Happy Birthday …..

… 70 years old.  

Blip would be a poorer place without the celebrant.  No blips from far-flung places.  No amusing stories - tales of duty-free and excess baggage.  And noisy hotels.  And endless queues.  She’s seen it all and given us a window on the world.

A lot has changed since the 1940s; the world seemed much smaller then.  So was she.  

As the years have passed she’s grown alongside our changing world and had so many face-lifts and expansions as to be almost unrecognisable today.  

I know it’s hard to believe, but Heathrow Airport (née London Airport) really is 70 years old.   

In 1946 the first commercial flight from the new airport was a British South American Airways (BSAA) Avro Lancastrian (a modified Lancaster bomber).  There are now 1,400 flights each day (not with the same plane, obviously) 

I don’t know about you, but I feel a bit ….. self-conscious singing “happy birthday” to Heathrow Airport (but if the need takes you, feel free).  

So I’m going to sing happy birthday to a frequent flyer instead - Blacktulip.