Caravelle Tail

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Great nostalgic photos mr bear! What's that tail sticking out of the Napier hangar in the last photo ?



SHJ

Might be the Convair 340 that Napier converted to Eland turboprops.

It almost certainly is treadigraph. The Eland Convair wouldn't fit in the hangar and that tail sticking out of the doors was a common sight in the '50s. Very nostalgic shots indeed . Thank you Mr. Bear.

What a great selection of photos and the best I have seen of the Napier Lincoln. The location of the Napier hangar is about to become Signatures new apron (photo here) http://www.pprune.org/airlines-airpo...ml#post8885178

What an interesting period in the airports life. I can't see anyone getting excited in 40 years time when they look back at a lineup of airbuses on Luton's apron.

Oh and Mr Bear, I sent you a pm a few days ago.

I had thought Convair 240/340, but then thought "nah, it's too early" due to the Lancaster sitting in front of it. I was so concentrated on the lovely old bird that I ignored the tail on it's back and that it was after the 1940's :8


SHJ

It was known as a Convair 540 with the turbo props, N340EL, formerly G-ANVP.

via Google:
Became N271L, N517DC, N51FS, N629JM, N629J, N358SA finally crashing at Spokane, Washington 4.1.96.

The regular pilot of the Lincoln was Ken Cartwright. He also use to drive the Link trainer in Luton Flying Club. That was great fun.

I got caught out on that one by describing the Lincoln as a Lancaster.:rolleyes:

Well that's a bit unkind mr luton, my knowledge of older aircraft (50yrs+) is small compared to some I'll admit, but at first glance it looked like a Lanc. So I edumacated myself and found out that :

'The Lincoln was basically a stretched Lancaster with longer wings and uprated engines, therefore improved payload, range, ceiling etc. It became the platform for the Shackleton to be developed from.' taken from here, Lincoln & Lancaster in B&W


SHJ

To be fair, G-APRJ had a Lancaster nose without a front turret. Napiers did the conversion. If you find a pic of a true Lincoln you'll see it is longer with a glass front.

I would still be calling it a Lancaster today if someone here hadn't corrected me, as I had never heard of a Lincoln Bomber.

Here is a proper Lanc at Luton

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...psd476hkmf.jpg

G-APRJ was to be used in the rebuild of the ex Strathallan/Charles Church Lancaster damaged in a hangar collapse at Woodford. I see the Lincoln has now emigrated to Australia, and Kermit Weeks has the Lancaster.

According to AJ Jackson in the Avro Putnam.
PRJ was:
"flown to College of Aeronautics Cranfield 11.62 as G-36-3 as spares for Lancaster PA474."
So she lives on in parts.
For ex LGS boys: I went to my first Farnborough in September 1961, wearing Long trousers especially bought for my first year at that esteemed ( ?) institution and had a good look at Napier's Lincoln in the static park. Her claim to be the oldest static participant (apart from Cody's Tree) was possibly challenged by the yellow and red drone Firefly nearby. The older SE5 ( in silver finish) actually flew as did the E.E. Wren........but I digress.

Am I right in thinking that Napier's Hangar became Autair's Hangar and thus was demolished at the end of last year?

Yes that is correct but you can also add Courtline, and finally Signature. Not sure who else has used it over the years. The hangar had a full set of offices running the full length on ether side. I think they may have been added sometime after the hangar was built but in latter years I can only remember them being empty.

Was Luton the main centre of production for Napier engines?

Napier had a factory in Acton.

Try this link. http://www.actonhistory.co.uk/acton/page10.html

Chiarain.

The approach road just before the tunnel over the years. This road is about to be turned into a duel carriageway.

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...pseljw2acx.jpg

The control tower can just been seen on the left
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...psheuwdxtp.jpg

The trees to the right have just been cut down and marks the final removal of the remains of the wooded valley
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CazAle

Before the Holiday Inn was built. Note the hotel has been pegged out. The trees either side of the road were at the top of the valley so remained but where the Holiday Inn was the valley was quite deep so had to be filled in.
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Close to where the Holiday Inn roundabout is today. On the left of the photo is a fence that surrounded a small patch of land. I can't remember why it was there.
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And if I remember correctly, for reasons unknown, the gate about a third of the way up was occasionally locked closed. Necessitating reversing..!!

