Follow-up

PHILIP E. ROBINSON’S first flight (Peterborough) reminded me of when I took to the sky in 1957 while doing my National Service in the Royal Engineers. One Saturday morning the commanding officer informed us that the regiment was moving overseas. That morning we were kitted out in olive drab, known by the troops as jungle green. I was given my ticket at the check-in desk at Heathrow and I was amazed to see I was to travel to Honolulu, via New York, Chicago and San Francisco, places that we had seen only in films. The price of the ticket was £242 — a fortune — and I was to travel first class. The plane I was to fly in was a Lockheed Super Constellation of Trans World Airlines (TWA), nicknamed Teeny Weeny Airlines. There were only six soldiers on this flight, all drinks were free and the food was superb (it was the first time I’d had lobster). We sat in big leather armchairs. Cruising speed was 240 mph at a height of 18,000 ft, roughly half the height and speed of modern jets. The flight time was 13½ hours. This was the only commercial airline that did the London-New York non-stop crossing of the Atlantic and they gave us a certificate (pictured) to show that we had done it. We landed at Idlewild airport (now JFK). Our final destination was Christmas Island, where we did the ground preparation for Operation Grapple — a series of H-bomb tests. Graham Lench, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs.