Toshbaf

32. I’ve been able to find only one airline in the world that in 1973 operated three different types of four engine narrow bodied jetliners (I’m not including variants such as a 727-100 vs a 727-200. We’re looking at only the base models) at the same time. Each aircraft type is manufactured by a different company. Identify the airline and the three aircraft types. Additionally, if you should think of any other airlines operating 3 or more 4-engine aircraft at the same time, I would be happy to verify it.

Able to find one airline? Maybe there are three?

BEA (British European Airways) (previous answer)

American Airlines
Boeing 707
Boeing 720
Convair 990

Then, again, the 707 and 720 might be considered the same model, just different variants.

WHBM

Varig; 707, DC8, Convair 990.

WHBM

BEA Airtours was just a branding, the operation was wholly on the BEA AOC.

The 707s, and indeed their Comet predecessors, were regularly sent over to Heathrow and operated on BEA services, out of the summer season when there was spare BEA Airtours capacity. This was particularly due to the repeated issues that mainline (which is what the BEA Heathrow operation was known as) had with their Tridents, there would be a switcharound of the fleets organised almost on a daily basis. The 707s tended to be used on routes like Athens and Paris. Being economy class only they caused various upsets with those who had first class (as it was then) tickets. There are several photos on various websites showing the 707s at Heathrow, never served by the Airtours operation.

Once they made the transition to British Airways spare ex-BOAC VC-10s seemed to be the favoured substitutes instead. Those definitely appeared as such in the timetable, I have one (but was after our timeline).

The Trident 3B booster engine was always egarded as just a booster, never counted as an engine. Various other aircraft have had one (or two) boosters over time, they have not been counted as engines either. The booster was extremely unreliable and was often out of use, which did not impact most operations.

Seat 2A

See WHBM's posts above re. BEA and the 707. I was unaware that the 707 - much less the VC10 - had ever flown for BEA marketed flights. Learn something new everyday - especially with WHBM around! ^^

As to American - I can't find evidence to support that they were actually operating the Convair 990 in 1973. I believe they still owned a couple of them, but that they were parked awaiting trade or sale. If you can find evidence that American was actually operating its 990s in revenue service, I'd love to see it!

Seat 2A

Toshbaf

BONUS QUESTION: Name an airline that operated not three but four different types of four engine narrow bodied jetliners - but NOT all at the same time.

Not counting the Trident 3E,

American: BAe 146, 707, 720, Convair 990
MEA: VC10, 707, 720, Comet

There aren't many 4 engine narrow bodies. I can think of these: 707, 720, DC-8, Convair 880, Convair 990, Comet, Concorde, VC-10, BAe 146, IL-62, Tu-144.

Toshbaf

Ethiopean Air Lines
MEA

WHBM

MEA also had quite a fleet of Convair 990s, bought from American, but they only came after the VC-10s were disposed.

British Airways had the 707, Concorde, VC-10 and BAe146.

WHBM

The BEA 707s were a lengthy saga. It all started when they finished with the Comet 4Bs, they still had a substantial value in the accounts, but nobody (and the only real contender was Dan-Air) would offer anything more than scrap value for them. Plus Dan-Air were directly competitive with BEA anyway, and more than nibbling away at their business to Mediterranean points, an aspect that hadn't troubled BOAC when they sold Dan-Air their first Comets. So BEA said "we'll do the holiday flights ourselves then", and set up with eight Comets in 1970, making an immediate success with them. Except that the aircraft only had a couple of years' life left in them, and a D-check was going to be expensive.

BEA lined up eight replacement 707-120Bs - from American Airlines. Well maintained, right size, but this was when the UK government was concerned about foreign exchange going out of the country. Meanwhile BOAC was finding that their Rolls-Royce powered 707-420s, starting to be displaced by the 747, were also only worth residual value compared to what their accounts showed, nobody wanted the RR engines. So they lobbied the government, and an instruction came down from up high to take the ex-BOAC ones instead. Of course, to a civil servant a 707 is a 707. That's what you get with state-owned airlines. BEA Airtours were furious. At a time when these were staid nationalise airlines, the Airtours operation was a real hoop-la for the more commercially astute, under 30, management to spend time in, and all was felt great fun. At BEA HQ they were commonly known as "The Kids" http://www.britishairtours.com/history_2.html

BEA Airtours did surprisingly well from a standing start, and their fleet was fully used 24 x 7 from May to September going from Gatwick (and always one or two outbased at Manchester) to The Med etc, especially the longer runs like Cyprus or The Canaries. But outside this time they had a lot of spare time. Meanwhile BEA regularly had a need for supplementary aircraft in the off-season/winter at Heathrow, where the Trident fleet was a bit short-handed, and more than once all had to rotate back to the manufacturer for major modifications, particularly to the wing structure. So the Airtours fleet, Comets and then 707s, was commonly to be seen over at Heathrow, helping out. The winter of 1978-9 was especially difficult, all the Tridents needed big mods yet again, and besides what Airtours could provide BA took two Britannia 737s and two Transavia 737s on medium-term lease. They didn't change the titles on these, it would be the only time that Britannia ran a sustained operation from Heathrow.

