After much deliberation, cogitation and digestion, I’m very pleased to say that we now have the winners for our competition to (almost) be a Heathrow air traffic controller for the day.

These stunning long exposure photographs were taken by one of our air traffic controller in Heathrow Airport tower. They were so good we wanted to share them with you.

There might not be any scheduled flights at Heathrow after 11.30pm, but that doesn’t mean the tower’s air traffic controllers have a chance to put their feet up. In fact the airport is almost as busy at night as it is in the day, with the race on to be ready for the next day’s first flight.

We’ve created two 360 videos that put you at the very heart of the action in Heathrow control tower and London Terminal Control.

Win a chance to try your hand at air traffic control in our state-of-the-art 360 degree Heathrow simulator.

I went to Westminster last night with the CEO of Heathrow to meet a group of MPs to discuss what their constituents are telling them is more flights and more noise over their homes.

Heathrow is 70 today and to celebrate, we’ve delved into the archive to find some of our best photos of the airport though the decades.

Continuous Descents Operations (CDOs) mitigate noise by keeping aircraft higher for longer. They can offer noise reductions of between 1 to 5 decibels per aircraft on the approach from between 25 to around 10 miles to touchdown.

All kinds of aircraft travel through UK airspace – from huge commercial planes to small helicopters – all of which have to be carefully integrated and managed. This is particularly true of the busy skies over London, which has a skyline that continues to grow outwards and upwards.

No two days are the same for the ATCOs and other staff at Heathrow tower. The main challenge is to make sure that all these flights arrive and depart safely and on time. It’s a demanding job, so much so that it can take up to three years to ‘go solo’ as a Heathrow controller.