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Bonus Photo of the Day 2 28th January 2026.

I-GOBZ, Dassault Falcon 20E-5, at Luton Airport, some time in 1999.

#Luton #LTN #EGGW #Dassault #Falcon #FA20 #EuroJetItalia
#AvGeek #aviation #planespotting #photography

Forward view of a twin engined BizJet with the engines mounted on the sides of the rear fuselage, parked facing slightly to the left of the camera.
The plane is white, with a blue and black stripe running along the body, and the black registration "I-GOBZ" on the lower part of the tail.
Green grass in the background stretches out to the skyline, where it meets large fluffs of white cloud with patches of blue poking through.

Photo of the Day 28th January 2026.

[…]

https://mancavgeek.co.uk/2026/01/28/photo-of-the-day-28th-january-2026/

Side view of a black, single engined military jet fighter taxiing from left to right along a grey runway. The plane is basically a large black engine pod with a white belly, with twin black tail booms stretching backwards from the wing root, carrying the small twin tails. The cockpit canopy at the front of the plane is open, slid back along the top of the fuselage, with the bright red helmet of the pilot clearly visible in the gap. The tail booms has white "Royal Navy" titles, just aft of a blue, white, and red roundel. The registration "G-GONE" is on the end of the boom in white, under the tail. Green grass fills the foreground, with a large grey building dominating the frame on the right, and trees on the left in the background, under bright but hazy skies.

The #government has announced up to £43 million for green #aviation research to support jobs, attract private #investment and help the UK reach net zero aviation by 2050. The funding will back projects such as zero-emission aircraft, hydrogen technology, sustainable aviation fuels and research into reducing climate-warming contrails. Competitions will open from February for businesses, universities and researchers across the #UK. The investment comes alongside plans to expand #Heathrow, #Gatwick and #Luton #airports, with ministers meeting industry leaders on decarbonisation and growth. The government says the funding will support skilled jobs, improve air quality and align airport expansion with climate targets. Further measures include new rules for #hydrogen flight, support for fuel tracking overseas, a forthcoming Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill, £63 million for new fuel plants and £2.3 billion for aerospace innovation over the next decade.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/43-million-boost-for-green-aviation-to-drive-growth-jobs-and-cleaner-flights

However, @lutontown.co.uk@bsky.brid.gy did play 31 times in UFCC matches already, did hold the title 6 times and won 12 matches overall. They are ranked 85th in the Alltime champions list. 1st match was in February 1895, last in December 1957 #Luton

Bonus Photo 2 of the Day 7th January 2026.

G-EZYG, Boeing 737-33V, EasyJet, at Luton Airport, some time in the late 1990s.

#Luton #LTN #EGGW #Boeing #B737 #EasyJet
#AvGeek #aviation #planespotting #photography

Side view of a twin engined jet airliner taxiing along a grey taxiway from left to right and slightly away from the camera.
The plane's body is almost entirely white, with a grey nosecone, and the black registration "G-EZYG" on the lower rear fuselage, next to a small British flag.
There are diagonal white "EasyJet" titles on the orange tail, and white EasyJet titles on the orange engine pods under the wings.
Green grass fills most of the foreground, with a blue sign saying "Welcome to" in the bottom right corner.
A low grey building with an orange roof is in the background on the left, under the planes tail, with the large blue tail of a jet airliner in the background on the right, under flat grey sky.

Photo of the Day 7th January 2026.

[…]

https://mancavgeek.co.uk/2026/01/07/photo-of-the-day-7th-january-2026/

Bonus Photo of the Day 12th December 2025.

G-OJEG, Airbus A321-231, Monarch, at Luton Airport, some time in the late 1990s.

#Luton #LTN #EGGW #Airbus #A321 #Monarch
#AvGeek #aviation #planespotting #photography

Side view of a twin engined jet airliner taxiing from right to left along a grey taxiway.
The plane is mostly white, with a bright yellow stripe running along the body, covering the passenger cabin windows, with a black stripe below it, and more white before the grey belly.

There are black "Monarch" titles on the upper forward fuselage, with "A321" text on the upper rear, under the tail.
The white registration "G-OJEG" is on the black stripe on the rear fuselage.
The tail is white, with a black, upper case letter "M" that is cos-playing as a crown.
Grey concrete apron fills the foreground, with grass in the background, under grey-blue sky with extensive fluffs of white.

