I used to fly on these regularly when i was a kid, mostly between Manchester and Heathrow.

The trident was a satisfactory aircraft; flew on it several times in the 70's. On the trident 2 and trident 3 there was a small Y class non-smoking cabin immediately behind F class in front of the centre door with 3 rows. A very nice quiet place to sit and in those days on BEA at LHR you got to choose your seat on a first come first served basis from a seating plan displayed at the gate (not at check-in) so best get to the gate early for the best choice of seat.. As shown in the video, the seats in the first few rows of the rear Y class cabin were rear facing. I found this a very odd experience during take off. The point where the rear facing and forward facing seats meet (I assume at the emergency exit) created a very odd railway style arrangement where you would be facing the other row of passengers. Service was of course good, but don't forget that alcoholic drinks were charged for in Y class in those days, albeit at genuine duty free prices which made then significantly cheaper than the same drink bought in a pub in the UK so of course they sold well. On longer European sectors the hot main courses were served after the tray was served using those long metal tongs. Legroom was satisfactory but of course there was no IFE of any description. One thing I did not like about F class on the tridents was that unlike every other airline which had dedicated 2 X 2 seating in F, BEA installed convertible seats which could be used 2 X 2 in F or converted to 3 X 3 in an all Y configuration. When the seats were in F configuration, there were odd bumps in odd places from the conversion and they didn't feel quite right. F class pax got a free guidebook to the destination country and a small bottle of Ma Griffe perfume. There may have been printed menu's in F but I don't recall any; unlike BOAC there were no printed menu cards in Y on BEA. On UK domestic trunk routes (LHR - BFS/EDI/GLA) very nice full meals were served until catering was abolished following the introduction of the Shuttle in the late 70's. The standard starter for dinner in Y class on EDI-LHR was smoked salmon.. Domestic flights were single class Y but passengers could sit in the 2 X 2 configured forward (F) cabin for a small supplement (bookable seat) of I think GBP2.00.

The Trident ,a machine that converted fuel into noise !

Fantastic slice of history. I remember as a child being taken plane spotting to Heathrow in 1965. Returned home with my BEA & BOAC memoribillia. Shame it got thrown away.

That Trident is one beautiful looking jet liners I've ever seen! Reminds me of the Lockheed TriStar L-1011! And can land itself just like the TriStar! Interesting video, thank you for sharing!

Years ahead of its time !!

What a cool bus at 10:30 ! . The autoland is amazing.

As a child I used to fly to Malta every summer in the school holidays to visit my grandparents in BEA Tridents and Vanguard's .Sometimes flying as Air Malta.

I flew on a trident in 1977 Heathrow to Dublin ,I was only 11 and really impressed.

Fantastic film. Fascinating glimpse of late 1960s cutting edge technology too. I am in Nerd Heaven. (PS I was 11 in 1977 too!!!)

What an aircraft with confidence inspiring ability, high speed, retro coolness and an unmatched sound. I really wish aircraft as good looking as the classic British airliners were still produced, looks to be forever unparalleled so it seems 😪

I was flying on Tridents 1966-1973 and pretty much saw everything that happened in that period, For me the big surprises of the period were: Trident Auto-Take-Offs-&-Landings from-day-one (Big-Shock) with the captains hands closely ghosting the control-column. The American airlines doing 707 & DC8 charter atlantic return night-flights just to keep their aircraft in the air, To me; that was the real introduction of very cheap fares,. And that local/regional airports in the UK were almost never used (no-customs or immigration) there were daily services to beaches in remote parts of Scoland, but I only ever did one service out of Bournemouth in the south of England... Seemingly no-one saw the commercial potential of regional airports... :) Safe-Flying-All :)

West London Air Terminal is now Sainsbury's in Cromwell Road, with the Point West apartment complex round the back. Tridents used to fly over where I live in SW London in the '70's, and they were bloody noisy!

I believe it was the first airliner capable of autoland to CAT3 minimums....way ahead of it's time

I remember flying on this bird to Paris from LHR in 73 .. it was quite unique as i recall that and Concorde Flew on Concorde as well - fabulous

I rode a BEA Trident with backward seating from Gatwick to Orly in 1973. I noted how the nose gear was off center. I was a world traveler back then, I'm still one today 🙂👍🛫

English airline colour schemes were so classy!

I flew from London to Stockholm return on a Trident back in 1977. Great airplane to travel in. Was very impressed with the takeoff speed due to extra thrust from the booster engine.

"People in their care"... Those were the days. When Air Travel was an event.

Inspector Clouseau ATC at approx 13 min - great video

Was lucky enough to be in the RAF in 1974-86 flew on the Trident, Tristar and Brittania several times between postings. Ah memories!

News tended to focus on the positives in those days whereas today's news is super negative.

I am full of admiration for the BAC Trident, being the only aeroplane at the time with Flight Data Recorder, stick shaker stall warning and even stick pusher. Ir's a pity it was not a commercial success, presumably because it was too small, tailor-made for to a BEA specification for European routes.

I flew on G-ARPM, a Trident 1 from Dublin to Heathrow back in 1974 when I was 12.

