Seat 2A

9. Fill in the blank concerning this 1970 airline print ad: "In case you didn't know it, we have Super DC-9's with extra leg room at every seat; one of the best on-time records in the business; an improved in-flight service including instant breakfast, hot chocolate, continental breakfast and free stamps, breakfasts, dinners, and snacks on more flights. In case you didn't know it. ____(airline)____" It wasn't Allegheny, North Central, Ozark or Texas International. The specific aircraft type was the DC9-30.

Trial and error suggest that the airline in question may well have been Hughes Airwest

jlemon

9. Close enough! The airline we are looking for here was still operating as Air West at this time.

Seat 2A

Oops! Right. 1970. Having gone to school in California from 1972-75 I was quite taken with Hughes Airwest and its bright yellow DC-9s and F27s. RW didn't fly to my home state of Colorado back then and so it wasn't until I discovered the wonder of joint fares that I was able to log my first flight with them - a 5 stopper between SLC and LAX in March of 1975. A multitude of subsequent flights aboard AirWest and in particular hometown airline Frontier fueled my fascination with small town airports, particularly in California and Colorado. All of us "Old Timers" who logged flights through the 1960s and 70s were most fortunate indeed!

WHBM

Mostly gone over here too, but there are still a few where your aircraft can be the only one in - which in Europe can mean absolutely, no GA or anything.

Knock, in Ireland, returning from a business trip over there a few years ago, was one such. It's not really a small town place because there isn't a town, it's genuinely in the middle of farmland with just a few villages around. There was one Aer Lingus A319 flight that day to London, at 4pm, and all the various facilities like the cafe, security, shop etc closed behind us as we made our way through; I think there had been something else in the morning as well.

Bluehen1

30. I'm stumped. I've researched this and it appears, according to my research that only Braniff and USAir were flying the BAC One-Eleven at this time unless Florida Express flew something for Braniff before the planes were transferred.

jlemon

30. Well, I was being a bit disingenuous with regard to my hint when I stated "the same twin engine aircraft type was operated on both flights" because in this case it was literally true: Braniff 151 flown with a BAC One-Eleven arrived into San Antonio at 9:27 pm and then spent the night (RON) at SAT. This was the only BAC One-Eleven service into San Antonio in December of 1988. And the next day this airplane departed nonstop to Kansas City with continuing service to Milwaukee. Here's the sched....

BN 140: San Antonio (SAT) 10:15a - 12:10p Kansas City (MCI) 1:00p - 2:23p Milwaukee (MKE)
Freq: Daily
Service class: Y
Meal service: Snack MCI-MKE
Equip: BAC One-Eleven

BTW, the BAC One-Eleven aircraft formerly operated by Florida Express (some of which were reportedly initially operated by the original Braniff International back when they were new in the mid 1960's) were being operated by Braniff II at this time with the airline also continuing to operate a small hub at Orlando (where Florida Express had started up) with Braniff operating nonstop service in December of 1988 from MCO to: ATL (2 flts. w/ BAC One-Eleven), ORD (1 flt. w/ B737-200), CMH (3 flts. w/ BAC One-Eleven), DFW (1 flt. w/ B727-200 & 1 flt. w/ B737-200), DTW (2 flts. w/ B727-200), FLL (1 flt. w/ B727-200 & 2 flts. w/ B737-200), RSW (2 flts. w/ BAC One-Eleven), MCI (1 flt. w/ B727-200 + 3 one-stop flts., 2 w/ B727-200 and 1 w/ B737-200), SDF (1 flt. w/ BAC One-Eleven), MIA (1 flt. w/ BAC One-Eleven & 2 flts. w/ B727-200), NAS (1 flt. w/ BAC One-Eleven), LGA (2 flts. w/ B727-200), TPA (3 flts. w/ BAC One-Eleven), DCA (1 flt. w/ BAC One-Eleven & 2 flts. w/ B737-200) and PBI (2 flts. w/ BAC One-Eleven).

Meantime, USAir was continuing to operate the BAC One-Eleven in December of 1988 although the aircraft type was on its way out of the USAir fleet. In his annual message to the stockholders, USAir Chairman of the Board & President Edwin I. Colodny stated the airline had begun to retire its fleet of 20 BAC One-Eleven aircraft in June of 1988. The 1988 USAir annual report also confirmed the air carrier had 20 Fokker 100 aircraft on order and so it appears that by and large the F100s may have replaced the One-Elevens in the fleet.

So which airline was the last to operate the BAC One-Eleven in scheduled passenger service in the U.S.? Was it Braniff II or USAir or another air carrier? I do not know the answer but I suspect it may have been Braniff II which following filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September of 1989 dramatically cut its schedule back from over 250 flights a day to 40 destinations to 46 flights a day to 11 destinations. By November of 1989 Braniff II had ceased all scheduled passenger flights. And it appears the BAC One-Eleven was operated by Braniff II right up until the end of scheduled operations. Paging WHBM....

Bluehen1

LOL.. I NEVER thought to propose the same airline going out...

It looks like the last ones in major airline service in the US were with USAir in May 1989 according to this webpage. If you go to the homepage, they actually have tracking on each airframe. That's what threw me.

jlemon

These recollections remind me of the time I flew into both Hot Springs, Arkansas (HOT) and Texarkana, Arkansas (TXK) on board a DC9-10 operated by Texas International. I was on my way from Memphis to Houston in 1970. Hot Springs was the first stop, Texarkana was the second stop and Dallas was the third stop. TI was only operating two DC9 flights a day into the small airports at Hot Springs and Texarkana at this time with other flights being operated by the airline with the Convair 600.

And I still visit small airports on occasion during road trips with Telluride Regional (TEX) being the most recently visited airfield just a couple of months ago where we witnessed a Dornier 328JET operated by the Denver Air Connection departing for Denver on a scheduled flight.

Seat 2A

Although I logged a good number of flights with Hughes Airwest over the years, I never managed any flights aboard their F27s or DC-9-10s. My visits to airports such as Blythe, Inyokern, Santa Maria, Marysville et al were all undertaken as parts of larger roadtrips. I remember my surprise and delight to have driven into Santa Maria on the beautiful Cuyama Highway (CA166) back in the late 1990s and although by then AirWest's F27s and DC-9s were but a distant memory, I was treated to a good looking UPS 727-100QF outfitted with Rolls-Royce Tay turbofans. With Frontier on the other hand, I was fortunate to have been able to fly aboard its Convair 580s all over Colorado and even into New Mexico and Arizona. It's great to see the Denver Air Connection (operated by Key Lime Airways) DO328JET serving Telluride. That would be a wonderfully scenic flight between TEX and DEN. Flying aboard Aspen Airways' colorful Convair 580s into Aspen's Sardy Field also provided spectacular views from above.

jlemon

And here's a photo of a Texas International DC9 in the initial livery used by the airline following the name change from Trans-Texas Airways (TTa)....

https://cdn.jetphotos.com/full/1/61623_1179015894.jpg

Trans-Texas called their DC9s "Pamper Jets" when they introduced the type and the "Pamper Jet" name continued to be used for a short time following the airline's name change to Texas International. The aircraft I flew on board from Memphis to Houston via stops in Hot Springs, Texarkana and Dallas was in the livery shown in the above photo as well.

WHBM

I think you are right with Braniff. The last US Air aircraft seems to have been withdrawn in May 1989. Braniff 2 carried on with them to shutdown on 6 November 1989. Quite a number of their substantial fleet, leased from Guinness Peat, were registered in Ireland throughout, and these were all cancelled in December 1989, the US-registered ones just hanging on in FAA records to January 1990 but doubtless not used.

Las Vegas-based carrier Classic Air started up in early 1990 with onetime-US Air aircraft, but didn't last long and had shut down by the end of the year, which seems to have been the last chance to ride one within the USA; they only seem to have done charters, but not any standing-in for scheduled operators. None of the various Central American operators seem to have operated into the US by this time, though plenty of executive aircraft were around for a considerable while longer. Continuing maintenance of them in the US was long done principally by an FBO in Orlando, who doubtless had a lot of onetime Florida Express and Braniff 2 engineering old hands.

My own last run on one was early summer 1993, British Airways Birmingham to Edinburgh, just weeks before their final withdrawal. The aircraft was notably clean, in fact immaculate, inside and out, the opposite of what you would expect, none of the interior worn or dilapadated.

jlemon

My last flight on board a BAC One-Eleven was with Pacific Express from San Francisco to Santa Barbara back in the mid 1980's shortly before the airline shut down. The airplane appeared to be in very good condition inside and out.

BTW, former executives with Pacific Express publicly stated the primary reason the airline went out of business concerned a unsolicited business plan they had submitted to United Airlines proposing Pacific Express be used to provide passenger feed for UA in the western U.S. They claimed United then used their business plan to target Pacific Express and force it out of business. Pacific Express was planning to replace its One-Elevens with new BAe 146 aircraft and had also begun operating Boeing 737-200 aircraft. When the air carrier shut down, I believe the One-Elevens went back to British Aerospace which had provided them to Pacific Express as part of a deal to acquire new 146 aircraft while I seem to recall the 73S aircraft were picked up by AirCal. And it's also interesting to note that although Pacific Express was not successful with their attempt to enter into a business relationship with United, WestAir operating as United Express subsequently was with WestAir flying the BAe 146 in addition to turboprop aircraft in UA code sharing operations.

And going way back to the late 1960's, my high school buddies and yours truly would visit Houston Hobby Airport on occasion when our family lived in the Clear Lake area. Besides visiting the passenger terminal at Hobby (which had public viewing areas located outside on the top of the concourses which is where I saw my first Braniff International BAC One-Eleven during one visit), we were also able to visit various general aviation and corporate hangars. One of these corporate aviation facilities was operated by Tenneco, an energy company, which had a pair of One-Eleven aircraft in corporate configuration parked in their hangar. We asked to have a look and were given permission to do so. Security was quite lax back in those days. Here's a photo of one the BAC One-Eleven aircraft operated by Tenneco......

https://www.airliners.net/photo/unti...even/1171325/L

YVR Cockroach

I've only flown in a BAC 1-11 3x. First date forgotten) was on BE MUC(?) to LHR in the very early '70s. LH 707 fight was late into home base from SIN and was put on an onward flight on BE.

Fastforward some 20 years and it was a DA flght LGW-TLS and back a week later.

Until I started looking at quiz questions, I wasn't even aware U.S. airlines has operated BAC 1-11s, let alone into the late '80s.

jlemon

Just four three two to go here....and once they are answered, I have a new set of follow-on quiz items ready to go.

jrl767

20- gah; forgot about this one ... sequence has to be YYZ-DTW-MKE-MSP-XXX-TUS, XXX isn't PHX ... the Wright Amendment was still in place, so Dallas Love Field/DAL is out; don't recall RC at DFW; maybe Houston Hobby/HOU