jrl767

it was actually Aeroflot, per this 1996 timetable

Seat 2A

Regarding Russian airline operations in Alaska, here's a link to an article that may shed a bit more light on this. Additionally, we've not yet heard from WHBM who I'm sure could provide additional insight.

https://www.alaskajournal.com/commun...ast-connection

YVR Cockroach

I have a friend who used to fly into GDX for an engineering project in the early part of the century/millennium. Don't remember if he flew via Moscow or via SEA and ANC (from YVR) though he was certainly aware of the GDX-ANC flight..

YVR Cockroach

Was referring to the airlines, or just one in particular. KAL They certainly used (and still use) ANC for cargo ops and lost at least one widebody freighter there. That said, I had a classmate from grad school who is ethnic Korean. He was born in Alaska (or if not, certainly in the U.S.) as his father was a professor at one of the U of Alaskas.

Toshbaf

30. (MISC) What was the first commercial airliner to fly across the North Pole? What airline flew it?

Boeing 707, Air France

jrl767

30- I vaguely recall something about an Alaska Airlines DC-4 (?) making a special out-and-back flight from ANC with sacks of mail, Christmas cards, etc in the late 1940s/early 1950s

Toshbaf

14. (1987) You’ve thoroughly enjoyed your visit to the University of Minnesota Duluth as a guest lecturer on Economics. Now it’s time to return to New York City and back to work at Columbia University. Your trip out to Duluth involved a long layover, so you’re thankful to have been booked on what turns out to be the only direct flight back to New York - a one stopper into Newark International Airport. Identify the airline you’ll be flying upon as well as the enroute stop and aircraft type.

American Airlines, ORD, Boeing 727-200

Seat 2A

30. (MISC) What was the first commercial airliner to fly across the North Pole? What airline flew it?

Per Toshbaf: Boeing 707, Air France
Per jrl767: I vaguely recall something about an Alaska Airlines DC-4 (?) making a special out-and-back flight from ANC with sacks of mail, Christmas cards, etc in the late 1940s/early 1950s

And the winner is: jrl767! Here's a bit more info:

https://www.alaskajournal.com/commun...arks-50th-year

teddybear99

I believe Newark was a Continental Hub in 1987, so I will say CO via CLE on a DC-9.

Seat 2A

14. (1987) You’ve thoroughly enjoyed your visit to the University of Minnesota Duluth as a guest lecturer on Economics. Now it’s time to return to New York City and back to work at Columbia University. Your trip out to Duluth involved a long layover, so you’re thankful to have been booked on what turns out to be the only direct flight back to New York - a one stopper into Newark International Airport. Identify the airline you’ll be flying upon as well as the enroute stop and aircraft type.

Per Toshbaf: American Airlines, ORD, Boeing 727-200
Per teddybear99: I believe Newark was a Continental Hub in 1987, so I will say CO via CLE on a DC-9.

And the envelope please:

American AA 174 Duluth (DLH) 757a-951a S Chicago (ORD) 1030a-115p L Newark (EWR) 727-200 X6

WHBM

Maybe that was the first US airline. First over, compliant with this question, was in 1926. It was a Fokker F.7b/3m, alias Fokker Trimotor, widely used at the time by airlines around the world, including the USA (American, Pan Am, TWA). The aircraft was from DNL, the Norwegian airline of the era, and was seen off by Anthony Fokker himself from Norwegian out-island of Spitzbergen, furthest north settlement in the world. Aircraft named Josephine Ford, as Ford cars sponsored the expedition. The actual aircraft is the one now in the Ford museum in Detroit.

Richard E. Byrd - Wikipedia

Seat 2A

And then there were two... With 30 more waiting in the wings

5. (1966) How exciting! You and your wife will be making your first trip to los Estados Unidos to visit with your son, his new wife and your soon to be born grandchild. It’s been years since you last got on an airplane and your son says it’ll be a big one this time – at least compared to the DC-3 you flew on last time. First, you’re booked on a direct one-stop flight from Cali to Miami where you’ll connect to a smaller plane for the nonstop flight up to Orlando. Both aircraft – though different from one another - are manufactured by the same company. Identify both airlines, the route including the enroute stop and of course both aircraft types.
We know it's an AV Constellation running Cali - ___________________ - Miami connecting to a NA Electra

29. (1987) It used to be that if you wanted to fly from Palm Springs to Las Vegas, Western Airlines was quite literally the only way to fly. These days (1987) there are three airlines offering daily nonstop jet flights on the PSP-LAS route. Identify them if you can… Feel free to additionally identify the jet associated with each airline’s flight.

jrl767

29- well, nobody says Western *wasn't* one of the three ... but how about Continental (as a successor to Frontier, but still with a 737-200), PSA (or USAir, depending on when in the year; perhaps with a BAe 146), and Royal West (also with a 146)

WHBM

Aeroflot was of course the all-encompassing Soviet Union aircraft operator in socialist times. They were organised into a significant number of "Directorates", each based at the principal airport of the region, and there was also the International Directorate, doing everything outside the country, the vast majority of this from Moscow SVO, there were just a few from other points, which were run by the relevant local directorate under subcontract. When Aeroflot was broken up, or to be more precise retrenched back to just running from Moscow SVO both domestic and international, it was these various local directorates which became the relevant airline from that base. Some have survived, some haven't, of course. Quite a number spotted that the pickings at their local base were nothing compared to Moscow, and set up second bases there.