I love the ATC , imagine going into Heathrow in normal times now . Stacked then stuck in a 30 mile approx queue. I actually despise travelling in & out of there.

Lived not far from the Hatfield factory and used to see Tridents fly over every few minutes. Having found out how many they built since, it was most likely the same one!

The British (BOAC & BEA) pioneered jet travel; America (Pan Am) made it affordable. Great video. Thanks.

Excellent film. Thanks for posting. Cheers.

60s Technology so advanced for that time.

thanks for uploading

Wow....back then that's a novelty..."Auto Landing"

I remember flying on the Trident from London to Manchester. The seats we were sat in were aft facing. The airliners of today are just boring in comparison. I’ve been lucky enough to fly on most of the classics: Trident/1-11/Viscount/Vanguard/707/DC-8/DC-9 & 10/L-1011/747-100/200/300/727/737-200, to name a few. 👍😉

Yayyy Another great vid - Thanks again mate.

I love these second gen. of aircraft. The Fokker F-28 Fellowship also had the Spey engine. You could hear it crackle and pop at take off. I think it climbed better than the 737-200. I miss those aircraft. Today there are basicly only two aircraft to chose from in the S, M, L and XL catagory.

Nice video! thanks for upload!

Who was the first to initiate transAtlantic flights? It was basically a tie- On 4 October 1958, BOAC started transatlantic flights between London Heathrow and New York Idlewild with a Comet 4, and Pan Am followed on 26 October with a Boeing 707 service between New York and Paris. Of course the 707 was the superior aircraft carrying twice the number of passengers, BOAC replaced the Comet 4 with 707s In October 1956 BOAC ordered 15 Boeing 707s with Conway engines (briefly the most economical commercial engine option). They entered service in 1960. (The British airworthiness authorities insisted on tail-fin modifications which Boeing made available to all 707 users.) Sir Giles Guthrie,who took charge of BOAC in 1964, preferred Boeing aircraft for economic reasons, and indeed BOAC began turning a profit in the late 1960s. After a row in Parliament the government instructed BOAC to purchase 17 Vickers VC10 aircraft from a 30-aircraft order which Guthrie had cancelled. The Standard VC10 had higher operating costs than the 707, largely due to BOAC's requirement at the design stage for the aircraft to have excellent hot and high performance for Commonwealth (African/Asian) routes, but the larger Super VC10 was a success with American passengers on the North Atlantic and was profitable. The next major order of Boeing aircraft was for 11 747-100s. On 22 April 1970 BOAC received its first 747, but the aircraft did not enter commercial service until 14 April 1971 due to BOAC's inability to settle crewing and pay rates with the British Air Line Pilots' Association. BOAC's successor British Airways later became the largest Boeing customer outside North America.

thanks for this

“Flight to Zurich leaves in one minute. This is the final call.“ I wonder who still made it.

I often flew in tridents between london and paris ( orly) and london amsterdam also london newcastle northeast airlines which had just been renamed from bks airtransport.

What a technology 50 years ago!! Better without mcas.

Cool. 118.2FM. Remember that from my plane spotting days at Queens Bldg at LHR.

I love the 0 shaped window of the aircraft

The trijet that needed four engines.

I flew once on a BA Trident between London and Frankfurt. Just about the most enjoyable flight I have ever had. I had a coach ticket and the flight was overbooked. BA then sat me in 1st class. Very nice. I don't think the American carriers ever did a damn thing for me.

Don't forget the 'waiting wife' lol

The trident imo is actually quite a great plane to fly short routes quickly but it’s difficult to fly it

Yes the Brits built fine aircraft, BUT the government was in control telling the airlines what they could buy and what the builders could build. Often this meant unreal delays and aircraft that were too small or underpowered or both as in Trident’s case.

A foggy day in London Town - my Trident plane is touching down.....

Back in the days when London was always foggy

Say what you will, but at that time, commercial aircraft still had a certain character-did they?

oh those were the days!!

Flew often on the Trident.

If this tech was available in 1968 - why is it that fog still grounds aircraft in 2017?

Of all the people tearing down the Trident in the comments, I wonder how many of them even got a chance to fly it? Personally, my favorite was the Boeing 720B, and I liked the DC-9 very much, but I would have liked to have at least had a chance to try the Trident. Now they're gone. Nothing that they're making now is interesting or exciting in the least, in any way whatsoever.

British and french are revolutionary hats off

Tri-jet with 4 engines ... they don't make many of those anymore! Alas, never had the chance to fly on one. And how about that Rolls-Royce Spey engine ... originally designed for the Trident but it went on to power many more civil and military aircraft, not to mention marine and industrial applications!

I didn't realise that the nose wheel was so "offset" of the centreline ie to the left !

Britain leading the world

great the captain giving his little talk and staring at the camera while the airplane lands itself....what if............

