Think this was the only Cargolux 747 to visit, in which case LX-ACV on 30/4/97, CLX751 from Rio de Janeiro with horses.

Polo ponies as a gift from the Sultanate Of Brunei to her Majesty the Queen! I went on board before they started off loading.

The pilot was the Chief Pilot of Cargolux, another crew were on hand to take it empty to Luxembourg.

It must have stunk to high heaven after its long flight!:yuk:

I'm use to horses :)

There was a plan to put the B747 on the cargo apron but as soon as I heard that I vetoed it, twy Delta in those days was only 19m wide. Then there was a suggestion it could be towed but the Reed tug driver said 'Golly gosh, I am not doing that'; well, it was something along those lines . . . := :)

I had forgotten about the narrow taxiway. Seem to remember it was put in for London Aviation although I have no idea who footed the bill. I thought it was then widened when the cargo apron was built. That taxiway going in must have been when the grass runway was closed.

The airport used to have some sort of horse reception building by the cargo apron. Only one in the country I seem to remember.

I've suddenly become unavailable to view photos on this thread. The photos simply now say "Please update your account to enable 3rd party hosting".

What account ?

It's your account with "photobucket" which, like me, you probably have not got. The trouble with remotely hosted photos is that when the remote host changes its rules everything goes wrong.

I have a Plus50 account with Photobucket.

What!! $399.99 for a Plus500 account. Who on earth is going to pay that!!

What a pain, that message is for me!!! No warning no nothing. I have switched to tiny pics but the issue is that the vast majority of achieve photos here is now lost.

The photo on the top of the page has been switched to tiny pics to restore it.

Well, I'm not paying that lump sum just to view photos on here. Utter scam and rip off.

Does anyone remember: Richmond Precision Engineering Ltd, on Airport Approach Road? Nothing important, just that I have stumbled across their letterhead from 1985 in the course of some research. They had also bought Hudson-Wharton of Elstree who were mechanical engineers.

More about Photobucket's ransom demands here...

Amazon and eBay images broken by Photobucket's 'ransom demand' - BBC News

Some good old shots of Luton comming on at 2pm on talking pictures film vendetta for the Saint

It is such a shame that many of the photos here are now gone.

Prototype Percival Prince G-ALCM taken in 1946
http://i66.tinypic.com/2pqufdd.jpg
Luton News

I think the date in the above post has a typo in it and would suggest 1948 for the Prince. Even the Merganser was first flown in 1947.
It is nevertheless a very evocative shot for those of us who grew up in Luton when it had an aircraft (and aero engine ) manufacturing industry. Thank you LTNMan

The Merganser first flew at Luton on 9th May 1947.

The Prince first flew at Luton on 13th May 1948.

Chiarain.

Looks like some event was taking place by the crowd of people by the the Prince and the fact the newspaper was there.

1955 Iraqi Provosts

http://i65.tinypic.com/24mf6no.jpg

I posted that pic on 15 Feb 2016 ;) :)

Here's what I said:
Four of the 15 Percival Provosts for the (then) Royal Iraqi Air Force. Nearest airframe is '374' Provost T.53 c/n PAC/F/355. FF Luton 1955. Del to Iraq via Bovingdon 17.5.55.

The Bristol 170 is one of four operated in Iraq and the one in the pic is likely '330' delivered in 1953. All four served until around 1969.

Credit: BAE Systems Heritage Centre Warton-Percival/Hunting Photo Archive