WHBM

MEA London to Beirut.

Seat 2A

It's wild guess time... wish me luck!

12. As part of its daily line up of flights from Miami to New York City in the spring of 1968, National Airlines operated two "named" flights. One flight, departing at 2:00pm nonstop to New York JFK was named "The __________". The other flight, departing at 10:00pm nonstop to JFK was named "The __________". Both flights featured the same type of aircraft. Fill in the blanks with the different names of these flights and also name the aircraft type.

The Gotham and The Diplomat

"The Gotham" is correct! This was the 10:00pm departure operated by National Airlines on a daily basis in the spring of 1968 from MIA to JFK. NA 600 arrived at JFK at 12:20am and the classes of service offered were FN/YN. However, the 2:00pm departure was not named "The Diplomat". And we are still looking for the equipment here which was the same aircraft type operated on both flights.

Well, please bear with me while I wildly flail about with some seemingly New York themed names. Let's try "The Knickerbocker" and - if not that - "The Manhattan". As to the aircraft, I'm tempted to say a DC-8 but let's go with a DC-8-61 for both flights.

40. Four different U.S. airlines were operating wide body service at this time nonstop between Miami (MIA) and the New York City area (JFK & EWR). One of these airlines operated two different types of wide body equipment on the route while the other three each operated a different wide body type. Thus, there were a total of five different wide body types being operated by these airlines nonstop between MIA and NYC. Name all four air carriers and the respective wide body aircraft they flew between Miami and New York City.

Partially answered:

American - MD-11 & 767-300

Carnival Air Lines - 767-200 in cooperation with LAN Chile

Tower Air - B747

TWA - L-1011

Hint: The Carnival (KW) flight was operated with a KW flight number; however, the flight was actually operated by another airline with an aircraft type that was never flown by Carnival.

jlemon

45. Indeed, it was Middle East Airlines (ME) operating nonstop Boeing 707 service once a week from LHR to BEY in conjunction with British Airways. According to the October 1993 worldwide edition of the OAG, this flight became effective on November 5 of that year. Here's the sched.....

ME/BA 202: LHR 0945 - 1615 BEY
Op: Fridays only
Equip: 707
Classes of service: F/Y

This flight actually replaced an MEA flight that was being operated in conjunction with BA on Fridays with a B747-200. MEA was also operating A310 aircraft in addition to 707 and 747 equipment on its routes from Beirut at this time, according to the OAG.

And besides London to Beirut, Middle East Airlines was also operating the 707 into BEY on other routes at this time, including:

* Nonstop service four days a week from Abu Dhabi (AUH)

* One stop service once a week from Accra (ACC)

* Nonstop service four days a week from Amman (AMM)

* Nonstop service three days a week from Athens (ATH)

* Nonstop service once a week from Bahrain (BAH)

* Nonstop service once a week from Berlin (SXF) operated in conjunction with
Lufthansa (ME/LH 208)

* Nonstop service three days a week from Cairo (CAI)

* One stop service once a week from Copenhagen (CPH)

* Nonstop service once a week from Damascus (DAM)

* Nonstop and one stop service twice a week from Dhahran (DHA)

* Nonstop service once a week from Doha (DOH)

* Nonstop and one stop service three days a week from Dubai (DXB) in
addition to once a week nonstop 747 service

* Nonstop service twice a week from Frankfurt (FRA) operated in
conjunction with Lufthansa (ME/LH 218)

* Nonstop service twice a week from Geneva (GVA) operated in
conjunction with Swissair (ME/SR 214 & 224)

* Nonstop service once a week from Istanbul (IST)

* Nonstop service four days a week from Jeddah (JED)

* Nonstop service once a week from Kano (KAN) operated in conjunction
with Nigeria Airways (ME/WT 578)

* One stop service once a week from Khartoum (KRT)

* Nonstop service three days a week from Kuwait (KWI) in addition to
nonstop A310 service four days a week

* Nonstop service once a week from Lagos (LOS) operated in conjunction
with Nigeria Airways (ME/WT 574)

