Seat 2A

Right on!

jlemon

Here are some more questions. Once again, they concern scheduled passenger operations:

1) What airline was the only operator in North America to fly the Vickers Vanguard four engine turboprop (the "big brother" of the Viscount)?

2) What airline operated direct one stop service between Cleveland and Hilo, Hawaii?

3) What airline operated direct one stop service between New York JFK and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico with a B707? (Hint: this carrier was not a U.S. or Mexican based airline).

4) What airline operated nonstop service between New Orleans and San Juan, Puerto Rico?

5) The engineering departments of three airlines based in North America converted their DC-8 Super 60 series aircraft to the Super 70 series designation in house. Which three airlines did this?

6) What airline operated the B737-200 into Lawton, Oklahoma?

7) What airline operated the B727-200 into Lawton, Oklahoma? (Hint: not the same airline as question #6)

8) What airline operated the B727-200 into Beaumont/Port Arthur, Texas? (Hint: not the same airline as question #7)

9) What California commuter airline operated the original version of the Handley-Page "Jetstream" turboprop?

10) What airline operated the stretched BAC One-Eleven 500 series in the Caribbean?

11) What airline named one of their BAC One-Eleven aircraft "Little Precious"?

12) Why did Air Canada employees nickname one of the airlines B767-200 aircraft the "Gimli Glider"?

13) What airline operated the L-1011 between Toronto, Canada and Buffalo, New York?

14) What airline mistakenly landed a B737-200 at Buffalo, Wyoming? (BTW, not a real big airport here as the current population of this town is around 4800 people)

15) What U.S. city had three (3) very short "cross town" airline routes over the years that depending on the specific airports served were flown with a variety of aircraft including the DHC-6 "Twin Otter", the DC-9 and the B737-300?

tonywestsider

I will start off with the first two just to get some interest here:


1) What airline was the only operator in North America to fly the Vickers Vanguard four engine turboprop (the "big brother" of the Viscount)?

TCA (Trans Canada Airlines, predecessor to Air Canada)


Guessing on this one:
2) What airline operated direct one stop service between Cleveland and Hilo, Hawaii?

United

Seat 2A

Okay, I'll try 3 and 4:

3) What airline operated direct one stop service between New York JFK and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico with a B707? (Hint: this carrier was not a U.S. or Mexican based airline). Air France Sadly I wasn't old enough to take advantage of those flights which I believe stopped in Guadalajara, but I did manage a flight on Air France's 747 nonstop between Houston and Mexico City in 1980. In First Class, no less.

4) What airline operated nonstop service between New Orleans and San Juan, Puerto Rico? Delta At least, I'm pretty sure it was. I think it was a through flight from LAX, routing LAX-MSY-SJU. I think...

jlemon

Correct on both counts!

I remember seeing the Vanguard at Toronto painted in Air Canada colors.

United operated a DC-8 on a routing of CLE-SFO-ITO.

jlemon

Correct on both counts as well!

This Air France flight originated in Paris as did the Mexico City service you mentioned above. And with regard to the IAH-MEX service on AF, contrast this with recent CO Express IAH-MEX service flown with an ERJ-145. The AF 747 service in the front cabin was the way to travel!

I believe the routing of the Delta flight was SFO-LAX-MSY-SJU (I'll check my old OAG when I get home). Equipment was a stretched DC-8 Super 60 series (D8S).

jlemon

United and Delta.

Seat 2A

5) The engineering departments of three airlines based in North America converted their DC-8 Super 60 series aircraft to the Super 70 series designation in house. Which three airlines did this?

Purely a guess, but on the assumption that it would take fairly well established and financed facilities to do this, United, Delta and Air Canada would be my first choices.

6) What airline operated the B737-200 into Lawton, Oklahoma?

Frontier comes to mind...

jlemon

Once again, you are correct on both counts, sir!

