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LUTON History and Nostalgia

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LUTON History and Nostalgia

Old 10th Feb 2018, 14:01
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It's almost certainly Avro Ashton WB494, used by Napier to test the Sapphire engine.
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Old 10th Feb 2018, 14:17
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Dave, Was this the ASSa engine? Only web search doesnt show it on the Ashton ??
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Old 10th Feb 2018, 15:07
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On second thoughts, it can't be the Sapphire FTB WB494 as that was an Ashton 4.

Most likely Ashton 2 WB491, which flew from Luton with the prototype Conway and a Napier test pilot.

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Old 10th Feb 2018, 15:31
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Great Picture Dave !
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Old 13th Feb 2018, 06:38
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A bit fuzzy but worth a look. The airport then and now is unrecognizable from when this photo was taken.

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Old 13th Feb 2018, 07:39
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Monarch's first 720 G-AZFB arrived on 28/11/71 and the first lilac Court Line 1-11 G-AZEB was delivered on 8/12/71. First Britannia 737 in their 2nd scheme I THINK was G-AXNB which I first recorded as such on 26/2/72. Looks like a summers day so 1972-1974, with Court Line folding on 15/8/74. Presumably taken from a floodlight pylon.
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Old 13th Feb 2018, 14:54
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Court line colour scheme was designed by Murdoch and Associates in London.
The idea was to get away from the typical airline idea with a coloured cheat line and advertise the Holiday Airline. It was launced with great Dog and Pony show at the Royal Lancaster House Hotel London ( Of Rhodesia Fame !!).
There were three colours.The Blue aircraft which repesented the sea, The orange aircraft which repesented the beach and the Pink aircraft which represented the sunset. Each aircraft had 3 shades from dark to light !!.
When BAC were shown the drawings they said "You must be joking " !! However one has to admit it had the deired publicity effect !!

Last edited by GotTheTshirt; 13th Feb 2018 at 14:56. Reason: Typo
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Old 13th Feb 2018, 15:25
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As a young apprentice at Hurn when the Courtline aircraft were being built, I found the colours, lit by sunlight through the hangar roof, a bit painful when coming into work with a hangover.
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Old 13th Feb 2018, 18:51
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When did the last Monarch Britannia go - I didn't realise they were still there in the mid 70's?
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Old 14th Feb 2018, 00:02
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Originally Posted by GotTheTshirt
Court line colour scheme was designed by Murdoch and Associates in London.
The idea was to get away from the typical airline idea with a coloured cheat line and advertise the Holiday Airline. It was launced with great Dog and Pony show at the Royal Lancaster House Hotel London ( Of Rhodesia Fame !!).
There were three colours.The Blue aircraft which repesented the sea, The orange aircraft which repesented the beach and the Pink aircraft which represented the sunset. Each aircraft had 3 shades from dark to light !!.
When BAC were shown the drawings they said "You must be joking " !! However one has to admit it had the deired publicity effect !!
Surely there were four colours as evident from the above photo.

Blue
Orange
Pink

And the Lilac as seen!

I did a pleasure flight on a BIA Herald from Southampton in 1974 shortly after the collapse of Court Line and part of the trip included a low fly past along the runway at Hurn with a great view of the recently parked up BAC 1-11's over at the former British Aerospace facility.

I remember at the time feeling quite sad as I had only seen Court Line once before on my first visit to LTN in 1973 and as a young lad I instantly fell in love with the colourful liveries and to be honest I still am it's just a real shame that the airline went bust as it did and it makes you wonder what would have been if it had succeeded to this day.
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Old 14th Feb 2018, 03:18
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I'm sure there was a minty green scheme too. I think it was G-AXMG I saw wearing it.
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Old 14th Feb 2018, 03:58
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IIRC The first 7 Court 1-11s were 3 Pink, 2 Green and 2 Orange/Yellow.
The other colours came later.
I believe the cabin crew had uniforms to match the seat colours, but this was a problem when A/C rosters were changed.
Also the interiors became a bit odd when seats or covers were changed and the right colour spare was not available.
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Old 14th Feb 2018, 06:07
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Originally Posted by LynxDriver
I'm sure there was a minty green scheme too. I think it was G-AXMG I saw wearing it.
Your correct I had forgotten about the green colour scheme, I wonder if a photo exists out there showing a line up of five Court Line 1-11's in their respective colour schemes now that would be something especially if the Tristars were included :-)
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Old 14th Feb 2018, 08:14
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As I mentioned the colours were representitive and the three 3 basic colours were Red (Sky) Blue (Sea) and Orange (Sand). They were shaded from dark to light to represent setting sun shades hence the various descriptions of Pink Green and Yellow. The Lilac was an oddball much later that was not part of the original set. Of course the two Triastars followed the same scheme
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Old 14th Feb 2018, 08:28
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Originally Posted by canberra97
Your correct I had forgotten about the green colour scheme, I wonder if a photo exists out there showing a line up of five Court Line 1-11's in their respective colour schemes now that would be something especially if the Tristars were included :-)