It is notable that BEA did a "last Comet flight" when they were withdrawn from the main fleet, yet two years later they were still using the same Comets from Airtours, on the same flights. The 707s lasted much longer, 10 years, until replaced by a fleet of new 737s which were identical, apart from one word of the titles, to the mainstream BA 737 fleet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britis...rs_707-436.jpg

Seat 2A

Seat 2A

Any more?

Seat 2A

The following quiz items have a time line of the autumn of 1970

1. You’ve had a busy morning making sales calls on the south side of Chicago. While calling your office to arrange for some products to be delivered to a local company, you’re informed that you need to service an account in Indianapolis ASAP, as in today. Hmm… Well O’Hare’s way up on the north side of the city. Any chance there might be any flights out of nearby Midway Airport? A call to your travel agent confirms that there is. Two airlines each operate a single flight per day from Midway down to Indy. Identify the two airlines.

2. Jose loves to play golf. Imagine then his surprise and delight when a business associate who’s a member of Augusta National Golf Club invites him up to Georgia to play a couple rounds on the Masters course. Ay Yi Yi! Por supuesto! From his home in Mexico City, he’s booked a nonstop flight up to Miami connecting to another nonstop flight up to Augusta. Two airlines are involved, but only one aircraft type. Identify both airlines and the aircraft type utilized.

3. An old college friend has invited you to join her and six of your classmates at a mini-reunion on the big island of Hawaii. Can you make it? A quick glance out the window of your Manhattan loft at the wintry gray day makes this an easy decision. From JFK, there is a single two-stop direct flight departing each Saturday morning. A change of gauge is required enroute but First Class is available all the way through. Book it, Danno! Identify the airline, aircrafts involved and the routing (including the aircraft switch point)

4. You’re in Miami and need to head up to Nashville, Tennessee to see your old friend Charlie Pride. You expect to have to make a connection somewhere but are pleased to discover a single daily nonstop flight that departs Miami in the late afternoon. First Class seats are available and dinner will be served enroute. Identify the airline and aircraft you’ll be flying upon.

5. After a week of sailing the Caribbean, it’s time to dock in Antigua and catch a flight home to Miami. Rather amazingly, you’ve got a choice of three morning departures to choose from – each of them operated by a different airline operating a different type of equipment. You decide to go with the only airline that operates the all-economy class configured aircraft. Two stops will be made in route. You know the drill by now. Airline. Equipment. Routing. Good luck, Mon!

6. Of all the days to get a flat tire! Now you’re sitting on I-35, nine miles from Minneapolis International and there’s no way you’re going to make your nonstop flight to Boston. A quick call to your travel agent reveals that the next direct flight to Boston is a two stopper that’ll arrive Boston mid-afternoon. You quickly book a seat. Identify the airline, aircraft and the enroute stops, please.

7. From Boston you’ll continue on to Providence, Rhode Island. It’s not very far and your original plan was to rent a car until you were informed of the exorbitant drop-off fees. Thankfully the one way airfare is just $13.00 and you’ll have a choice of three morning departures – all of them leaving between 6:20 and 7:10am. Each flight is operated by a different airline operating a different aircraft type. Your mission – should you decide to accept it – is to identify each airline and the aircraft it operates down to Providence. Good luck.

8. Some of you may recall that Grand Island, Nebraska was once served by Air Wisconsin out of Chicago using a BAC-111 jet. We even had a question involving that service. However, this was not GRI’s first jet service. Some 15 years earlier its citizens also enjoyed jet service from Chicago – this time with a single daily one-stop jet flight that even offered a First Class cabin with a nice dinner served along the way. Can you identify the airline, the aircraft and the enroute stop?

9. You’ve got quite a busy week ahead of you! From your company’s home base in Churchill Falls, Newfoundland, you’ll be making sales calls in Montreal, Syracuse, Chicago and Kansas City. It’s an ambitious itinerary, but thankfully your travel agent is more than up to the task. You’ve been booked on four airlines – a different one for each city you’ll be visiting. Interestingly, each airline will be operating the same type of jet. Can you identify the jet type and then match the airline with the route flown? (1. YWW-YUL 2. YUL-SYR 3. SYR-ORD 4. ORD-MCI)

10. Only one airline flies direct from New York City to the state of South Dakota. Thankfully, the aircraft has a First Class cabin because there are four stops along the way and comfort will be important over the six hour journey. Your job is to identify the South Dakotan airport served and then identify the airline, the aircraft and the four enroute stops.