In the Russian Far East (not to be confused with "Siberia", that's far to the west), the principal city is Khabarovsk, as it is on the Trans-Siberian railway. It's inland, whereas Vladivostok is a comparably-sized city, is base of the Russian Navy Pacific Fleet. For a long time it was a "closed city" to foreigners, who were not allowed in although it was the main railway terminus; they had to be transferred at Khabarovsk to a side railway route to Nakhodka, from where passenger ships sailed to Japan. For aviation, the main airports are Anadyr, Petropavlovsk, Magadan, Khabarovsk and Vladivostok.

Anadyr is furthest north and near to the Bering Strait with Alaska. Like all these airports, its principal service is to Moscow, which today is run by a daily UTair 767-200. UTair is one of those who set up a second base in Moscow, originally the Tyumen Directorate (hence the T in the name), mid-Russia, it now does most work from there. The 767-200s are the onetime Continental very late-build fleet of these, built around 2001, which United got rid of pretty soon after the merger. Depending on winds, this flight, which routes north over the Arctic Ocean, can on occasion overfly the North Pole, bringing in another recent discussion. A Russian domestic flight ! It can cross there at right-angles flights like Cathay from New York to Hong Kong.

Petropavlovsk is on the Kamchatka peninsula, that's the one that sticks down towards the westernmost of the US Aleutians. Daily flight to Moscow currently is an Aeroflot 777-300ER, routing somewhat south of the Anadyr one.

Magadan is on the Sea of Okhotsk, that's the sea area somewhat contained by Kamchatka, and like Petropavlovsk has a daily Aeroflot 777-300ER to Moscow. Khabarovsk is further south still, the major city of the region. Strangely, back in Soviet days a common route from the likes of Magadan or Anadyr, and other lesser places, to get to Moscow was to fly to Khabarovsk and then spend 8 days on the Trans-Siberian train. There always were direct flights, but you had to be of a certain Soviet grade to qualify. "All animals were equal, but some were more equal than others" . Khabarovsk has two 777-300ERs a day to Moscow today, and Vladivostok has three. It's obviously a considerable operation for the Aeroflot 777 fleet. 20 years ago it was all IL-86 and IL-62. Various other operators came and went, but now Aeroflot dominates. Again ! They have also supplanted the various Far East regional operators as well; the onetime Tu154s run by the new-world former directorates have been replaced by Aeroflot A320s.

Bear in mind that there is no road structure connecting these widely-spread cities, which apart from Khabarovsk (on the railway) are all on the coast and used to rely on shipping connections. This of course is how they supported Alaska to Sitka etc before 1867 - either by sailing ship from St Petersburg via the Baltic, Atlantic, Cape Horn and the Pacific, or overland by horse from Moscow to Vladivostok, then by ship. Up to a year each way by either route (Pushkin's novel "The Stationmaster" is about life in 1820 at a horse-changing station on the pre-railway eastern route). If speaking about routes of Russian domestic operations, remember a good number of their internal freight ships still have to pass to the south of India ...

Regarding operations from the Russian Far East to the USA west coast in the 1990s-2000s, when it opened up, these are complex because the various routings changed every year, often more than once, and a lot were short lived. From the US side Alaska Airlines has various shots at all the airports mentioned, apart I think from Anadyr (any comments?), running from Anchorage. From the Russian side the various liberated Directorates tried various routes the other way, sometimes to Anchorage, other times to Seattle or San Francisco. The Tu154 was the standard aircraft they used, with a few Il-62 as well - when broken off, the new companies generally got just whatever was the fraction of the Old Aeroflot fleet based there at the time. It all seems to have retreated; are there any left or do you have to get there now via Seoul in Korea ? The flights took a combination of tourists and mining/oil exploration personnel. The tourists fell away, the mining progressed to use wholly Russian resources (travelling from Moscow in those 777s), and the general disfavour that accompanies just about any news story about Russia nowadays has put most off. Shame.

Meanwhile, here at home we are having our usual interesting combination of British and Russian traditions for Easter, fortunately not with the considerable fasting that is in Russian tradition. An egg hunt for Little Miss WHBM is in preparation as I write this - in the ivy bushes in the garden, in the back of the clothes cupboards, everywhere. Happy Easter, all.

Seat 2A

I've said it before, I'll say it again - You Da Man, Mr. M! Thanks for taking the time to provide such detail.

Aside from Alaska's 1990s operations into Khabarovsk and Magadan with its MD80s, what do you know about its 1970s operations to Russia? I think the flights were charters, but Alaska made a big deal over this service with stewardesses clad in Cossack-style uniforms and of course the famous Golden Samovar flights.