* Nonstop service four days a week from Larnaca (LCA)

* One stop service once a week from Madrid (MAD) operated in
conjunction with Iberia (ME/IB 224)

* Nonstop service once a week from Milan (MXP)

* One stop service once a week from Nice (NCE)

* Nonstop service once a week from Paris (ORY) in addition to nonstop
A310 service three days a week

* Nonstop service twice a week from Rome (FCO)

* Nonstop service once a week from Tunis (TUN) operated in conjunction
with Tunis Air (ME/TU 512)

So the good old Boeing 707 operated by MEA was still very much in evidence at this time in Beirut.....

jlemon

12. Yep, you finally got both of them! NA 4 departed MIA at 2:00pm and arrived JFK at 4:25pm as "The Manhattan". Both "The Gotham" and "The Manhattan" were operated with Super DC8-61 equipment. In fact, I believe at least two of National's D8S aircraft had the following respective names back in the day: "Catherine" and "Christine".

40. Well, American was actually operating the A300-600R at this time in addition to its MD-11 service between Miami and New York City. AA was flying the Airbus three times a day MIA-JFK and twice a day MIA-EWR.

You are correct with regard to Carnival and LAN Chile! LA 148 also operated as KW 148 on a daily basis from MIA to JFK which permitted local Carnival Air Lines traffic to be carried by the LAN Chile operated 767.

And apologies to jrl767! I overlooked the fact that Continental was indeed operating wide body service on the route at this time with one daily A300 nonstop from MIA to EWR.

So there were actually five U.S. air carriers providing nonstop wide body service from MIA to the NYC area in the fall of 1994.....plus Aerolineas Argentinas (AR) was flying nonstop 747 service from MIA to JFK three days a week at this time with conditional stopover traffic permitted.

WHBM

MEA aircraft operated into London at this time bore little relation to what the timetable said, 747s, A310s and 707s turned up randomly as available. The next year, 1994, was the final year for MEA's 707s, they had 8 707-320cs and 4 720Bs (which seem not to be differentiated) until the end. MEA replaced them with A310s leased from KLM and painted up in their full colours. They were timetabled so the aircraft spent a minimum of time on the ground at Beirut. MEA were really the first of the “Middle East hub carriers”, they operated from various European points to Beirut, all change there and they then departed for the Middle East and India, often giving the cheapest fare. The inbound aircraft nightstopped in London and departed with the same crew, thus they could change things around from Beirut at will. It was a relaxed operation, they might do London-Beirut-Dubai on the Friday, have another nightstop, then Dubai-Beirut-Paris on Saturday, etc, which fully-depreciated aircraft were fine for.

The 707s and 720s were an notable bunch, many ex-American and some ex-Western (each had supplied both models) along with some longer serving ones they bought new and which they ran for over 25 years, which might be a record for a 707 with a mainstream scheduled operator. Likewise their three 747s were new to them 20 years previously, with all the Lebanese troubles they had spent much of their time leased out, including a lengthy period when all three were with British Airways

The BA codeshare was also part of a scene that was different almost every year, BA had abandoned Beirut during the difficulties and as things got back to normal the route licence was given to a new startup, British Mediterranean, so BA codeshared on MEA instead. Within a couple of years B Med negotiated their own franchise arrangement with BA and their aircraft got repainted in BA colours, this ran for a while, then the company was sold to BMI so BA were off the route again, lastly in recent years BA bought out BMI and so they were back on Beirut again. Plus ca change, plus la meme chose

MEA wasn’t the last regular 707 at Heathrow though because a private charter operator ran a VIP 707 registration N88ZL for many years afterwards which often came through Heathrow (unusually, as availability of slots and pricing for charters was generally prohibitive), and this seemed to spend much of its life sat on the south side of the airport. I always looked out for it when taxying past to see if it was in. It did operations for VIPs to the Middle East, and also Rock Star etc trips. It was US-registered but the crew seemed based in London until about 10 years ago. I believe it’s still around nowadays based at Miami. On a couple of occasions John Travolta’s Qantas 707 came in as well and was normally parked next to it.

jlemon

Referencing posts #6067, #6068 and #6069, we are now down to seven quiz items left with several already being partially answered.

