Indelaware

AirCal & Muse Air.

AirCal, based at Newport Beach, CA, would later merge into American Airlines; Mus Air, based at Houston Hobby Airport, would later merge into Southwest Airlines.

Republic Airlines (which was formed with the 1979 merger of North Central and Southern and then expanded with Republic's purchase of Hughes Airwest). I believe the add also pointed out how much more American, Delta, and United each charged for First Class; interestingly they didn't attack Northwest, their most direct competitor, which would later acquire them.

jlemon

And on a warm, cloudy and very windy Saturday afternoon, here are several bonus quiz items:

27) It's the summer of 1965 and you've just finished lunch in Philadelphia. A message is delivered: can you attend a meeting the next morning in San Antonio? You quickly ascertain there is no nonstop service from PHL to SAT......but there is a direct flight departing at 5:55pm that will get you into the Alamo City at 9:10pm. This flight makes two intermediate stops en route and operates daily. Identify the airline, the equipment and the two stops.

28) In early 1976, National Airlines was operating the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 in scheduled service into no less than thirteen (13) airports in the U.S. Name them all. ANSWERED - LAX, SAN, SFO, LAS, IAH, MSY, JFK, LGA, TPA, MCO, PBI, MIA & EWR

29) In the spring of 1986, Air Wisconsin was operating nonstop jet service between Chicago O'Hare and two destinations in New England. Identify both of them as well as the aircraft type Air Wis flew on these routes. ANSWERED - BAe 146-200 service into BDR & HVN

30) Identify the airline in question by filling in the blank in this 2001 ad: "NEXT STOP, DENVER. Introducing the only nonstop service from Raleigh/Durham to Denver. Whenever you fly ________, you'll enjoy our Carolina Class Service including leather seats, gourmet coffee, mints and hot towels." ANSWERED - Midway Airlines

The next three quiz items have a time line of the fall of 1993:

31) KLM Royal Dutch was operating four different versions of the Boeing 747 between Amsterdam (AMS) and Montreal (YMX) at this time. These differences included both aircraft model type and specific configuration. Identify all four. ANSWERED

32) Three different airlines were operating nonstop service between Miami (MIA) and Guayaquil (GYE). Two airlines flew daily on the route and the third air carrier operated twice a week. Each airline operated a different type of aircraft. Name all three air carriers and the respective equipment types.

33) Aeroflot was code sharing with another airline on the Moscow (SVO) - New York (JFK) nonstop route at this time in addition to operating its own service on the route. Identify the airline that actually operated this code share flight in association with Aeroflot as well as the aircraft type. ANSWERED - Delta with a 763

34) At least seven U.S. airlines operated the Boeing 737-100 in scheduled passenger service. Name as many as you can. ANSWERED

35) What entity operated the prototype of the Boeing 737-100 and where is this aircraft now? And here's a hint: this entity was not an airline. ANSWERED - NASA was the operator and the retired aircraft is currently on display at the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field in Seattle.

jlemon

14) Correct! However, I believe that Muse Air was renamed TranStar following its acquisition by Southwest and then was shut down (and thus was not merged with WN) with the MD80 and DC9-50 aircraft being disposed of. And there just may have been a DC9-30 in the TranStar fleet in the end as well.

16) Correct again! Depictions of American, Delta and United Boeing 727-200 aircraft indeed appeared in this ad. We were also looking for the RC aircraft type that appeared in this ad which was a 72S as well with this tag line: "Nobody Serves Our Republic Like REPUBLIC".

jrl767

this would almost certainly have to be North Carolina's home-grown airline -- Piedmont

NASA; I believe they still operate this jet as a research aircraft out of Langley Research Center

jlemon

30) Ah, Piedmont was long gone by this time. So here's a hint: this was one of the new start up air carriers following deregulation.

35) NASA is correct but the aircraft has been retired. So where is it presently located?

Seat 2A

28) In early 1976, National Airlines was operating the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 in scheduled service into no less than twelve airports in the U.S. Name them all.

LAX, SAN, SFO, LAS, IAH, MSY, TPA, MCO, FLL, MIA, JFK, LGA

These seem like the only destinations NA operated its DC-10s to for years. In later years I seem to remember NA running one of its -10s up to SEA (out of LAX)

4) CP Air was operating three daily nonstop flights between Vancouver and Toronto at this time. Each flight was operated with a different aircraft type. Name all three types. Partially answered - Boeing 747, DC-8-63 & 727-100

jlemon

28) A superb guess and you're almost there! No National DC-10 service into Fort Lauderdale (FLL) at this time (Feb. 1976) so you are only missing one airport!

4) B727-100 is correct! However, the Super DC8 (previously guessed by jrl767) is incorrect....

Indelaware

Southwest Airlines Co. acquired 100% of the stock of Muse Air Corp for cash and stock and operated it as a separate subsidiary and airline. Although it was accounted for as a purchase, I had thought that that Muse Air Corp was merged into a new wholly owned subsidiary of Southwest Airlines Company which at the time of merger was then named Muse Air Corp. One would have to check the actual SEC filings.

In any event, you are correct: Muse Air was renamed TranStar; the operating airlines never merged (notwithstanding any possible corporate merger at the time of acquisition) and it was then shut down. TranStar did not file bankruptcy; however, certain TranStar debts were settled by negotiation.

The last day of TranStar operations was August 9, 1987. One DC-9-51, N675MC, formally of the Muse Air/TranStar fleet went to Eastern before finally making its way to Delta. Its currently at the Delta Flight Museum.

jlemon

Yep, I remember seeing a TranStar DC9-50 at SFO being readied for departure shortly after Southwest announced they were going to shut TranStar down. The flight crew and attendants as well as the gate agents all appeared to be rather bummed out.....

Indelaware

I have found confirmation that a corporate merger occurred. See item 2: https://sites.google.com/site/museai...attredirects=0

Many other interesting documents here, including the severance package offered employees. https://sites.google.com/site/museair2/archives

35) What entity operated the prototype of the Boeing 737-100 and where is this aircraft now? And here's a hint: this entity was not an airline. Partially answered - NASA was the operator but we are still looking for the present location of the aircraft.

I once saw it at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. I assume it is still there.

jlemon

35) Correct! I have not been to the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field (BFI) in many years but plan to return one of these fine days.

BTW, I actually flew out of and back into BFI on a scheduled flight back in the early 90's. The airline was Helijet operating a Sikorsky S-76 helicopter between Boeing Field and their floating heliport in Vancouver Harbour adjacent to the downtown area via an intermediate stop at the downtown Victoria heliport which is where we cleared Canadian customs heading north. I had flown into Seattle and taken advantage of the limo service provided by Helijet between SEA and BFI. A couple of old friends of mine continue to run Helijet.

jrl767

there was no timeline given for q30, so I presumed the 1986 data point for q29 applied

I was on the last PI flight in early Aug 1989 (PI1146, LAX-BWI redeye, Boeing 767-201ER N647US)

jlemon

30) Ah, I neglected to provide this, didn't I? Timeline for this ad was 2001 (now added above as well).

Seat 2A

24.05.2004

That would be Midway V2 that disappeared in 2003 (or 2004).

And thank you for the welcome!