep straight on the runway of course.
0:55:01 > 0:55:03But it worked very well.
0:55:03 > 0:55:08It cleared the fog away, and of course ,it was visible through the fog.
0:55:08 > 0:55:10It was even considered for Heathrow,
0:55:10 > 0:55:12but never installed.
0:55:12 > 0:55:17Let's go down to 3,000 feet at 12 miles.
0:55:19 > 0:55:20That would be great.
0:55:20 > 0:55:22We are now 12 miles from touchdown at Heathrow.
0:55:22 > 0:55:28I can see the approach lights ahead of me.
0:55:28 > 0:55:32To the left of the approach lights I can see the precision approach path indicator.
0:55:32 > 0:55:37Radar, instrument landing systems and auto-land.
0:55:37 > 0:55:42All developed to guide flights through the fog.
0:55:42 > 0:55:47That was quite amazing, it was a little bit like the Martians had landed, I suppose, really.
0:55:53 > 0:55:56Edward Calvert developed a distinctive system of lights
0:55:56 > 0:55:58to make the runway itself clear.
0:56:01 > 0:56:05We've got a very good view now of the Calvert lighting system.
0:56:05 > 0:56:08The difference that Calvert made was,
0:56:08 > 0:56:13he put in place some crossbars and you can see ahead of you,
0:56:13 > 0:56:17a number of sets of white lights
0:56:17 > 0:56:20that cut across the extended centre line of the runway.
0:56:20 > 0:56:25They were vitally important for pilots when auto-land wasn't available.
0:56:25 > 0:56:30Because it allowed them to determine whether they were actually to the left or the right of the centre line
0:56:30 > 0:56:33but more importantly, whether the wings were level,
0:56:33 > 0:56:37because it's really important to keep the aeroplane on a stable trajectory
0:56:37 > 0:56:39for the last part of the approach.
0:56:44 > 0:56:50That is telling me we're on the correct approach so the aircraft is flaring now,
0:56:50 > 0:56:52and in a moment we'll feel the wheels touch the ground.
0:56:55 > 0:56:58There they go. I'm going to take some reverse idle.
0:56:58 > 0:57:02Those big plates that you see coming up on the wings if you're sitting near the wings,
0:57:02 > 0:57:04are automatically deployed.
0:57:04 > 0:57:10I'm going to allow the aircraft to brake automatically.
0:57:12 > 0:57:16It's nice to get back home, you've got family to get back and be with.
0:57:17 > 0:57:22The adrenalin's there because it's a scary time, landing.
0:57:22 > 0:57:24But night-time is where the magic is.
0:57:24 > 0:57:30The magic of the lights, the magic of the runways, the sparkle - they are simply jewel-like.
0:57:33 > 0:57:36It seems strange at night because it was that much quieter,
0:57:36 > 0:57:38and you weren't used to it, it was ghostly.
0:57:38 > 0:57:42Complete contrast to the hectic activity in the day.
0:57:44 > 0:57:49At night when one sees the runway lights and when one sees the beautifully lit terminal,
0:57:49 > 0:57:53you realise just how far modernity can touch us.
0:57:57 > 0:58:04Over the last 100 years, since the first flight took off in 1903,
0:58:04 > 0:58:07the airfield has become the airport.
0:58:07 > 0:58:10A 24-hour-a-day movement machine.
0:58:10 > 0:58:12Constantly changing and evolving.
0:58:13 > 0:58:17It's a transformation that Britain, as a nation, has tentatively embraced.
0:58:17 > 0:58:21But as individuals, we've flocked to the airport as soon as we could afford to.
0:58:23 > 0:58:27In the next programme, we explore how the jet age turned the British
0:58:27 > 0:58:33into international travellers and in the process, changing our lives.
0:58:52 > 0:58:53Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:53 > 0:58:55E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk