WHBM

Actually, still possible … because here, only yesterday, is what Jet2 fixed up at Leeds/Bradford airport (their HQ) for a 95-year old aviation enthusiast, who had never actually been on a plane :

https://www.ttgmedia.com/news/news/j...-veteran-20593

Quote:

Back in those days, did airlines like Britannia have a high density configuration similar to what we see today (29" pitch) or was the seating a bit more spacious?

No - it was worse. Seriously. The 737-200 for Britannia (and later other holiday flight operators) were configured as 130Y. This lasted until the accident of August 1985 to a British Airtours 737-200 at Manchester https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britis...urs_Flight_28M , following which the seats adjacent to the overwing emergency exits were compulsorily removed as they had been a real nuisance during the evacuation, and all 737-200s were 128Y thereafter.

This was with 28" pitch. Yes. Not as noticeable then because the seats were probably 1" or more thinner than now, as the crashworthiness requirements were not as strong. Rumbold, the long-established UK seat manufacturer (they even did the pre-war Shorts flying boats) came up with the Rumbold Slimline, aimed wholly at getting more seats into early jets. So the original One-Eleven managed 89 seats, the One-Eleven 500 had 119.

In those days, the independent airlines in the UK still did a lot of work for the military, and throughout the 737-200 era at Britannia they had the contract for troop movements from Britain across Europe, principally to Germany but other places as well, so you would see them in RAF bases. The sole concern of the military contract buyers was minimum rate per seat, any comfort was disregarded.

Now a good friend through those times at Edinburgh university described above was doing languages, and on leaving went to the UK Ministry of Defence as a simultaneous translator, and did a lot of travel to/from Germany. Now if he was going with the Minister they went together on BA, but when on his own the procurement department would put him in the cheapest available, which included sending him over to Luton airport for their Britannia 737 charter, seats all turned backwards, to RAF Wildenrath, or Berlin (where Britannia actually used the RAF base in the city at Gatow rather than Tegel or Tempelhof). Zero refreshments, paid or otherwise, were provided, to keep the cost down. They all smoked their cheap military tax-free cigarettes, no non-smoking division on military charters.

These flights were packed with army personnel (mostly basic level enlisted men, or "squaddies") and their families, for many lived there in military housing quite long term, including scads of children. For the babies, the military specified suspended longitudinal bassinets, which hung from the overheads above the tightly-packed seats, apparently 10 or more per flight (so 140 in a 737-200). Come any turbulence and the bassinets would swing, baby cries, that sets the others off, baby throws up, which descends in various downward parabolas … meanwhile friend is sat under all this in his business suit, only one such in the plane, as he's going straight to a meeting. His account of all this extended across two rounds of drinks when we all met up in London once, some years later.

YVR Cockroach

If 6B is a long(er) TATL and the flight starts from BOS and it isn't TLV. Let's go for FCO otherwise off to the Hellenic Republic.

jrl767

6B- FCO is correct

I will note that the original Quizmeisters (Seat 2A and jlemon) strongly discourage this sort of conditional guessing, but obviously it’s moot here

Seat 2A

We may never have realized just how good we had it here in America during the 60s and 70s. Most jet airliners in the service of major U.S. airlines were uniformly spacious in economy - or coach as we call it. I remember flying back and forth to school in New York aboard a variety of United DC-8s and TWA 707s. The seats were always very comfortable - well padded and - if I had to guess - had a seat pitch in the 34-35" range. Airlines like Western and Frontier advertised First Class legroom throughout and of course with the arrival of the widebodies in the early 1970s, even coach passengers were able to enjoy spacious lounges. At least until deregulation. So far as I know, all of the European airlines took a much more practical approach to their interiors with comfortable but otherwise basic seating configurations and no lounges behind the curtain. When I worked at Frontier, our single class 737-200s were configured for 106 seats.

As to supplemental or charter carriers, there's a Clint Eastwood action movie from the early 1970s - one of the Dirty Harry franchise I believe - that shows a lot of footage filmed inside a World Airways 707. The seating looks pretty spacious compared to my experiences on the likes of Vueling and Monarch.

jlemon

Yep, it sure seems like domestic coach in the US was more comfortable back then.....

