What an excellent thread this is! I remember that I posted on a previous thread called something like: Luton in the fifties - grass runway. As this thread has concentrated on the heavy side of Luton aviation, maybe I can reminisce about some of the lighter aviation that used to go on there.
My first memories of Luton are in August 1958 when I was doing my PPL at Marshalls, Cambridge. I was sent on a solo cross-country via Luton and White Waltham back to Cambridge in Tiger Moth G-ALTW. No problems with the grass, and no need to use the new control tower, as I had no radio anyway. Also a bit of time to look around. A few gems were the Scorpion-powered Canberra WK163, the silver fuselage of Rapide G-AFOI in a hangar, 2 other Rapides IBB and LBC, Jet Provost OBU, Lockheed 12A GTL, as well as some more "ordinary" stuff such as Apache PLJ (quite new at the time), the red Chipmunk PAC, the dark green Gemini KEK, red Tiger Moth OGS ("Miss 'Obbs"), and the Pegasus Viking HOY.
An excellent flight and a great day out. A hard day though, with 7 flights and about 6 hours logged.
Laurence