Although the most recent generation of Londoners cannot remember the east London skyline without it, London City Airport was only opened in 1987.

First dreamed up as part of Margaret Thatcher’s plans for the regeneration of the Docklands in the early 1980s, London City Airport was the first to be built in post-war Britain.

Author of London City Airport Through Time Paul Hogan said: “Thanks to the airport, the whole of the Docklands has been rejuvenated, and the whole of the East End has changed beyond recognition.

“Only the River Thames provides some sense of continuity and it is fitting that it does so, for without it there would have been no docks to convert in the first place.”

In 1981 the Thatcher government created the London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC), with the aim of creating a new financial district away from the City of London and transforming the largely redundant docks.

At around the same time, a Plymouth-based airline called Brymon Airways became the first in the country to start using short take-off and landing (STOL) planes.

Following the success of a new and shorter 1,000m runway in Plymouth, in June 1982, a former RAF pilot called Harry Gee flew a STOL plane into Heron Quays in Tower Hamlets.

Hogan said: “The Harry Gee flight proved the practicality of the idea of a STOL port in the docklands and so the seeds of London City Airport were sown.”

Once the airport location changed from Heron Quays to where it now stands between the Royal Albert and King George V docks for fear of being too close to the new Canary Wharf towers, the LDDC applied for planning permission.

After a 63-day planning enquiry and dodging of political opposition from London Mayor Ken Livingstone, the first commercial flight finally took off from the airport on 26 October 1987.

Although it still only has the 1,500 metre runway and one airport bus it started with, the airport has grown considerably since its inception.

Today 11 airlines operate 56 routes out of London City, and although the River Bus that once connected the terminal with central London sailed up the Thames for the last time in 1993, passengers can now get to Bank in 22 minutes via the Docklands Light Railway (DLR).

Despite current efforts by the Green Party to close it, and people across Wanstead, Leyton and Leytonstone protesting against February’s change in flight path concentration over the area, the airport’s immediate neighbours in Newham have always been surprisingly supportive.

An independent consultative committee was set up to safeguard resident concerns, and when the jet centre taking bigger planes was first proposed, 83 per cent of the people living around the airport said they supported it.

Hogan said: “Local residents can be assured that there will be no plans to build a second runway or even to extend the present one, simply because there isn’t enough room!”

The airport has also funded several community and art projects in the area, as well as organising mini carnivals for its neighbours when the runway is closed at weekends.

London City Airport now flies as far as New York and has plans to accommodate 8 million passengers a year by 2030 as part of its 2006 25-year strategy.

Hogan said: “While seen by some at the time as an expensive white elephant, today the £50 million price tag can definitely be seen as the bargain of the century.”