AAluxuryfleet72

And it was great to board a 747 for the first time back in 1971 and find a coach lounge complete with an electric piano in the back of the airplane.

WHBM

Secondary European operators like British United used the same aircraft for their small range of scheduled services as for holiday flights, so you got the same seats. I've written here before about British Caledonian's One-Eleven 500s on Edinburgh to London Gatwick, they were the same 119 seat aircraft as described above. One account from late 1960s British Eagle One-Eleven days described how they had to turn the seats round for RAF charters - not a huge job with simpler seat fittings of the time, it needed about one hour, two engineers, and a box of wrenches. A late arrival back (they commonly did maybe half a dozen such flights together over a couple of midweek days) more than once meant there was not enough time to put the seats back to normality, so the next day's early morning peak time flights to Scotland and back had the business-suited passengers all sat facing backwards.

jrl767

6- A week later you’re returning to the Middle East, albeit to a rather different locale – Abu Dhabi. Your business obligations will begin with late-morning coffee on Thursday, which dictates a Tuesday departure from BDL. While you could certainly route via Heathrow, you much prefer a longer transatlantic leg, so you book a four-flight sequence (the third with an intermediate stop) involving three airlines and four very different (and rather uncommon) aircraft types. The third flight is also dual-marketed.

6A- BDL – BOS
6B- BOS – FCO, TWA 747SP
6C- YYY – ZZZ, stop at AAA
6D- ZZZ – AUH

** we know one leg involves a turboprop aircraft

** we know that the last two legs are similar to the original candidate routing from AUH to ABQ (Itinerary 7O)

I’ll post the answer ~1200PST Tues 24th (if I remember)

TPJ

My first try ever....

6C/D

I recall for years all JU flights to Oz were making an intermediate stop in AUH and all flights from FCO to BEG were stopping somewhere - SPU or DBV or ZAG

So 6C FCO-BEG via ZAG, DC9-30, JU
And 6D BEG-AUH, D10, JU

jrl767

welcome to the Quiz! those are some excellent guesses!

6C: ZAG incorrect, BEG incorrect, JU incorrect, D9S incorrect ... however, we are indeed seeking a twin-engine aircraft, and you are not too far, geographically speaking, off the actual routing
6D: JU incorrect, D10 incorrect

YVR Cockroach

So the last two legs would be broadly similar to the reverse of AUH-BUH-ORY.
Rare aircraft would mean not anything from Boeing (unless it is the 74L or a 720) or McD-D. Only Lockheed jet was too common.

So either a Trident, Caravelle, BAC 1-11, Mercure, or something from Tupolev or Ilyushin.

Le's try
6A Business Express Short 360
6C Balkan Airlines TU-134 FCO-SPU-SOF
6D Balkan Airlines TU-154

jrl767

all reasonable presumptions, but all very subjective ... I was deliberately being vague

however, “not McD-D” and “not Lockheed” are both correct

6A- BE incorrect, SH6 incorrect
6C- BK incorrect, SPU incorrect, SOF incorrect, TU3 incorrect
6D- TU5 incorrect

HINTS:
6A the aircraft is smaller than a Shorts
6C geography is much closer (both the intermediate stop and the termination point)

YVR Cockroach

6A Catskill BE9
Let's go with WHBM's answer
6C Tarom (dual-marketed with AZ would be the obvious guess) Timisora BUH BAC 1-11
6D Tarom 707

jrl767

almost there!

6A- KF incorrect, BE9 correct
6C- RO/AZ correct, TSR incorrect, BUH correct, B11 correct (again, the reference OAG doesn’t specify the series)
6D- RO correct, 707 correct

Merry Christmas to all, and to all good flights!

TPJ

6C is TIA. One of a very few flights per week TIA had (I think others were 1 x weekly IF to SXF, 2 x weekly MA to BUD, 1 x weekly JU to BEG and from later 80's 2x weekly SR to ZRH and 1 x weekly OA to ATH).

jrl767

nicely done!
6C- TIA is correct