Number One In Europe is a color, promotional film created for British European Airways (BEA) in about 1971, its 25th birthday. BEA was a British airline which existed from 1946-1974. Produced by Harold Weaver. Narrated by Patrick Allen, John Keith Patrick Allen, a British film, television and voice actor. The film tells the story of the British European Airways.

British European Airways (BEA) (0:08-0:18). Flight schedule board (0:19-1:05) Trident Three, Introduced in April, 1969 (1:06-1:30). Badge of the Royal Air Force (1:37-1:45). British Airspeed AS.57 Ambassador flew from July 1947 through the 1960’s and was referred to as “Elizabethans” (1:52-1:58). BEA’s Sikorsky S-51 Dragonfly (2:00-2:04). BEA’s Vickers Viscount 802 aircraft first used in 1957 (2:12-2:16). Queen Elizabeth (2:17-2:18). Trident Three British Aircraft (2:20-2:42). Jet engine (2:58-3:00). London’s Heathrow Airport (3:18-4:28). Heathrow’s air traffic control center (3:28-3:37). Checking aircraft controls in pre-flight check (4:45-4:59). Check-in at the airport (5:16-5:58). 1960’s IBM computer reservation system (6:02-6:29). Interior of a Trident Three (6:58-7:15). Trident Three Aircraft prepping for takeoff (7:28-7:36). BEA Safety on board leaflet (8:04-8:08). BEA stewardess’ (8:44-9:07). Reel-to-reel tape recorder (9:08-9:09). Airplane food (10:17-10:40). Preparing airline food (11:14-11:49). Looking out the window above the clouds (12:28-12:30). Athens International Airport (12:31-12:48). Ancient Greek Temple (12:49-12:55). BEA Trident Three in flight (12:57-13:08). Inside the cockpit (13:11-13:32). Control Center (13:53-14:50). Field Marshal Sir Gerald Walter Robert Templer (15:44-16:19). Queen’s Award given to BEA for their introduction of the autoland technology (16:23-16:24). Anthony Milward, chairman of BEA (16:29-16:41). John “Cat’s Eyes” Cunningham, Royal Air Force night fighter ace during WWII (16:51-17:17) & (17:54-18:08). Trident Three rear booster engine (17:27-17:30). BEA Headquarters (19:44-19:48). BEA Enterprise Map (19:55-19:56). BEA board meeting (20:36-20:51). Trident Three in flight (21:04-21:15).

British European Airways (BEA), formally British European Airways Corporation, was a British airline which existed from 1946 until 1974. BEA operated to Europe, North Africa and the Middle East from airports around the United Kingdom.The airline was also the largest UK domestic operator, serving major British cities, including London, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Belfast, as well as areas of the British Isles such as the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. From 1946 until 1974, BEA operated a network of internal German routes between West Berlin and West Germany as well. Formed as the British European Airways division of British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) on 1 January 1946, BEA became a crown corporation in its own right on 1 August 1946.

Operations commenced from Croydon and Northolt airports, with DH89A Dragon Rapides and Douglas DC-3s. Having established its main operating base at Northolt, BEA operated its first service from Heathrow in April 1950; by late 1954, all Northolt operations had moved to Heathrow, which remained the airline’s main operating base until the merger with BOAC in 1974. During 1952, BEA carried its millionth passenger, and by the early 1960s it had become the western world’s fifth-biggest passenger-carrying airline and the biggest outside the United States. In 1950, BEA operated the world’s first turbine-powered commercial air service with Vickers’ Viscount 630 prototype, from London to Paris. The airline entered the jet age in 1960 with de Havilland’s DH106 Comet 4B. On 1 April 1964, it became the first to operate the DH121 Trident; on 10 June 1965, a BEA Trident 1C performed the world’s first automatic landing during a scheduled commercial air service. For most of its existence, BEA was headquartered at BEAline House in Ruislip, London Borough of Hillingdon.BEA ceased to exist as a separate legal entity on 1 April 1974 when the merger with BOAC to form British Airways (BA) took effect. However the name was revived by British Airways from 1991 to 2008 when it renamed its already existing subsidiary British Airways Tour Operations Limited as British European Airways Limited.

The Hawker Siddeley HS 121 Trident (originally the de Havilland D.H.121 and the Airco DH 121) was a British short- (and later medium-) range airliner. It was the first T-tail rear-engined three-engined jet airliner to be designed. It was also the first airliner to make a blind landing in revenue service in 1965.

This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com