Carbon Reality Show: via lliure perquè #PedroSánchez (via AENA) ampliï l'aeroport de #Luton (i les emissions!); #Repsol s'alia amb #TotalEnergies ser campions en extracció de petroli i gas al Regne Unit https://tuit.cat/0S6vx #crisiclimàtica @zeroportbcn @xrbarcelona

Carbon Reality Show: via lliure perquè #PedroSánchez (via AENA) ampliï l'aeroport de #Luton (i les emissions!); #Repsol s'alia amb #TotalEnergies ser campions en extracció de petroli i gas al Regne Unit tuit.cat/0S6vx #crisiclimàtica @zeroportbcn.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy @xrglobal.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy

The UK’s ‘worst commuter town’ to undergo £136,000,000 upgrade

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://metro.co.uk/2025/11/20/uks-worst-commuter-town-undergo-136-000-000-upgrade-24749928/

#Transport for #London has released data showing the most common point-to-point journeys across the Underground, National #Rail, the Elizabeth line, London Overground and DLR for 2025, covering travel up to 1 November. The figures highlight the busiest flows across the network, with Bank–Waterloo (LU) the most frequent at just under 1.1 million trips, followed closely by the reverse direction. Other high-volume flows include Liverpool Street–Tottenham Court Road, Oxford Circus–Victoria, and Elizabeth line links such as Tottenham Court Road–Paddington. Major commuter corridors also feature, notably London Bridge–East Croydon, Victoria–East Croydon, and routes serving #Gatwick #Airport and #Luton Airport Parkway. The dataset lists 100 of the most-used station pairs, reflecting strong demand on central interchanges, airport connections and key #commuter routes across London’s rail network.
https://clondoner92.blogspot.com/2025/11/tfl-publishes-most-common-station-to.html

A table titled 'The Most Common Station-to-Station Journeys Across National Rail, the Elizabeth Line, London Overground, the Underground and the DLR in 2025' shows origin-destination journey data from January 2025 to 1st November 2025. The table lists 16 journeys by 'Origin', 'Destination', and 'Trips'. The top journey is Bank to Waterloo LU (Main) with 1,096,951 trips. Other top journeys include Liverpool Street LU to Bank (1,058,629 trips), Not Applicable to Tottenham Court Road (904,617 trips), and Tottenham Court Road to Liverpool Street LU (893,024 trips). The image includes a source (TfL FOI request ID: FOI-2907-2526) and a QR code linking to a longer list.

London Luton Airport - Luton, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Luton_Airport
https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=13/51.874699/-0.368333

#EGGW #LTN #Luton #UnitedKingdom #airport #aviation #avgeeks #GIS

Luton’s collaborative charity solar project

At the leafy edge of Luton you’ll find Keech Hospice, which provides end-of-life care to terminally ill children and adults across the region. On the roof of the building, one of the town’s biggest solar projects is in its final stages. There’s an interesting story behind it, and a model for community solar that is the first of its kind in the UK.

The project came out of a chance meeting, when solar entrepreneur Eddie Doherty was introduced to representatives from Keech at a networking event. On hearing that he worked in renewables, they told him how their energy costs had risen and the pressure that had put on their budgets. Doherty left that day wondering if he could help in some way, and then got in touch. “Not knowing what was ahead of us, we went back to them and said we’ll install something for free for you.”

Doherty’s company, Edtricity, was not in a position to deliver a project of this scale single-handedly. “It would have been an uphill struggle with square wheels if we had tried to do it on our own,” he says, and so it became a collaborative effort. Discussions with a new wholesaler led to a donation of 504 panels from Astronergy, one of the world’s largest PV manufacturers. Another major player, Clenergy, donated the mounting systems.

Alongside these national and international suppliers, local networks would be vital to the install itself. Word spread through Luton’s community of Irish owned construction companies, who opened their contact books and widened the circle of partners. Companies offered scaffolding for free, one provided a fork-lift hoist for the duration of the install. Various companies lent their staff to run the electrics through the site, while other electricians came in on the weekend to help.

504 panels is a big installation, and this has been done collaboratively too. Local solar firms have sent teams to the hospice free of charge, or when there’s a gap between jobs. Last week installers from three different firms were on the roof. As Doherty points out, these companies would normally be competitors, and that’s what makes the project unique. “We’ve got some of the UK’s biggest suppliers, wholesalers, and they’re all working together. It’s a unity between giants of the sector that would normally be – not at loggerheads exactly, but certainly in healthy competition. They’ve put that aside, and what better way to come together than for Keech?”

