Originally Posted by
jlemon
Delta B747-132 aircraft could be seen at London Heathrow back around 1973-1974. There are eight photos of DL 747s at LHR on airliners.net from that time. I believe this was part of an interchange agreement Delta had back then with Pan Am in order to provide one stop thru plane service between Atlanta and London.....
The "interchange" flight, London to Washington on a Pan Am licence, continuing as Washington to Atlanta and New Orleans as a Delta flight, went through various iterations of aircraft arrangements in the about 10 years 1966-76 that it operated. Firstly it was wholly a Pan Am DC8, then the aircraft used were sold to Delta and it was always one of those. When the 747 came onto the route arrangements changed again and the two carriers operated it in proportion to their mileage, it would be all one for a while, then all the other. As far as I recall Delta aircraft did the summer service and Pan Am the winter. Crews were of the relevant licensed carrier for the sector so always changed over at Washington. In DC8 days the aircraft went right through to New Orleans, but with the 747 it stopped at Atlanta and Delta provided a change-gauge aircraft, sometimes as small as a DC9. Two aircraft were needed for the operation, one couldn't make the round trip within a day.