PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Luton in the Fifties. Grass track runway.
Old 27th Apr 2010, 09:40
  #11 (permalink)  
Plado
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: South Devon
Age: 77
Posts: 10
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
The thought of large turbo-propped aircraft using Luton back then is one that almost seems unbelievable. I imagine that after around 1960 the grass runways were upgraded to something a little more compatible with civilian passenger planes as the grass runways of the 50s was only really suitable for small craft and TigerMoths!

I never visited there after about 1961 and I remember my Dad filling up his Hillman Minx with very high octane petrol, the cheap stuff on tap from the pump outside the hangar door! Those were the days of "pinking" and regular decokes. You never hear of grinding valves in today, or new piston rings. When we filled up with petrol at Car Petrol stations my father would ask for "A shot of upper cylinder" which was I think RedEx upper cylinder lubricant. Oh those days of "cooking grade" petrol at 4/2d a gallon. We'll never see fun like that again. It was nice to be here for the best bit though.

And the phonetic alphabet left over from the RAF days George Able Nan Oboe King, and George Able How Fox King, nothing like the police phonetics of today
Golf Alpha November Oscar Kilo. Almost completely different.
--
Plado
Plado is offline