LUTON History and Nostalgia

[SpringHeeledJack]

Vintage atco, you're not the owner of Luton Hoo are you ? It's sounding awfully like it was your airport back then, a sort of Lord of the Fly



SHJ

[vintage ATCO]

Do I look daft enough to live under a flight path??

I once got a call from the BBC to say they were filming an episode of Antiques Roadshow at Luton Hoo and could we keep our awfully noisey aeroplanes away from it for the duration. Hmm. I explained given its location it wasn't easy blah blah blah and didn't think much more about it. A while later I got a nice letter thanking me for our co-operation.

[cj241101]

BA 747

At the time of the BA diverting in I was working for Monarch who handled the aircraft. I was at home and, aware that there was fog at LHR, I had my airband scanner on and heard the aircraft (BA092 Toronto-LHR) calling Luton, unaware at that stage of the aircraft type. It was asked to contact Monarch Ops so I switched frequencies. The conversation was "are you aware how long Luton's runway is?" and "be aware there is no towbar for a 747 on station", to which the reply was along the lines of "we've run out of options and we're coming to you anyway". The aircraft had already initiated a diversion to Prestwick when the visibility there dropped below minima (747-100's were only ILS CAT 1), meaning all other alternates must have been below minima as well. I never did find out how much fuel was left on arrival, nor how far north the aircraft was when it turned back south. Pity the playback on flightradar doesn't go back that far! (28/9/92)

[cj241101]

Air Atlanta 747's

I have a story about the 1st Air Atlanta 747-200 to visit LTN, which did a mini-series of flights to Iceland May-July 2001 taking people on whale-watching trips. I had the privilege (?) of despatching the 1st one on 5th May. When the flight crew arrived they asked for 80,000kgs of fuel, with a trip fuel of around 34000kgs (i.e. round trip fuel). Apart from sounding seriously excessive (I thought at first - being American pilots - they must have meant LBS not KGS), Shell were not equipped to deal with such a quantity. In spite of having a fuel truck plugged in both sides, both trucks got emptied and had to go back to refill, which delayed the flight about an hour if I remember correctly.

The aircraft was in an all economy layout with 499 seats, nearly all of which were taken. There was a bit of baggage as some passengers were staying overnight (the rest were on a day trip). I don't recall the exact figures but the take-off weight must have approaching 300,000kgs (max TOW - off a proper runway - I think was 356,000kgs). The weather was warm, sunny and with no wind. Runway in use 08. There was a handful of airport workers gathered on the east apron to watch the take off, many standing on top of various sets of steps. The take off run was, unsurprisingly, pretty laborious. Looking towards the east end of the runway, a clump of trees used to block the view quite close to the runway end. The aircraft disappeared behind said trees with its nose still firmly on the ground. When it reappeared the other side of the trees its nose was, well, just about off the ground with the rest of the aircraft following. I don't think the airport ops guy I spoke to afterwards was exaggerating when he said rotation was in the turning circle.

The next day, the aircraft did the same trip, took 68000kgs of fuel, had 10kts of wind down the runway and soared into the sky with around 1000ft of runway to spare, much to the disappointment of the (several hundred) airport staff who had gathered to watch it, having heard about the previous days take-off being "interesting".

[LTNman]

Just had another look at the BA 747 posted by vintage ATCO (post 635) on the last page. Is there really two people standing on the edge of the taxiway in a somewhat dangerous position from potential jet blast

[cj241101]

jet blast

Looks like the driver and headset man from the Reed tug behind them. This was 1992 - health and safety hadn't been invented yet (nor had hi-viz jackets).

[WHBM]

Originally Posted by PAXboy

As I recall, th experiments with rear facing seats were the first couple of rows. I was on a Trident (don't know which version) from LHR~HAM in the mid-70s and was asked to fill out a questionnaire on the read facing seats. They were fine and, as we know, much safer. Naturally, humans like to face forward and, naturally, PR departments don't like to talk about prangs - so we don't have rear facing seats.

An urban legend. Boeing did a very detailed study of this back in the 1970s which concluded that forward-facing seats gave somewhat more safety in a hard deceleration. Principal reason is all the flying debris that throws forwards in such an event, baggage, detached panels, catering carts and their contents, etc, even passengers, which conventional seating gives significant protection from, whereas with rear-facing someone is much more likely to get it all smack in the face. These injuries outweighed any from being thrown against the seat immediately ahead.

I wonder if the RAF rearward-facing mob have an equally researched analysis, rather than some Group Captain thought it looked like a good idea.

[LTNman]

All these photos were taken by cj241101









Its got to be a few years now since a 747 graced Luton's runway. I wonder if they will ever return?

[vintage ATCO]

Nice pics. When we parked the BA B747 on the south apron we didn't realise at the time that the top of the tail penetrated the 1:7 Transistional Surface (if you want to know more read CAP168 ). This why the Cargolux is parked at an angle nose out. The aircraft brought over 100 polo ponies in from Buenos Aries, a gift from the Sultanate of Brunei to Her Majesty.

There were moves afoot to park the aircraft on the cargo apron but twy Delta at the time was only 19m wide. I did my 'do you think that's wise, Capt Mainwaring?'. It was then thought that it could be towed there (for the PR) but the Reed tug driver took one look at it and said 'Golly gosh, I am not doing that' (or words to that effect). Commonsense prevailed in the end.

cj241101 - I have PM'ed you. Do you mind if I post some of your excellent B747 pics to a FB closed group 'Luton Classic Movements'. Some of us air traffic pensioners inhabit there.

[SpringHeeledJack]

Might I ask, respectfully, as to why any 747's would want to land/be diverted to LTN when STN is just close by, has ample parking and a long runway ? Luton, a fine airport otherwise, is restricted by runway length and taxiway restractions, not to mention parking.

Didn't El Al fly B777's into LTN in the last while, or am I mistaken ?



SHJ

[LTNman]

When we parked the BA B747 on the south apron we didn't realise at the time that the top of the tail penetrated the 1:7 Transistional Surface. This why the Cargolux is parked at an angle nose out.

Now I seem to remember another pair of Corsar 747's parking on the south stands nose in as they stood out like sore thumbs as I headed for the tunnel. Anyone like to confirm or was it just a fantasy?

(Edit) found this parking nose out so maybe this is what I was thinking about but I am sure there was a pair


Origin of photo unknown

Might I ask, respectfully, as to why any 747's would want to land/be diverted to LTN when STN is just close by, has ample parking and a long runway ? Luton, a fine airport otherwise, is restricted by runway length and taxiway restractions, not to mention parking.

I can remember a 747 belonging to Kalatta Air that came to Luton to pick up an engine for Monarch. I have a photo taken from the tower, the photo shows Harrods hangar and the pier so was this the last 747 into Luton? I think the photo was taken by someone here.

I think the Cargolux came to Luton because Luton was approved to handle horses at that time and even had a sort of stables just off the cargo apron.

[Offchocks]

Might I ask, respectfully, as to why any 747's would want to land/be diverted to LTN when STN is just close by

First of all, probably when diverting the weather at STN (and elsewhere) being below limits, don't forget these where older 747s (100-200-300) which were CAT II or at best CAT IIIa. Secondly some needed to be at LTN for commercial reasons.

[oftenflylo]

AND Stansted had a limit on the number of 747 it would accept - so might have been full.

[dc9-32]

LTN was (is) a commercially preferred alternate for BA.

[Simtech]

I seem to recall a Polar Cargo 747 visiting Luton, possibly during the 1990s.

[cj241101]

N857FT 18/2/98, parked south stands

[Simtech]

Thanks for that!

[cj241101]

Corsair 747 etc

This photo was on 17/5/00 at a guess; the other Corsair is visible behind (F-GPJM). Arsenal supporters travelling to Copenhagen for the UEFA cup final if I remember correctly.

Ltnman, thanks for jogging my memory on the Kalitta Air (N705CK) which parked nose-in on the cargo apron on 13/10/05. This was the aircraft I referred to (by e-mail) and thought might have been Atlas Air in 2003 or 2004, so I was looking for the wrong dates and name. Yes, it took an engine to Malaga for Monarch. I was working a night shift and was rather amazed to see this monster, parked on CARGO!, as I got out of the car. Didn't manage a photo as it was dark at the time.

[LTNman]

Luton

Steve Fowell

Air Atlas I took this photo on 21/01/2004.

History N506MC Atlas Air Boeing 747-200 - cn 21252 / ln 297 - Planespotters.net Just Aviation

[cj241101]

more big things..

(17/10/91)




(20/10/96)


believe Luton's only ever A340??


Managed to miss the registration off the photo which was V8-JP1