the green was known as turquoise

other colours as mentioned
pink and yellow

and lilac that came later on on the 1-11's ZEB/C and BCCV - i think that was the best one
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Old 14th Feb 2018, 11:19
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Originally Posted by ZeBedie
When did the last Monarch Britannia go - I didn't realise they were still there in the mid 70's?
G-ANCF was the last Monarch Britannia to be retired, getting sold to African Safari as 5Y-AZP and cancelled from the UK register on 20/1/76. G-AOVT which is the one at Duxford was retired in March 1975.
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Old 14th Feb 2018, 11:25
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Originally Posted by canberra97
Your correct I had forgotten about the green colour scheme, I wonder if a photo exists out there showing a line up of five Court Line 1-11's in their respective colour schemes now that would be something especially if the Tristars were included :-)
It really would be something as there never was a blue scheme. The original publicity back in 1969 quoted "pastel shades of pink, yellow and blue" as the planned colours. The "blue" evolved into "turquoise" (i.e. green). Lilac appeared late 1971. Other schemes were worn by the aircraft Court Line leased from Austral (1971) and British Midland (1972/3); the former featuring a two tone pink line beneath the windows, and the latter the same but in two tone green.
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Old 14th Feb 2018, 11:52
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Originally Posted by GotTheTshirt
As I mentioned the colours were representitive and the three 3 basic colours were Red (Sky) Blue (Sea) and Orange (Sand). They were shaded from dark to light to represent setting sun shades hence the various descriptions of Pink Green and Yellow. The Lilac was an oddball much later that was not part of the original set. Of course the two Triastars followed the same scheme
There wasn't a blue colour scheme. G-AXLN which was leased for a short time-carried a hybrid bluey colour as it had previously been with British Midland-which had a predominantly blue scheme.

The standard
colours were Green/Pink/Yellow and Lilac.
Unless you were colour blind-the Green (turquoise?)-could never be seen or considered as a blue colour?
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Old 14th Feb 2018, 12:05
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Originally Posted by dixi188
IIRC The first 7 Court 1-11s were 3 Pink, 2 Green and 2 Orange/Yellow.
The other colours came later.
I believe the cabin crew had uniforms to match the seat colours, but this was a problem when A/C rosters were changed.
Also the interiors became a bit odd when seats or covers were changed and the right colour spare was not available.
Totally wrong about the uniforms Im afraid. Uniform colours were Green/Pink and yellow and each cabin crew member kept the same colour (and didn't have a wardrobe ) of multi coloured uniforms. Likewise rosters were not matched to individual coloured aircraft. You could have an all green uniformed crew on a pink aircraft for instance-or a random mix of colours.

The first yellow coloured uniforms were a much lighter -definite yellow-but they changed later to a more definite orange. All ground girls were green.

PS Im a former Court line ops and crewing person-married to a Court Line Yellow/Orange hostie! !!)
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Old 14th Feb 2018, 12:59
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As I mentioned the idea behind the scheme was the change from the Autair colours as a standard airline scheme to the Court Line holiday airline scheme.
I mentioned the base colours and what they represented. Each aircraft had THREE shades of the base colours so depending on how you look at it you would see different colours. There was no lilac in the original scheme and that came later.I was the Autair/Court airline rep at BAC for the 1-11 deliveries and was at the Dog and Pony show. I was also reponsible for the liason between Murdoch and BAC. He arrived at Hurn in a full length fur coat and a psychedelic painted Mini. BAC raction to all this was worthy of a TV show. BAC were very staid. As anyone who worked there in those days will remember they had a canteen - for workers, a dining room - for salaried staff and a Restaurant for managers ( and reps !!)
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