N702ML

5. Air Atlanta flew to JFK and Atlanta with 727s.

7. Delta with the 727.

N702ML

3. "City of Lehigh Valley" was operated by United.

4. "Seahawk One" was operated by Alaska Airlines.

5. "Spirit of Gamma" was operated by Hughes Airwest.

WHBM

OK, quick start for the US audience then. Which UK airlines have operated scheduled flights to the USA ?

Seat 2A

British carriers (not counting charters...) operating to the colonies

B.O.A.C.
British Airways
BMI
Laker
Virgin Atlantic
There was an airline that operated between Scotland and New York with 747s a few years ago - Highland Airways, Highland Express?
I'm probably missing one or two more, but that's a start

BTW, tonyw and 702ML, you're correct on all counts!

WHBM

Good start S2A. And it was Highland Express, started by Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic co-founder after they fell out. 747 should be singular rather than plural for them, for they only ever had one, sometimes none, and it was apparently the most unreliable 747 ever, a significant part in the carrier's quick downfall, and was passed from pillar to post after American had managed to get shot of it some years beforehand. Eventually ended up with Virgin Atlantic, where it was renowned for needing the highest number of engineering hours of the whole fleet for the rest of its life.

We can add to your list :

Imperial Airways, pre-WW2, only operated from Bermuda to various US East Coast points, but a UK airline of course.

Eagle (later British Eagle), who did likewise in the early 1960s, along with several attempts at true transatlantic scheduled services.

British Caledonian

The charter carriers are a whole different story, you can still see them at Orlando Sanford, but back in the 1970s you would see a quite different set at JFK and various other points with first-generation secondhand 707s - Caledonian, Laker, Lloyd, Donaldson, British Midland.

Seat 2A

It's always a treat to read detail like this, WHBM. Thank you!
How could I forget B-Cal?! They had certainly one of the prettier liveries ever to grace a VC10, though unfortunately that airplane had been retired by the time B-Cal commenced its North American services. And great service it was, too. I have a couple of their First Class menus from LGW-IAH/LAX flights.

Here are a few more questions to add to the mix:

1. Name six non-European airlines that flew the Comet (There are more than 6)
2. Name four African airlines that flew the VC-10 (There are more than 4)
3. What airline’s Convair 990s were known as “Coronados”
4. Name four airlines that operated the Rolls Royce Conway powered version of the 707 (There are more than 4)
5. What airline’s First Class was branded “Senator Service”?
6. What European airline's First Class service was branded "Royal Class"?
7. What year did the French built Caravelle enter service?
8. What British airline's livery was almost (if not, truly was) an exact copy of U.S. based Continental Airlines pre-1968 livery?

Cattle Airlines

Does the U.S. count as a colony?

How about Eos and Max?

Highland Express a few years ago??? It was in the late 1980's!

Cattle Airlines

I want to know the answer to 8.

1. I know Eastern offered to buy 35 planes for $100M and with a specific delivery date which would have filled the orderbooks precluding others from getting timely delivery. Eastern did not finalize the order.

2. Air Malawi is one. Ghana Airways and Nigeria Airways flew it, too. So did EAAC (East Africa Airways). What are others?

WHBM

Afraid I got them all.

Now then, WHY was that airline's livery the same as Continental's ? And where did I see that livery, here in London, in public service just a few (genuinely) years ago ?

Seat 2A

I know, I know - the eighties were 30 years ago. I logged my 1000th flight aboard a Western DC-10 in 1981 and it still seems like yesterday.

Good call on Eos & MaxJet, CA! There was also an airline called SilverJet operating an ex-LAN Chile 767-200 out of one of the smaller suburban airports outside of London. As I recall, none of these airlines lasted any longer than a year or two at most...

Seat 2A

Were that we could have this discussion whilst sitting around a nice pub with pints of good cold beer. Someday, perhaps...

I'm not surprised. These aren't too tough for serious followers of commercial aviation. I know alot of the basic answers from having collected thousands of airline postcards and brochures and menus since the 1970s. Alot of the history however I don't know, although I'm sure I speak for many when I say we all appreciate hearing about it.

WHBM

To which you can add Open Skies Ltd. Although now registered in France, it started off schedules to the USA from Europe in 2008 as a UK licenced operator, although they never operated from the UK.

Sorry if I'm just boringly throwing all the oddballs in here !

cs57

3) Convair 990--Coronado--Swissair and Spantax?
5) Senator Service--Lufthansa
4) RR powered 707s--BA,AI,RG, and LH

Seat 2A

Right on, #57. Swissair's 990s were known as "Coronados" though I'm not aware of Spantax using that name.

Another RR powered 707 operator was El Al.

WHBM

For the Rolls-Royce 707s, another initial purchaser was British Eagle, who took one aircraft new and operated it from Bermuda (VR-BBW) for a short while. In addition, BEA bult up a substantial fleet when BOAC began to dispose of them; this was before the BA merger, when they came back into the combined airline.

The Convair 990 was certainly known by Spantax as the Coronado, and I suspect by other operators as well, because the name was taken from Coronado Island in San Diego CA, next to where the aircraft was built. They operated some of the longest European routes there are, hence Spantax going for a (cheap at the time) jet of such range, holiday charter flights from the Canary Islands up to Scandinavia (up to 6 hours duration), and were a regular sight all across northern Europe.