The installation will finish this month, and it will make a significant difference to the charity. They will save fifty to sixty thousand pounds a year over the lifetime of the panels, without having to pay anything themselves for the install. As I’ve written about before recently, solar is a gift that will keep on giving.

Sometimes charitable projects like this one are crowdfunded. This one is different. As it started out of a business context, they chose not to take donations. “All we wanted was people, time, skills and products,” says Doherty. That makes it a collaborative effort from the business sector, and potentially a model that could be replicated. Although it was a huge amount of work, “more people could be doing it, if they have the opportunity and the platform. We should be doing it. Hopefully it leads on to other solar projects being done this way.”

You can follow progress on the Keech Solar Legacy Project on Facebook.
This story is also covered in the latest issue of my Zero Carbon Luton newsletter

#feature #Luton #solar

Bonus Photo of the Day 12th November 2025.

F-GCSL, Boeing 737-222, Air Mediterranee, at Luton Airport, some time after March 1999.

#Luton #LTN #EGGW #Boeing #B737 #AirMediterranee
#AvGeek #aviation #planespotting #photography

Side view of a twin engined jet airliner taxiing from right to left.
The plane is mostly white, with black "Air Mediterranee" titles on the upper fuselage over the wings, and the black registration "F-GCSL" on the upper rear fuselage.
The tail is a pale blue, with a white oval with a stylised black flying bird overlaid with a red chevron pointing upwards, and black "Air Mediterranee" text at the bottom.
Grey concrete apron fills the foreground, with grass in the background meeting cloudy white sky with patches of blue threatening to break through.

Dick Whittington and his Wonderful Cat. The Library Theatre. #tickets #luton #uktheatre #panto https://www.uktw.co.uk/L02135895271/

This is *not* a "harmless nerd" with just an interest in science (and who decided to cosplay as Harry Potter for his Court date!) - its worrying it seems his involvement in racist chat *and* use of hard drugs (which can cause impulsive and irrational behaviour) was overlooked, he seemed to be concentrating on #explosives and #IEDs rather than wider science experiments. #Autism isn't an excuse for this sort of behaviour either!

At least he's in #jail for the moment and hopefully will stay there for a while (its possible the authorities could have thwarted a worse attack on #Luton which is a very multicultural area..)

https://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2025-10-27/science-nerd-guilty-of-making-explosives-in-mums-garden

- Engage Poor Little White Boy Narrative
- Blame Autism
-Downplay racist chat and plans for a local mosque ("Definitely not Terrorism, just a Science Nerd")

https://news.sky.com/story/harry-whittaker-self-styled-science-nerd-convicted-after-homemade-explosives-found-in-garden-shed-13458868

#HarryWhittaker #Whiteness #UKPOL #UKPOLITICS #Luton #terrorism

The government has launched a fast-tracked review of the Airports National Policy Statement (ANPS), aiming to enable a third runway at Heathrow. This process will be three years faster than the 2018 version, with a draft expected by summer 2026. The review will assess proposals against four key tests: climate change, air quality, noise, and economic growth. Two potential schemes remain under consideration from #Heathrow #Airport Ltd and the Arora Group. A final choice will be announced by November. Expansion will be privately funded and may be designated as critical national infrastructure. This move follows approvals at #Gatwick and #Luton, part of a broader plan to grow the economy and improve connectivity. Additional reforms will speed up planning approvals and support greener aviation, including sustainable fuel production and airspace modernisation. Ministers and business leaders say the project will create jobs and boost trade across the #UK.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/plans-for-heathrow-expansion-accelerate-as-transport-secretary-unveils-next-steps

British #CarAccessories company #Carnoisseur from #Dunstable #Luton #England, established 1979, uploaded its sales catalogues from 1982 to 2013 to the #InternetArchive - a snapshot of #motoring #history in the #UK

NB: some catalogues contain imagery considered sexist nowadays - British society became less prudish over the years, but not in the most inclusive way (not as if objectifying women was necessary to sell alloy wheels, but this did alas become part of #CarCulture especially in 90s and 00s)

The company still exists today, but in a more downsized form (insurers are more ruthless about loading premiums for modified cars or refusing cover altogether, making this a less popular hobby

#cars #WeirdCarMastodon

https://archive.org/details/@carnoisseur

Luton secures £13m funding to improve health and wellbeing services until 2030

Luton has received over £13 million in funding from Luton Rising, the company owned by Luton Borough Council that manages London Luton Airport, to continue supporting health and wellbeing initiatives. This investment has been allocated to Active Luton, an organization focused on leisure and library ... [More info]

#Luton

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