Many moons ago the Boeing 707 used to take off in what looked like an almost vertical climb. It wasn't anything of the sort but it looked spectacular as we were all used to aircraft lumbering into the air and slowly gaining height.
I was one of the ground crew sent to Heathrow in a Comet II as part of the fleet that was to take Harold Wilson to Gib for his famous "Tiger" talks with Ian Smith.
In the event the aircraft he was due to use "went sick" during the night and we had to shift all the on board Prime Ministerial kit into the reserve. At 5am the new aircraft " went sick" but in the meantime the original had been fixed so we moved everything back again.
Once HW had taken off, the following aircraft carrying press etc took off and it was decided that the third reserve would now take us all back to Lyneham. We had been sitting on the runway watching these bloody 707s whip up into the wide blue and our pilot asked if we thought we ought to "give the civvies a show". We said yes and the mad bugger tried to imitate a 707 take off in a very elderly Comet II.
I thought the bloody wings were going to come off.
He then circled, requested permission to overfly the runway and got it. He told the tower that he was making sure we hadn't left anything behind and "buzzed" the runway at 50 feet. Court Martial! Removed from flying duties as "psychologically unsuited".
Resigned his commission and joined Monarch Airlines.
