LUTON History and Nostalgia

[cj241101]

Originally Posted by Level bust

Phoenix Airways also operated a BAC 1-11, HBITL I believe.

They had a short series with HB-ITL Oct/Nov 1971 HP180/181 from and to Zurich Sat a.m. Seem to remember the aircraft was impounded for non-payment of fees early 1972 and I believe was never to visit again.
Phoenix ceased ops on 17/3/74. Both aircraft were to crash with subsequent operators - HB-IEG with LAB (Bolivia) as N730JP, crashed after take off from Santa Cruz on 13/10/76 and HB-ITL with Austral as LV-LOX crashed into the River Plate on approach to Buenos Aires 7/5/81. Phoenix also leased an ex TWA 707-131 N732TW summer 1972.

My only photo of HB-ITL was with a Kodak Instamatic is too poor to publish but try airliners.net:- Aviation Photo Search | Airliners.net

[boeing_eng]

A interesting shot of the Phoenix 707 at LTN:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Phoenix-Bo...p2047675.l2557

[cj241101]

Originally Posted by boeing_eng

A interesting shot of the Phoenix 707 at LTN:

Nice line up as well. Not sure I'd have paid 10 quid for the slide, though.


Never saw HB-IEG. One time I was waiting for it to arrive it turned into a TEA 720 OO-TEA (19/4/73).

[rog747]

the other phoenix 707 leased from TWA N732TW

https://cdn.jetphotos.com/400/2/66116_1103707256.jpg
ack to the owner of said pic

saw all 3 of their a/c at PMI

[LTNman]

Fine shot of Luton with what looks like 6 Britannia's along the hangar line

[boeing_eng]

Looks like the late 70's...The Eurafric Brit (EI-BCI) is very distinctive as seen here:

Bristol Britannia 253F - Large Preview - AirTeamImages.com

[vintage ATCO]

Can't quite see enough to recognise any cars in the ATC car park!

[cj241101]

Originally Posted by LTNman

Fine shot of Luton with what looks like 6 Britannia's along the hangar line

Probably taken some time in April 1977 with the Eurafric first appearing in March that year. Interconair's EI-BBY and one of the A.F.R.E.K. Brits (G-BDUP/R) behind, probably the ex-Ghana DC-8 9G-ACG next. The two in the north west corner quite possibly are AMAZ 9Q-CAJ and XL639, both of which were parked there spring 1977 and were still in RAF colours. Stand 11 maybe African Safari 5Y-AYR without the "AS" logo on the tail.
Being even more specific, the line up fits my anorak log on 9th April '77 when Geminair were occupying the gap on stand 12 with 9G-ACE. A.F.R.E.K. G-BDUP departed on 11th April at 1338, with the other aircraft present in the same places apart from 9G-ACE. The Lear Jet may be N5000B of the Ashland Oil Co. which was present on 11th on the light aircraft stand. If the photo was taken that day around lunchtime, the Bavaria Germanair A300 D-AMAY would have been out of the shot on stand 17.

Open to correction as usual, of course!

[LTNman]

I hate to think how many telephone directory sized volumes of notes you must have

No petrol station in those days either.

[cj241101]

Originally Posted by LTNman

I hate to think how many telephone directory sized volumes of notes you must have

Well I kept asking for an iPad or a laptop for Christmas but apparently they hadn't been invented, so I had to record things the old-fashioned way . Now I'm waiting for someone to invent time travel so I can go back and fill in the gaps in my log and take some decent pictures with the digital camera I also kept asking for.

[mustbeaboeing]

Presumably the photo has been taken from a light aircraft flying roughly along the line of the then runway 18/36 ?

[boeing_eng]

Apart from H89 & H7&8 clipped at the sides of the pic, none of the other hangars survive.....

[vintage ATCO]

Has hangar 9 gone? It's the one with the Brit in front of it, right.

[cj241101]

Originally Posted by vintage ATCO

Has hangar 9 gone? It's the one with the Brit in front of it, right.

Still there, now blue, think it was the Monarch engine bay so whether MAEL will still have a use for it remains to be seen.

[boeing_eng]

Ah...didn't count that one as it hasn't been a proper aircraft hangar for years!

[LTNman]

This was one of the replacement hangars for Monarch and maybe the first aircraft in.

[cj241101]

Originally Posted by boeing_eng

Ah...didn't count that one as it hasn't been a proper aircraft hangar for years!

I remember Hangar 9 was home to PA-22 G-APUT around 1968. I also remember it was full of new Cessnas one day (27/11/68) when the government slapped on a big increase in import duty, so Rogers at Cranfield rushed to get around 27 new aircraft delivered from Reims to beat the increase (mostly the G-AWU_ batch). Roughly half went into hangar 9 with the rest in the old light aircraft park, now the location of hangar 127. By 1977 it was in use as a cargo shed and remained so until the cargo centre opened around 1992.

[22/04]

Fine shot of Luton with what looks like 6 Britannia's along the hangar line

Those were the days. Before the petrol station the area to the north of the terminal was an unofficial spectator area from where one could watch Monarch and Invicta 720Bs starting up with the wonderful noisy ground starters- were they made by someone called something like Houchin.

[YVRLTN]

Does anyone recall an Italian Caravelle operator early 80's from Naples - Altair maybe?

[LTNman]

They used to place adverts in the airports yearly publications.