The major part of the conversion of the Super DC-8 to the series 70 designation involved re-engining the airplane although other changes were made as well. I believe the new engines were GE/SNECMA CFM56-2 high bypass turbofans. And the result was an aircraft that not only had much improved range but was also significantly quieter. Many of the DC-8 Super 70 series went on to fly freight after being retired from passenger service (UPS is an example). However, it appears that many of these great old birds are now parked in the desert these days.....

Seat 2A

14) What airline mistakenly landed a B737-200 at Buffalo, Wyoming? (BTW, not a real big airport here as the current population of this town is around 4800 people)

I remember this one well because I grew up in Colorado, worked for the original Frontier Airlines and have also flown WA 53, the DEN-CYS-CPR-SHR-BIL flight that mistakenly landed in Buffalo, Wyoming. (I wasn't on the flight at that time, however!) The town of Buffalo used to celebrate the event with "Lowell Fergeson Day" in honor of the Western captain who was in command of that flight. I seem to recall that they had to really strip that airplane out just to get it out of Buffalo, because taking off out of there with a 737 was alot more difficult than landing there with one.

jlemon

Correct once again.....and I seem to recall that the town staged an annual parade in honor of the WA Captain and that he actually took part in the festivities! I also remember seeing a photo of the 737 at the end of the runway in Buffalo where it came to rest. I believe the main gear had sunk into the pavement due to the weight of the airplane.

I will also take this opportunity to answer the questions concerning B727-200 operations into Lawton, Oklahoma and Beaumont/Port Arthur, Texas:

The first airline was Continental with a fairly unique routing: MAF-LBB-SPS-LAW-OKC-TUL. The airplane would then retrace the routing heading back the other way. This route was unique in that it did not feed a hub operation. Instead, it was a classic short haul multiple point-to-point route that I think had more in common with bus service!

The second airline was Delta. Routing was BPT-SHV-ATL. I believe Delta also flew a DC-9 series 30 into BPT at one point with a routing of IAH-BPT-SHV-ATL. And way back in the day before the 72S and D9S were around, DL flew a Convair 440 into BPT.

Seat 2A

12) Why did Air Canada employees nickname one of the airlines B767-200 aircraft the "Gimli Glider"?

Didn't the engines fail or run out of gas? And the airplane basically glided in for a landing? Don't know about Gimli. Is that where it landed?

13) What airline operated the L-1011 between Toronto, Canada and Buffalo, New York?

When I was a kid in the early days of widebodied jetliners, I used to go through the OAG page by page and write down the routes of every single wide bodied jet in the US. (I had it bad...) Many of them flew on routes flown only by regional jets today. For example, both United and Northwest scheduled 747 flights on the PDX-SEA route. American operated twice daily DC-10s between LGA and BUF. And, between ATL, BUF and YYZ, Eastern flew its L-1011.

Wally Bird

The engines flamed out because the fuel had been loaded in litres but entered into the FMS as pounds (or vice-versa - I forget). Fortunately Gimli, Manitoba was withing gliding distance and still had a serviceable partial runway. The Captain was an experienced glider pilot.

The plane is now in long-term storage at Mojave, Ca.

jlemon

You are both correct, of course. I also believe the airport at Gimli, Manitoba was a former military airfield. In addition, I seem to recall from an old AW&ST article concerning the incident that the runway was being used for an auto road race on the day the B767 glided in for an otherwise uneventful landing. Fortunately, the cars and the spectators got out of the way when the descending aircraft was spotted.

jlemon

Well, the landing of the Gimli Glider was not so uneventful after all....

I did a bit of research and discovered that several tires blew on landing, the nose gear failed resulting in the nose of the aircraft contacting the runway during the roll out, the aircraft hit a guardrail, there was a small fire in the nose section and several passengers were apparently injured during the evacuation of the B767-200.

Still, everyone lived to tell the tale concerning this harrowing event. And the passengers must have had quite an interesting story to tell!