Thanks chaps, a hopper would make sense, but surely the pellets would have been a FOD danger to aircraft before they replaced them with liquid de-icing products ?



SHJ

Very small pellets, all checked out, RAF used the stuff as well. Better than the grit we used before and that had to be a specific size grit. Remember being out near runway early 70s and quite a racket when reversers went out!!

BIA leased a couple of Rombac 1-11s from Tarom for a couple of seasons.They were crewed by Romanian pilots and British cabin crew-mainly freelances.
(My wife freelanced for them-did mainly charters to Milan and a few other Italian cities)

The urea pellets (made from pig's wee, not the other thing) were wetted with a small amount of Konsin (another anti/de-icing agent but more expensive) as they were spread which caused them to dissolve. Urea was pretty effective but it was discontinued in the end because of the amount of ammonia that was being washed into waste water systems.

1964
 

Might that be a Falcon Hermes -cannot think of other fin colours

Looks like a DC- 6 to me.
Falcon went out of business in 1961

What's the grey (?) largish twin front left of the photo ? It almost looks like the love child of a hangar liaison between Hawker Siddley and CASA :)


SHJ

caribou ---

By golly you're right! In my head they didn't start service until the mid 60's, yet it seems they were out and about from 1961 onwards. This begs the question, why would one have been at Luton ? Perhaps a delivery flight after coming over the Atlantic and before heading off to points East ?


SHJ

Digging deep into the archives I have found the ground shot. 107 DHC-4A KAF-C2 (to Kuwait AF as KAF-C2, K-878, 611): del. 15.7.63 so maybe the aerial photo was taken in 1963 and not 1964?

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...psc3462224.jpg

It's position in the colour photo (great shot btw), almost matches with the Hangar behind and the yellow road making equipment can be seen vaguely behind in the B/W overhead shot.


SHJ

I left Luton just after the 1-11 accident in '63. Certainly there were Caribous being ferried through before that date.

The Kuwaiti Caribou looks like it answers the above question.
Another one passing through at the time is featured here.
Possibly the DHC demonstrator on its way to or from the Paris Air Show ?

With regard to the Douglas DC whotsit in the photograph, I would suggest that it is a little small for a DC6 - but just the right size for a DC4 of Rhodesian Air Services.
If you blow up the photo so to speak you can just make out the 'R' on the fin.
This outfit was run by Jack Malloch and you can find much about his antics by searching the internet. I recall seeing him a couple of times at Luton circa 1966-67 usually bringing in a DC4 of one description or another however this photo is from earlier in that decade.

And presumably that is another Caribou right at the bottom left of the photograph,
with a De Haviland Rapide 'type' also sharing space on the apron

OUAQUKGF Ops

Agreed. It is a Rhodesian Air Services DC-4

Air-Britain : Douglas C-54A Skymaster

A urea hopper. How disappointing. For years I told new co-pilots at was the remains of Luton's failed moon shot attempt.

You should have told them it was this heap of rubbish (Urea heap) that this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uriah_Heep_(band) rock group got it's name :)




SHJ

1968

I wonder why the terminal and road where not built parallel to the apron?

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...ps443f5c83.jpg

The apron was curved anyway and out of shot at the bottom was the 18/36 grass runway, at least the terminal building was parallel to that! I suspect it was the flow of the road system in from the then Airport Approach Road that determined the layout. This was designed by Council engineers!

The Dak is G-APPO outside the McAlpine hangar. The grass was eventually concreted over.

McAlpine still had a single hangar rather than the double hangar it has today. Also it looks like the north west corner (to the right of the hangar) is still under construction. No stands 16-17 either.

The yet to be built second McAlpine hangar but what are the aircraft types seen in the photo?

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...psb185e49d.jpg

A Jetstream, an Aztec, A 707 and a Brittania way in the background, perhaps a Mooney and the two tailed beast behind the fuelling trucks some kind of post WW2 British passenger steed whose name escapes me ?


SHJ

Ahh ! but look closer there are the twin rudders of B-25 N7614C parked behind the fuel trucks. This is now hanging from the American War Museum at Duxford.

That's a B720B in the background......

The two tails, I think, belong to a Scotish Aviation Twin Pioneer.

Darn it! Noyade has me beat (see below). I never even considered that - well done sir!

I hope this is no more than 850 pixels....

http://i58.tinypic.com/5yavcn.jpg

Lovely photo thanks for posting. Arrived Luton 12.7.70 to Dublin 7.7.73. Jeff Hawke machine.

Having enlarged the picture, is that not a Sagiitair Argosy on Stand 17. There is also A PA39 twin Comanche on the same stand as well, which could be GAZBW, which I flew in once as the owner had dealings with my Dad when he worked for Court Line. The owner was in the cold meat business!

And wasn't the Mitchell used as the camera ship for the Battle of Britain film?

There's also a PA-31 Navajo and an HS-125.

Yes it is, very well spotted!

The Mitchell isn't the Battle of Britain "Psychedelic Monster" which returned to the USA, but it was also owned by Jeff Hawke and is now on display at Duxford.

Cessna 310 behind the Jetstream?

I am sure the Cessna 310 behind the Jetstream is G-ASVV private owner previously had Apache G-ASDI

Love threads like this, times when proper aeroplanes abounded! :ok:

Sagittair
 

This is an airline that I almost forgot about. Can't remember seeing it at Luton that often either. This is one of the better photos of one of their Argosy's seen at Tempelhof. Didn't the Argosy have the same engines as the Viscount? I seem to remember that the aircraft used to scream like a Viscount.

Photos: Armstrong Whitworth AW-650 Argosy 102 Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net

Yep, four Darts. The wing was based on the Shackleton I think.

This is the BoB B-25 taken in 1968 (Kodachrome 25 slide scanned)

http://www.pprune.org/<a href=http:/...m/slide011.jpghttp://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...m/slide011.jpg

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...m/slide015.jpg

I had a very small hand in the making of the film, organising the clearances for the He-2111s to fly up the Thames estuary. All done by a phone call, no paperwork! :)