Yes just past the allotments. It was the airports "secret" entrance. Even when the gates were open it was never a good idea to meet security as they would turn you around. The country lane used to cross what is now the runway. The other end of the lane is used by spotters south of the runway today.

This is a wonderful thread for those of us who spent a lifetime at Luton.


My purpose for posting though is to say that I am disposing of four large ledgers which are the original Luton Airport Movement Logs covering August 1966 to August 1968. They show landing fees paid and Captains name for each flight.


They are going in to the Bedfordshire County Archive in a few weeks but if anyone would like to see them or to have me look up a query please let me know.

Not just for those who spent a lifetime there but also for the casual, irregular visitor for whom Luton was a "must leave the M1" to or from visits to Heathrow from the North.

Always something of interest and excellent photographybfor decades.

Glad to see the ledgers are going to be preserved but did you conciser the towns museums as they have small display sections on the airport?

The old road in the above photos had a spur from it that lead to the Spittlesea Isolation Hospital. The main hospital building is still there today as offices but in the grounds were further wards. This 1946 photo shows some of those buildings and is located around where roughly the Shell fuel farm is today behind the North West Corner.

I have no idea what the airfield buildings in the foreground were used for, maybe a flying club in 1946 but probably had some wartime use. Note the interesting building on the right with the tall chimney. It also has no windows so what was it for?

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The bend in the road is the same bend by the side of the Gulfstream hangar which is also known as hanger 125. The right hand Tiger Moth in the photo would be located inside this hangar today.
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Another view of this area taken in 1946 can be seen in post 171, which for me is page 9 of this thread.

Note the interesting building on the right with the tall chimney. It also has no windows so what was it for?

It looks like the incinerator for the hospital.

The museum didn't want the movement records but kindly put me in touch with Beds C C archives - more their sort of thing I guess.


As for the building in your photo with the tall chimney, this is inside the airfield boundary and not the hospitals so I would guess a gas decontamination unit.


I moved in to the Spittlesea Hospital in 1970 with the Airport Administration and at that time the old ward buildings still had medicine bottles and lots of small items lying around. The main hospital building was rumoured to be haunted - certainly the workmen doing up the place for us to move in wouldn't work in there on their own!

Now for some reason I think this hangar started its life as a hanger for the then new McAlpine Aviation before they moved across the road. The hangar was removed in May 2012 and the site is now a new apron for Landmark Aviation located by what was the old flying club. For the life of me I can't remember what its hangar number was. Does anyone remember?


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Jeff Bell

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Yes, it was McAlpine in the early 60s. Luton Flying Club used the rear of hangar 9, access being through the gap between hangar 9 and Napier's hangar. The front of hangar 9 was Hunting Percivals flightline.

I am not sure if it was this hangar or McAlpine's 'new' hangar that was dismantled and brought up from Blackbushe.

So in the 60's Luton Flying club used the main apron? After a quick Google that hangar in the above photo was hangar 55. The aircraft in the photo belonged to Luton Aerocentre which I guess was some sort of pilot training school. In 1993 the aircraft got somewhat bent in a landing accident at Lands End

The aircraft in the photo belonged to Luton Aerocentre

Do you know what year the picture was taken? because when I flew the a/c it belonged to Luton Flight Training.

No I don't but Luton Aerocentre were advertising for staff in Flight International in December 1978.

The Flying Club aircraft were only kept in the back of hangar 9 overnight or when not in use. They were operated from the grass in front of the Flying Club building which was immediately east of the control tower.

G-AOGS and G-AOTK circa 1960.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...otkgaogs_2.jpg

v-A,weren`t you Lew`s tea-boy then..?
PPL flight test 15/7/`61 with D Campbell Esq...
Happy days....

Well, I knew Lew and made tea although I was told I was crap at it. Improved with practice. I also knew Dave.

May 1979 which is probably the same date of the other Jeff Bell photo.
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Jeff Bell

I remember booking out HT as an assistant, and I started in September 1979