I was born that year what a difference compared with now then a feeling of optimism and progress now doom and gloom and you have to be careful what you do a hi viz and risk assessment to change a toilet roll

Once again the govt got involved, shrunk the Aircraft to being smaller than the Boeing 727 .Also the engine selection had politicians involved. The plane was noisy. I just wonder what would have happened if they used Pratt & Whitney engines and used a simpler & cheaper autopilot with Autoland as an option. In other words a basic aircraft like the 727, not that the 727 was simple, but many potential customers did not need Autoland.I am guessing a lot here but it appears that the British Airline Industry just made aircraft that the market did not want!Reg Ansett gave a resounding No to this aircraft in Australia. In those days the Govt owned airline was supposed to run the same aircraft so TAA was forced to buy 727's as well.I don't believe that decision was ever a disappointment.

Hello, would it be ok to use this video on in my trident overview? thanks for you time ~ shaun

I wonder if they still use auto land

I flew one of these beauties in the day about 1972, b4 BEA/British Airways merged from LHR-CDG....

Incredible that they used the crappy old Le Bourget airport into the Jet age?? like BEA tridents would have flown to Croyodon-airport or SASDC-8S would have landed at Bromma-airport..these airports were already antiquated in the mid-1960S..

A totally different Britain

Living near Manchester airport. Tridents were freakin' awful...Along with the 1-11's. Ear splittingly noisy and belched out black smoke....Glad when they got rid! Evil Machines!

I loved: the real jet were British! ( I am Italian I can say it).

Bizzare that the British had the ability to manufacture aircraft like this and never had the ability for whatever reason to sell them .

Back then did pilots really just say "roger" instead of a readback?

Every 2 mins one would scream over house till one crashed in Staines

The off center nose gear is because of the large sized automatic landing equipment located beneath the cockpit floor. Very unique to Trident. Trident was first autoland capable jetliner but only 117 were produced.

These types of film show how shockingly low we've stooped in the UK. Dress, attitudes, politeness, it's all gone so far south it's dropped off the map. It's enough to make a gorilla weep.

16/9 is suspicious

The Paris-London & London-Paris route is a milkroute..its not exactly the Kangoroo-route and by this time(mid 1960S) it was indeed very banal..

Better than max8

How many of those women passengers are called "MIster air traveller" or are concerned about "the waiting wife"...

727 may have done better, but the Trident looked much nicer!

We may not be in the forefront of passenger jet manufacturing but we made it a whole lot safer. Stick that in ya pipes Boeing! Pity BOAC were suckered into buying Boeing. We were in the forefront of aviation but unlike the competition all funding was private. No government/tax payers money back then. We had some fantastic aircraft.

The off set nose wheel annoys the hell out of me 🤣

They might have sold a few more if they didn't make it just to BEA specs it was under powerd and smaller than the 727 to much control of development by British government

Haha @ late 1960's technology

I am sure that if Americans had invented it, it would have be a world best seller.

Why don’t pilots use Autoland all the time? Or Why can’t pilots use Autoland in any visibility no matter how bad or below minimums? (Collected answers) There are a number of reasons why pilot don't use autoland all the time, even if the airport and aircraft are equipped with the right equipment. To name the two most important ones: Pilots need to practise their flying technique. If they would always fly autopilot, they would lose the skills to fly. Skills that they need when the autopilot does fail. There are phases of flight where it is better or even required to let the autopilot do its job, but landing is one the things pilot are allowed to and need to be capable of doing themselves. Of course autoland needs to be practised as well. Auto land requires very accurate ILS guidance. Even if the airport is equipped with calibrated ILS Cat IIIb equipment (required for autoland), the signals will be degraded by traffic that is operating near the ILS antennas. Under low visibility circumstances, when pilots cannot land visually, traffic spacing is increased and ground vehicles are not allowed anywhere near the ILS antennas to ensure the best possible signal quality. This is a standard part of the Low Visibility Procedures (LVP) of all airports. The downside of this is that the capacity of the airport is reduced. If autoland would be performed while there is no ILS signal protection, the effects can be spectacular at best or fatal at worst. Other Considerations Autoland is typically only used when it absolute has to, which means when the weather dictates or when it needs to be used for currency requirements. ATC doesn't care if you are going to do one, but I have heard guys give courtesy calls to the tower letting them know they'd be autolanding. The biggest pain with autoland is that it is a monitored approach. My only experience with those are in Category II ILS approaches (though my aircraft did not have autoland capability). Monitored approaches are higher workload and are briefed and flown differently than normal approaches*. As noted by another answer, when you are going to fly an ILS to cat II or III minimums, the ground controllers need to be protecting the ILS critical areas to guarantee the glideslope quality if you are going to follow it below cat I minimums. This may require coordination with the tower controller. Other pilots I've asked about autolands in Boeing widebody aircraft have all told me some variation of not liking to autoland unless they have to do one per company procedures. Whoa Boy landings There is a percieved public belief that autolands are safer (and better?) than manual landings, neither of which I believe to be true. ‘Better’ is a subjective quality, though I certainly pride myself to achieve smoother touchdowns than an autoland, the reality is an autoland is always rougher and more violent than the worst manual landing by any rookie pilot. In fact, it’s quite an insider joke to tell the cabin crew it was an autoland and blame it on the machine whenever I have a bad manual landing.The word ‘positive landing’ was on the engineer’s minds.

This was a period when England was great without the influx of foreigners....

The Trident could have been a world beater, BEA ruined it's potential.