jlemon

I'll go ahead and close this one out now.....

At this time, Myrtle Beach had international service direct from Bermuda and Toronto flown by USAir. Here are the scheds....

US 1584: BDA-LGA-CLT-MYR
Op: Daily
Equip: B727-200

US 2444: YYZ-CLE-CLT-MYR
Op: Daily except Sat. & Sun.
Equip: B737-300

At this same time, US was also operating nonstop jet service into MYR from PIT and direct from MKC, TYS, SDF, ORF and ROA.

Hope everyone is having a fine Saturday!

WHBM

Quite so, cs.


Yes, by my calculation there were 49 departures from the Pan Am JFK Worldport on a Friday, but 55 from Berlin Tempelhof. Miami, Pan Am’s traditional base, had 19.

Indeed, the aircraft names of the 727s operated in the Caribbean were classic Pan Am Clipper ones, named after historic sailing ships, while the German fleet were named after the various German destination points; there seem to have been just enough to go round. Names were prominently painted on the nose. The maintenance base for the Caribbean aircraft (and the major backshop for all Pan Am since the airline’s earliest days) was Miami, while the German operation, although centred on Berlin, had the maintenance shops in Frankfurt.
Yes, Berlin used Tempelhof for all the 727 flights and Tegel for the just 4 days a week 707 to JFK through Prestwick. It’s strange, because this was when Tegel was hardly used at all, there are photos of Pan Am 707 charters at Tempelhof, and British Airtours used 707s from Tempelhof right down to the Mediterranean, but that’s how it was.

Both Baltimore and Dulles were used at Washington, in fact the daily flights from both to London arrived five minutes apart. Newark actually had three daily flights, to Bermuda and San Juan.

Just a note on this, but way back in the history of The Quiz we discussed London to Paris on Air France in 1939, flying on a Bloch 220. Now Bloch pre-WW2 and Dassault post-WW2 are the same company, not so much because the company changed its name, but because owner Marcel Bloch changed his own name officially to Marcel Dassault. Being French Jewish he was taken to Buchenwald when he refused to allow his aircraft factories to be used by the invaders, but survived and returned afterwards. Meanwhile his brother Darius, a French Army General both pre- and post-war became an underground resistance fighter, using the code name Dassault. Both men officially changed their names to Dassault afterwards to commemorate what was done under this name. So we otherwise might have been reading about Pan Am selling the Bloch Falcon.

jlemon

8. I believe this takes us back to Berlin Tempelhof. During the summer of 1969, it appears Pan Am was flying fourteen daily round trip flights between Berlin and Hanover with the B727 in all Y class shuttle service as part of their IGS operation.

17. I've been scratching my head on this one......although I do recall that Pan Am had a very small B727 operation out of New Orleans back in 1969 with a nonstop down to Merida, Mexico with continuing service to San Pedro Sula, Managua and Panama City or Guatemala and San Salvador in Central America depending on the day of week. I do not think this service was daily but was more likely operated five days a week. And as for the famous fare (if this is indeed the service in question and it may not have been).....well, I do not have a clue!

jlemon

And this engenders yet another bonus question....

Over the years, several Dassault business jet models have had a very singular and unique feature. What was it? ANSWERED

Seat 2A

Hmm... it could be that on each of its jets the horizontal stabilizer is halfway up the vertical stabilizer rather than mounted atop it in the more popular T configuration.

jlemon

Well, we are looking for something a bit more unique here.....and not all of the Falcon series over the years have been so designed. However, several have and the fundamental difference is unmistakable when you see one. This difference is also quite helpful when the flight crew has to deal with short runways or high and hot airfield conditions. So far, only Dassault has manufactured such singular aircraft specifically with regard to business jets......

WHBM

Would this unique feature be shared by 727s and Tristars ?

We actually have several Falcons come in and out of London City airport each day, including one only this afternoon that got the attention of Little Miss WHBM who had been wheeled down to this grassy play area.

https://maps.google.co.uk/?ll=51.508...167.23,,2,1.44

I wonder by whom .......

London City used to have its own Falcon 900EX G-LCYA but they never got enough charter work for it so it had to go.

http://jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=6651025&nseq=3

WHBM

Quite so, likewise Hanover was BEA's highest frequency operation from Berlin as well.