11. Tampa, West Palm Beach, Ft. Lauderdale and Miami are well served with nonstop flights from Montreal. Alas, the same cannot be said for Jacksonville. There is at least a direct flight, one that makes a couple of stops enroute. A luncheon is served somewhere along the route however, so perhaps it won’t be so bad… Name the airline, the two enroute stops and the aircraft to be flown.

12. You’re all set to fly to from Chicago to Billings, Montana for the weekend. Unfortunately, a couple of things have come up at the office that mean you’ll have to switch from your 100p nonstop to something a bit later. A call to your travel agent reveals that unfortunately, no seats are available in any class to Billings until early this evening. But wait! If you can get over to Chicago’s lightly used Midway Airport, there’s a two stop flight departing at 220pm. It’s even got some larger seats up in the front of the aircraft. Book it, Danno! Identify the usual triumvirate, including the two stops enroute.

13. Unfortunately, there are no nonstop flights between Memphis and Cleveland. Worse yet, the only available flight is a three stopper that’ll take a butt-numbing four hours to get there. Sigh… Reluctantly, you book a seat on it. Identify the airline, the three stops and the aircraft type.

14. Working solely from schedules published in the North American edition of the OAG, I have found five different international flights into the U.S. that are each operated with a unique aircraft type that was manufactured outside of the U.S. Each flight is operated by a different foreign airline and in each case, the route is the only route into the U.S. using that aircraft type. In other words, you will find only one – not two – routes into the U.S. operated by say, a Dassault Mercure. And again, we are working only with schedules published in the North American OAG. So then, if you’re up for it, identify each of the five routes, airlines and aircraft types.

15. “When I die and go to heaven, I’ll probably connect in Atlanta”. That old quip notwithstanding, you’ve had uniquely bad luck of late with connections – wherever they may be – so much so that for your upcoming flight between Dallas and West Palm Beach you’ve booked yourself upon the late afternoon five-stopper. It’ll be a long day, but a couple of good books should ease the pain. Identify the airline, aircraft and all five of the enroute stops in order, please.


The following quiz items have a time line of the first quarter of 1973

16. Identify the airline that has the most domestic 747 flights into Miami. Additionally, identify the cities it serves Miami from with the 747
A N S W E R E D
BONUS QUESTION 16B: Which domestic U.S. airline offers 747 flights from Chicago to the most destinations? What are those destinations?

18A. Identify the longest nonstop 727 flight (regardless of variant) in Canada A N S W E R E D
18B. Identify the longest nonstop 727 flight (regardless of variant) in the U.S. A N S W E R E D

19. You do love a good milk-run! Imagine then your surprise and delight to have booked a seat aboard this 4-stop gem between St. Louis and Memphis. Identify the airline, the aircraft type and the four enroute stops.

20. Hilo, Hawaii is well served by four airlines offering direct or nonstop flights from the U.S. mainland. Only one of these airlines serves ITO with a wide-bodied jet. Identify the airline and the type of jet.
A N S W E R E D

21. The airline you usually fly between Detroit and New Orleans is on strike. So it is that you find yourself booked on a two-stop late afternoon departure. This airline utilizes an aircraft that until recently was not operated by your usual airline on the DTW-MSY route. As an added bonus, two dinners and a snack will be served along the way. Identify the airline, the two stops and the aircraft type.


The following quiz items have a time line from the summer of 1972

23. Aside from Delta’s flights, if you wanted to fly aboard a Convair 880 out of Miami during the summer of 1972, only one other airline offered scheduled flights. Identify that airline and the destination it served.
It's not LANICA... But it is Latin American

24. You don’t like little airplanes. The larger - the better, you always say. As such, for your upcoming flight between Edinburgh and London, you’ve chosen to fly aboard a ___________________ operated by _____________________. It is the largest aircraft operating scheduled flights out of EDI.

25. Back in the summer of 1972, travelers desiring to leave Jolly Olde England for the sun kissed beaches of Waikiki on Hawaii’s island of Oahu had a choice of three airlines – each of them operating a different type of equipment – at least out of London. One operated the same equipment all the way through to HNL while the other two had a change of equipment at an intermediate stop. Can you identify each of the three airlines, their routing and the equipment type(s) each operated?

26. With the oppressive heat and humidity coming off the nearby Gulf of Mexico, Houston is absolutely miserable in the summer. London by comparison is much more pleasant and its West End theater district is vastly superior to anything available in Houston. Why not head across the pond for a few days’ vacation? Although there are no nonstop flights, a single airline does offer a direct one stop flight departing IAH each day in the early afternoon. Name the airline, the aircraft and the intermediate stop.

