G-BNLT City of Lincoln arrives - Tony Cunnane's Life and Times

There had to be many measurements and calculations to make sure the runway was strong enough and the taxiways wide enough to accommodate the aircraft. All was well and the aircraft landed safely after flying around the local area at low level on the short flight from Coningsby to make sure as many people as possible could get a good view of it.

Both my colleague at Coningsby and I had made sure our local media knew what was planned. Not knowing then much about B747s, I was surprised to discover that the enormous main undercarriage legs of the 747 are steerable and that  enables the aircraft to turn in its own length – as it did on Scampton's runway. I met the crew on Echo dispersal when they disembarked and took them down to 4 Hangar for refreshments and to meet the Red Arrows while the British Airways engineers  worked on the aircraft. That was the start of a long Red Arrows’ association with the airline’s 747 Fleet.

The band concert was a great success and Lima Tango was a really impressive sight parked on Echo dispersal, lit with sodium floodlights. It had been delivered from the factory in Seattle just a few days earlier and was, of course, in pristine condition inside and out. The BBMF Lancaster, Spitfire and Hurricane looked equally imposing inside the hangar placed amongst the audience of over 2,000 packed into the hangar to listen to the concert, more than twice the originally planned number and there was still room to spare.

Halfway through the concert, during a lull in proceedings and while BBC engineers checked their recording so far, I did several interviews on the stage for local radio and TV stations. Many folk from the audience, getting up to stretch their legs, came to watch. It was the first time I'd had a live audience for any of my interviews!! Eventually anyone who wanted, and most people did, were given conducted tours by the BA staff of the pristine Jumbo. Barely an hour after the concert ended, Lima Tango took off for Heathrow and about three hours later was off on its inaugural passenger service to Los Angeles. It was probably on its way back to London the following evening when the BBC concert went out on Radio 2.

The station got a lot of excellent PR out of the concert but the real stars were the two City of Lincoln aeroplanes. But it was not the last Scampton saw of that magnificent aircraft. The event started me off on an idea that was to come to fruition two years later.

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