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Heathrow Terminal 5

Aviation at the location of what is now Heathrow Airport began during World War I, when the site was used as a military airfield. By the 1930s the airfield, then known as the Great Western Aerodrome, was privately owned by Fairey Aviation Company, and was used for aircraft assembly and testing. Commercial traffic used Croydon Airport, which was London's main airport at the time.
In 1943, Heathrow came under the control of the Air Ministry, to be developed as a Royal Air Force transfer station. Construction of runways began in 1944, on land that was originally acquired from the vicar of Harmondsworth. The new airport was built by Wimpey Construction, and was named after the hamlet of Heathrow, little more than a row of isolated cottages on Hounslow Heath frequented by highwaymen, which was demolished to make way for the airport, and which was located approximately where Terminal 3 now stands.

The Royal Air Force never made use of the airport, and following the end of World War II control was transferred to the Ministry of Civil Aviation on 1 January 1946. The first civil flight that day was to Buenos Aires, via Lisbon for refuelling. The official opening ceremony was performed on 25 March 1946 by Lord Winster, the Minister of Aviation. On 16 April a Panair Lockheed L-049 Constellation landed after a flight from Rio de Janeiro, the first aircraft of a foreign airline to land at Heathrow. The first BOAC scheduled flight departed for Australia on 28 May. This route was operated as a joint route with Qantas.
The airport opened fully for civilian use on 31 May 1946, and by 1947 Heathrow had three runways, with three more under construction. These older runways, built for the piston-engined planes of that era, were each slightly longer than a mile in length, arranged in a 6-point star pattern to allow for all wind conditions. The temporary "prefab" passenger and cargo buildings were located at the northeast edge of the airport, just south of Bath Road.

This is scanned from a slide in my collection and the original photographer is unknown. 90 secs after take off No 2 engine broke away from mounting over Hounslow just east of Heathrow. Take off was at 15.27 from 28L flight no 712. 20 secs into flight there was a loud bang and throttle lever for No 2 closed. Crew commenced Engine Failure drill during which they started to return to Heathrow.By now the No 2 Engine was well alight and crew were preparing to return to LHR to land on 05. As the u/c was lowered the engine fell away at a height of 3000ft. the touchdown was achieved 400yds beyond threshold.Following touchdown brakes and reverse thrust were applied, as the fire in the port wing root was causing severe damage to the window mountings. As shut down was ordered there was a sudden explosion.The port wing fell off at the root and the blast threw debris over to the starboard side of the aircraft.The time from rotation to touchdown was 3min 12 secs. The passengers escaped from the RHS along the wing and from rear and forward galley doors. 123 of the 127 had escaped before emergency services arrived.38 people received treatment for injuries and 5 died, including one stewardess - they were overcome by fumes inside the aircraft. Investigation found the cause to be failure of low pressure compressor wheel due to fatigue. This photo is not meant to offend, and please don't be, I have posted it as it is an unfortunate part of our aviation history.

This has been on flickr before on my other stream (now deleted). I haven't stolen it. I've decide to keep everything together in one place rather than on two accounts so i'm in the process of uploading them here.