I believe the highest frequency outside the IGS for Pan Am in 1969 was New York to San Juan, but haven't got time to look it up.

Different continent ........

cs57

17) not certain of this, but in 1969 I took Pan Am from JFK to St. Thomas, USVI, and both ways it was a 727. Since Pan Am had no domestic feeder routes at the time, I would say the third base was JFK, as no 707 could land at St. Thomas at that time, (or now).

WHBM

The Caribbean 727s of Pan Am were operated as a common set from Miami, JFK and some other points. A number of them did mixed operations in a day, out of one point and later turning up at the other.

jlemon

Indeed, it would be....and also by the DC-10 and several older Russian designs as well in terms of being three engined jet aircraft. And I believe you are correct with regard to the "S"-duct configuration for the center engine only being shared by the B727, L-1011 and Dassault business jet aircraft in question as well as by the Hawker Siddeley Trident, Tupolev Tu-154M, Yakovlev Yak-40 and Yak-42 (the DC-10 and MD-11 do not have "S"-ducts for the center engine, of course).

In an age where the aviation world appears to be embracing twin engine everything specifically with regard to airliners (the A380 and B747-8i notwithstanding) and business jets, Dassault continues to build and sell three engine airplanes in addition to twin engine designs.

Beginning with the Falcon 50 series and then progressing through the larger Falcon 900 series, Dassault is the only manufacturer ever to produce purpose built business trijets. The current model is the Falcon 7X. According to a Dassault ad which appears on the back cover of the current edition of Aviation International News, the 7X is the fastest selling Falcon ever with over 200 airplanes now in operation.

Dassault trijets do have excellent short field capabilities. You can check out a video which demonstrates a short field landing at a small airport in Saint-Tropez:

www.dassaultfalcon.com

jlemon

I think the 707 might be able to get into St. Thomas these days as the runway was extended some years ago to 7,000 feet. Indeed, after this runway improvement, American then began operating the Airbus A300-600R wide body into St. Thomas......

miniliq

I haven't seen this answered, so it's time for a wild guess -- I would say it was a southbound route, JFK-CCS and beyond, and the three classes were First, Tourist, and Economy.

WHBM

Nearly. Economy, an IATA standard, was coming, but Pan Am introduced slightly earlier their additional "Thrift Class" from June 1956, and the first route was New York to San Juan. Originally termed R class, it later became K class. As common at the time, the additional class was done on separate aircraft, they got 106 seats into a DC-6B. As First and Tourist were already done on separate aircraft on the route (most flights were Tourist), this gave an unusual three classes of aircraft on the route, all using DC-6Bs. Seat pitch was reduced from Tourist 40" to 34" (which still sounds generous today). Pan Am introduced Thrift onto other Caribbean and Hawaiian services, but for intercontinental routes they went the IATA way and had Economy, which soon supplanted the intermediate Tourist class - in fact the jets never had Tourist, just First and Economy from the beginning. Thrift were sat at the back of the jets, and given little or no catering (sounds familiar).

I guess I'll square off the last two while I'm here.

14. Who formed the Yale Flying Club for college students there ?

None other than Juan Trippe. He also helped set up the National Intercollegiate Flying Association. His wealthy father assisted him financially, along with other good friends, with all these early flying endeavours, as well as him getting to Yale in the first place of course. Memo to The Almighty : In my next life, please may I be considered for .......

17. There was also a minor 727 operational area at this time, separated from the other two. Where was this and what was the famous (at the time) fare charged for a flight on one ?

This started in the late 1960s from Vietnam - Saigon and other points, taking the military on R&R trips. Bangkok was a principal point, and also Hong Kong; the 727 crews seem to have been based out of Bangkok. The overall fare charged to the US military for the whole charter operation was US$1 per month. First Class catering standards were provided. From 1966 DC-6Bs were used, but soon a few 727s came over, in addition to 707s.

Happy Easter to all the team, and to all our readers as well (186,000 to date).

jlemon

And Happy Easter to everyone as well!

My lady and I are off to New Orleans tomorrow for a long weekend where, among other folks, we will be getting together with Seat 2A and miniliq in the French Quarter. I have the distinct feeling we are in for one heck of a good time!