28. Identify the only two airlines that operated Boeing 720s into London Heathrow during the summer of 1972
A N S W E R E D

29. You need to fly from Luxembourg to London. You call Luxair only to be informed that their thrice weekly flight is sold out until next week. Thankfully, there is another option offering an additional three nonstop flights per week. Identify the airline and the aircraft you’ll be flying upon.

30. If in the late summer of 1972 you wanted to fly from Frankfurt in the German Federal Republic to (East) Berlin’s Schoenfeld Airport in the German Democratic Republic, there was only one scheduled flight per week. Identify the airline and the aircraft you’d be flying upon.

31. You’ve just arrived in Bangkok and are taxiing to your stand when you spot a Boeing 720 lining up for takeoff. OMG! By 1972 720s are extremely rare birds in this part of the world. Indeed, the one you’ve seen is the only one serving HKG. What airline does it fly for?

32. I’ve been able to find only one airline in the world that in 1973 operated three different types of four engine narrow bodied jetliners at the same time. (I’m not including variants such as a 727-100 vs a 727-200. We’re looking at only the base models) Each aircraft type is manufactured by a different company. Identify the airline and the three aircraft types. Additionally, if you should think of any other airlines operating 3 or more 4-engine aircraft at the same time during 1972, I would be happy to verify it.
Ongoing. MEA, American, Varig so far
BONUS QUESTION: Name an airline that operated not three but four different types of four engine narrow bodied jetliners - but NOT all at the same time.
BOAC, MEA and American have been identified so far

33. Identify the only non-Pratt & Whitney powered twin jet (operating scheduled flights) that you’ll see in Bangkok in the late summer of 1972. Airline and aircraft type, please.

35. You’re in Casablanca, Morocco and need to fly to San Juan, Puerto Rico. You’re expecting quite the convoluted journey but are pleasantly surprised to learn that you can fly the same airline all the way through to San Juan via a single connection enroute. Rather more of a surprise, your connecting city is in Europe – not the U.S. Both flights are nonstop and are operated with the same aircraft type. Identify the airline, the connecting city and the aircraft type.


The following quiz items have a time line from the spring of 1976

37. You do love a good milk-run and it appears you’ve found one between Memphis and Amarillo – a four stopper that even includes a snack enroute. Name the airline, equipment and of course the four intermediate stops.

39. You live in Athens, GA. And have just finished your junior year at the University of Georgia. (Go Dawgs!) It’s time to head up to Anchorage for a summer of work at a rural fishing lodge. Seeing that you’ve a choice of two 2-stop direct flights from ATL to Anchorage, you select the morning departure. Identify the airline, the two enroute stops and the aircraft to be flown upon.

40. Between them both, AeroMexico and Mexicana fly to a good number of destinations in the U.S. Identify the two states besides Texas that have at least two or more cities enjoying nonstop flights from Mexico involving AeroMexico and/or Mexicana. Please keep in mind that US airline flights have no relevance to this question.
Arizona has been correctly identified. California and Florida have been declined

41. It’s been a nice couple of weeks off, but now it’s time to fly back up to Prudhoe Bay and resume your job building pump station number two of the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (which is due to be completed just over a year from now). There are no direct flights from Juneau to Prudhoe but it is possible to make a single connection via the same airline all the way through. The first flight makes a single stop enroute to the connection point. From there you switch to a different type of airplane and continue on nonstop to Prudhoe Bay. Identify the airline, the two enroute stops (including the connecting stop) and the two aircraft types involved.

42. There are three Fifth Freedom flights from the U.S. to Mexico. Each flight is operated by an airline not from the U.S. or Mexico. Each flight departs from a different U.S. city and each flight arrives in a different Mexican city. Each flight operates with a different type of equipment. Two different airlines are involved. Your job is to identify the three flights; determining each route, airline and aircraft. Buena suerte, Señor!
The airlines are not BA, KL, JL or BA

Seat 2A

WHBM

Can I suggest Sudan Airways and PIA.

I wouldn't count the Comet because they were only operated by BOAC and BEA, they were all long gone by the time BA came along from the merger.

And the Comet 4 was different from the Comet 1 in every nut, bolt, bit of metal, and engines. They were really quite different types. It's a mystery why they stuck with the name.

Guess who have (plural) been in a Comet recently !

The 707 and the 720 had a common Type Rating (for each engine type), certainly here is Europe, which is normally the distinction rather than the manufacturer's designation. The BAe146 and the Avro RJ have the same common Type Rating as well.

Page 7 here

https://www.easa.europa.eu/sites/def...2011-008-R.pdf

jrl767

18A- for some obscure reason I think Air Canada had a single daily 72S on Vancouver-Toronto
18B- I'm almost positive United had Chicago-Ontario service, but I wouldn't be surprised if Eastern was in the LAX-Atlanta market

20- how about United with a 747 ... if I'm not mistaken, it operated LAX-ITO-HNL-LAX