Another West Coaster with fond memories of Western, PSA (loved those smiling faces pained on the noses of the planes), World Airways and, of course, Pan Am. Oh and anyone remember the SFO helicopter? My family and I used to park our car in Oakland and then take that helicopter (what did it hold - like 8 people?) to SFO frequently.

My fondest memory is being about 13 or 14 and out of school for summer. My friends and I would try to plot how we could get places throughout the Bay Area to find some fun. I'd call Western and PSA pretty much daily to check on fares and possible schedules from OAK to SJC and OAK to SFO. They phone line people thought I was nuts, but they always helped.

Pan AM, first class to the islands in the late 1960's! Still have a menu -- ummm!

Then connected to 'Outisland Airways' -- small props where the engine was literally held togeather with bailing wire! Once we were thrilled to get a 'big' plane, that looked in great condition -- but it had problems and they switched us to one of the little ones, and the band on it's way had to sit on their instruments in the front of the plane.

About 10 years ago we flew Pan-Am to TLV and got triple miles for a promo they were running. A few months later DL bought out the routes and the miles all went to DL http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I once wrote up a list entitled "Defunct Airlines I Have Flown". I'm afraid it's sitting on the hard drive of one of the "Defunct Computers I Have Used", but I included totally defunct airlines like Braniff (the original), Eastern, Florida Express, Air Florida, Northeastern, Muse Air, etc. and in a separate category those that merged/were bought out in some fashion like Ozark, PeopleExpress, Alleghaney, Piedmont, Pan Am (the original), Frontier (the original, bought by PeopleExpress...), North Central, Southern, Air Cal, Northeast, National (the original), Western, etc. and coming soon TWA. I didn't try to include commuter carriers flying under someone else's logo (e.g. USAirways Express, etc.).

I remember Air Cal in the late 60's flying from Orange County to San Francisco. Sometimes the fog was so bad that we were bussed to Ontario to fly to SF.

Oh yes, People's was fantastic for the starving student.
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I'll start. I remember flying on Air Florida between DCA and MIA about 6 months before their terrible tragedy.
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I've memories from the opposite side of this. My dad was working downtown in DC at USDA when this happened. It was snowing terribly and he was VERY late for dinner and nowhere to be found or heard from. Of course the media was not helping with this one bit and refusing to rule out whether or not any cars had been hit and taken off into the Potomac and were just milking it for all they could.

LSS: Dad walks in the house @ around 22:30, well over 5 hours late, but home nonetheless,himself and car intact.

Answering a question posed earlier in this thread by 0524, you might be thinking of Highland Express. They were a one-747 airline that launched a JFK-GLA service in the late 1980s. Lasted less than six months.

Alternatively there was British Caledonian, a really lovely airline that competed with BA using Gatwick as a hub and adopted Scottish tartans as a brand motif. I believe they flew JFK-MAN for awhile, but I'm not sure. BA ate BCal in July 1987.

[This message has been edited by BearX220 (edited 08-19-2001).]

Flew on Dan Dares last Comet 4 back in England; what a great machine - used to sit on its bum and shoot straight up (ok, i exaggerate just a bit).

Also remember the the BA Viscounts to and from the Isle of Man and Cardiff with continuing service to Leeds/Bradford and Newcastle.

You gotta love the old prop planes - at least you can see when one of the engines stops!

January 1, 1960:

My 32 year old mother takes me (8 years old, my 5 year old brother, my 1.5 year old sister, and my 6-month old sister on an Eastern Airlines Lockheed Electra evening flight from Newark, NY to Miami, FL. We were leaving New Jersey and moving to Florida for good. My father would follow the following week by car. I don't know how mom did it with the four of us. Maybe she took advantage of the "drink service" and I was not aware of it then. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I do distinctly remember the hot glowing exhaust coming out of the engines and thinking that the plane was on fire.

Back in January of 1973, Punki and I flew on Texas Airlines from Houston to Denver and they served one of the best charbroiled steaks that I ever had. I think that they were flying 727s. I think that I still have a Pacific Northern Airlines flight bag from a flight back from Alaska in 1959. The flight originated in Kodiak with a DC3 or 4 with jump seats at every row in the aisle, so no trips to the john! When we landed in Homer on our way to Anchorage, I noticed that the runway was military issue stamped metal. The super connies were one beautiful plane, but preferred the shorter length flights on the 720s. Oh! the good old days!

I still have the picture of me on the stairs of a PSA flight going to SFO to visit my aunt unaccompanied - I'm maybe 8 or 9 years old, dressed in my sunday best with shiny mary jane shoes and a red beret and white gloves and I'm SO happy to be flying... and I got wings from the stewardess as well!

I do really miss the smiley faces on the PSA planes - nothing else has ever had that much character.

My late mother used to tell me great stories about Pan Am's service to HNL - where you had actual bunks so you could sleep like you were in a train. They used to go every summer in the 50's. (don't even get me started on her defunct cruise ship stories from the days when cruises were glamourous!)

I remember BI, Braniff International, with their 10 different colors of fuselage in the 70s. My favorite is the orange-colored 747, the Great Pumpkin.

There was also PSA, Pacific Southwest, on the west coast. All their planes showed a "big grin".

Hughes AirWest always reminded me of a banana with the whole fuselage painted in bright yellow.

The one I miss the most was a classic airline in the Far East, Civil Air Transport (CAT), in the 50 - 60s. A dragon was painted near the nose of their aircraft. The bulkhead that divided the first and economy classes in the CV-880 jet had an arched opening, like a Chinese doorway.

I haven't thought about Simmons Air in years, but now that you bring it up... It was early '82, and their gate at DTW had a hand-lettered posterboard sign stuck to the window to identify the airline. I was great with child at the time, and before boarding, they whipped out a K-mart bathroom scale for me to step on to assign a seat for weight distribution.

Back in the 80's there was MGM Grand between LAX and JFK, ultra first class. A couple of times I managed to get on board using FIM's from AA - I should been in sales!

In any case it was 727 configured for something liie 40 passengers. Stand up bar, gold faucets in the toilet, incredible food, captains chairs that swiveled 360 and everyone aboard (except me) was someone you recognized. They all pull up in their limos and I arrived via National Shuttle bus (had to tell the driver how to get to the Imperial Terminal on the far side of LAX by the freighters!

What wonderful stories and memories ...

My best memory of a defunct airline doesn't involve flying. I was in my first job out of college with a software consulting firm. We sold an airport passenger behavior simulation study to Northeast. The purchase order had been fully approved orally and had all but the last signature. The final approver was out of town on business but assured us he'd sign on his return. In between, a disastrous earnings report came out and everything, including our study, was cancelled. In fact, most of the passenger service department, including the person we were dealing with, got laid off.

I got a Northeast "yellowbird" pin out of it, though. Delta bought Northeast soon after this all happened. Many of DL's Boston-based flight attendants had come over in the process. Whenever I wore that pin on a DL flight to or from BOS for years afterward, an FA was sure to recognize it and treat me like royalty!

BTW, there's a great airline memorabilia shop at O'Hare. Take the tunnel to the Hilton. Directly opposite where you turn left to the hotel, the shop is on your right. It has stuff like genuine Eastern Airlines golf shirts and a bazillion different kinds of pins. I don't have my yellowbird pin any more - it fell off in Atlanta when a shoulder strap rubbed against it, and I didn't notice until later - but if I were at all likely to encounter someone who would recognize it at this late date, which I'm especially not as I don't fly DL much any more, I'm sure they'd have one.