I'll let these sit out there for a few more days and then provide answers toward the end of this week.

And once again, please do not hesitate to post your own quiz items at any time.....

miniliq

Time to pick this one off. I'm in the Alberta Rockies at present, with very poor internet service, so haven't spent much time chasing these questions.

jlemon

44. Correct! And I hope the weather is not too capricious up there at the moment! I remember driving on the Icefields Parkway from Banff to Jasper in the fall back in the day. WX was mix of brilliant sunshine followed by snow squalls and then back to sunshine....

jrl767

ok, let's try to fill in the blanks:

> Paducah (PAH)
> Hot Springs (HOT)
> Lake Charles (LCH)

miniliq

jrl767 has done the heavy lifting, so I'll just try to fill in the missing stops:
MDW - IND - EVV -PADUCAH (PAH) - MEM - LIT - Hot Springs (HOT) - SHV - Beaumont/Port Arthur (BPT) - HOU

jrl767

I think the only possibilities are CP Air and Aeronaves de Mexico; both would have probably run a DC-10 and a standard DC-8

however, I can't put together a viable CP routing in my head ... I know we recently discussed AM having Fifth-Freedom rights between Toronto and Detroit, so it makes sense that Mexico City would have been the second stop on the southbound trip

jrl767

teamwork is a good thing, miniliq !!

jrl767

"jet equipment in an all coach configuration" limits the possibilities to a TWA DC-9-10 and an Allegheny DC-9-30 ... however I'm pretty certain that any AL jet service into ORD was from PIT, and I sure can't place an AL jet making three stops between LGA and PIT

on to TW: working west to east, I'll speculate the last stop was Dayton (DAY), preceded by Columbus (CMH)

I know TW ran a DC9 from Washington National (DCA) onward to CMH and DAY, and while that trip could certainly have continued to ORD, a LGA-Philadelphia-DCA portion doesn't make sense ... but I think they also came into CMH from Pittsburgh (PIT)

so it's wild guess time again: the six-day-a-week routing was LGA-Harrisburg (MDT)-PIT-CMH-DAY-ORD, and the Sunday trip originated at Newark

jlemon

Hats off to jrl767 and miniliq for their team effort in answering this quiz item!

Here's the Delta Air Lines sched (all times local).....

DL 495: Chicago Midway (MDW) 6:50am - 8:46am Indianapolis (IND) 9:08am - 8:51am Evansville (EVV) 9:05am - 9:39am Paducah (PUK) 9:51am - 10:40am Memphis (MEM) 11:25am - 12:11pm Little Rock (LIT) 12:26pm - 12:51pm Hot Springs (HOT) 1:01pm - 1:52pm Shreveport (SHV) 2:07pm - 3:03pm Beaumont/Port Arthur (BPT) 3:13pm - 3:42pm Houston Hobby (HOU)
Op: Daily except Sunday
Equip: "Super Convair 440"
Note: DL 495 originated in MEM on Sunday and flew the same sched to HOU

Delta was one of only two trunk air carriers ever to serve Hot Springs, AR. It also appears DL inherited HOT as a destination following its acquisition of Chicago & Southern Airlines. In 1950, C & S was operating a daily flight with a routing of Detroit-Toledo-Fort Wayne-Indianapolis-Evanston-Paducah-Memphis-Little Rock-Hot Springs-Shreveport-Houston. Aircraft was a DC-3.

Turboprop service showed up in Hot Springs in the 1960's via Central Airlines and the Convair 600 with direct flights to TUL, OKC and DEN. Central was then acquired by Frontier which continued to serve HOT with direct Convair 580 flights to DEN and MEM.

The only jet service into Hot Springs was operated by Trans-Texas Airways (TTa) with the DC9-10. TTa also operated the Convair 600 into HOT. Back in the day, I was on board a TTa DC9 that made an intermediate stop in Hot Springs en route from DAL to MEM.

jlemon

Ah....so do you think it was AM or CP?