WHBM

Just back from a long trip.

DC-7D wth Rolls-Royce Tyne engines was an idea put by Douglas to BOAC following the pioneer Comet acidents. The Comets were wthdrawn in April 1954, and Douglas put the DC-7D to BOAC in October of the same year; their design team must have spent the summer working it up. Three months after this BOAC asked the UK government for 19 more conventional DC-7Cs, so the DC-7D proposal didn't stay round for long. They were only allowed to have 10, which were delivered over the wnter of 1956-57, and took over the bulk of BOAC's transatlantic servces.

http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchi...0-%200034.html

Unlike the pioneer Rolls-Royce Dart of the Vickers Viscount, which worked pretty much as advertised "out of the box", the two subsequent larger turboprop engines from UK manufacturers, the Bristol Siddeley Proteus (for the Bristol Brtanna) and the Rolls-Royce Tyne (for the Vickers Vangard) both had gross development troubles and, although they were both got right eventually, ended up wasting years. The Tyne was only got into service quite some time after the entire DC7 series had ceased production.

Seat 2A

Wow! Great job, all a youse! I've just got home and will peruse my 1968 OAG for some new questions. I'm also trying to finish up a trip report, so it might be a day or two... jlemon, have a great time in the Caribbean!

P.S. Eastern launched the DC-9-50? I thought it was Swissair...

WHBM

Welcome home, S2A. I think, if your Jo'burg-Hong Kong return flight routed the way I think, your and my routes will have crossed in the last couple of days, somewhere overhead India. I'll do a trip report as well.

Regarding the DC9-50, Swissair were indeed the launch carrier, to order, get their prototype flying, and getting the first delivery, which was their third built, HB-ISM, on 14 Aug 75. It was last operated by Aeropostal in Venezuela about 5 years ago. 11 days later Austrian received their first. I travelled to Vienna a couple of weeks after that, and the Austrian September 75 timetable was full of publicity for it as if it was a completely new type, which both Swissair and Austrian called the "DC9 King Size" (in English). The noise of the -50 on takeoff from Zurich, compared to the earlier -30 models, rapidly became a significant Swiss political issue, and led to Swissair then pressuring McDonnell Douglas to do a "proper job", hence the MD80, wich Swissair were also the pioneer of.

For US carriers, Hawaiin got their first DC9-50 in September 75, and Allegheny in October 75. I think the first Eastern aircraft didn't come until about two years later, in mid-77, although they later picked up many of the early aircraft secondhand.

miniliq

As an old-time passenger, I'm no expert on these details, but after some digging, I'll try my luck:
A) MD-81 -- Swissair took delivery in 9/12/80
B) MD-82 -- Republic took delivery in 8/5/81, closely followed by Swissair 8/29/81
C) MD-83 -- American 8/1/83
D) MD-87 -- Finnair 8/1/87
E) MD-88 -- Delta 3/9/87 (If I count correctly, Delta took delivery of 120 of the 158 MD-88s built.)

Interestingly, no new series were introduced during 1984-85-86.

jlemon

Whoops! I stand corrected! As WHBM states, Swissair was the launch customer for the DC-9-50.

I also believe that at least one ex-Eastern DC-9-50 is being operated by Delta but I'm not completely sure of this.....however, I think I did see a DL DC-9-50 with tail number ending in "EA" at MSY recently, so perhaps this is a true statement.

jlemon

Here's the information I have concerning the above aircraft....

MD-81: Swissair on 9/13/80

MD-82: Republic on 8/5/81

MD-83: Alaska in February of 1985. However, I'm unsure about this as this aircraft as well as several others were apparently delivered to AS as MD-82 variants. I believe they were then re-engined and re-certified as MD-83s. So perhaps AA is correct.......

MD-87: Austrian on 11/27/87. However, the date of the Finnair delivery is obviously earlier than this date so I'm unsure about this as well.....

MD-88: Delta on 1/5/88

Clarifications and corrections are most welcome so please chime in!

And while we're at it, here's a couple of more questions to round out the DC-9/MD-80 family.....

Name the airlines that launched the MD-90 and Boeing 717 (formerly known as the MD-95).

jlemon

BTW, thought I'd make everyone aware of a half-price sale currently being offered on model airliners by www.DiecastAirplane.com

Please know I'm not affiliated with this company in any way; however, I've purchased a number of 1/200 scale model airliners from them and am a very satisfied customer!

Models being offered at sale prices include the Boeing 707, BAC One-Eleven, Lockheed L-188 Electra, Bristol Britannia, Douglas DC-8-62 and Tupolev TU-154 operated by various airlines among other aircraft types.....and there's even an RAF Avro Vulcan bomber on sale as well!

WHBM

Delta placed the first order, although the first airframe built was # 2098 for Japan Air Services. Delta's first was #2100 (the sequential build sequence numbers had started at 1 with the first DC9). Alaska Airlines had the earliest order numbers, which were later cancelled before being built, these presumably were transferred earlier MD-80 orders.

The first MD-95 were ordered by Valujet, renamed AirTran before their delivery.

Seat 2A

You would be correct and then some. I recently flew aboard N401EA, an aircraft that started out as N920VJ for Allegheny, then flew for Eastern before being stored in the desert for four years. Northwest showed up, kicked the tires and bought it in 1994. It now looks quite fetching in Delta's livery.

There are at least four other ex-EA birds in Delta's fleet as well - N670MC, N671MC, N675MC and N767MC. They're not original EA metal but rather ex-Swissair and Austrian machines that came to EA via Muse Air and Transtar. From Eastern they went to Continental for a very short time, then on to NW/DL.

WHBM

OK here's one.

In 1988 I flew Burbank to San Jose in a Convair 580 (deliberately went out of my way to ride the Convair, of course). The skipper said over the PA "Hi folks, welcome aboard [airline 1] this morning - whoops - oh - er - welcome aboard [airline 2] this morning. Hey folks, don't tell the boss I did that, ha-ha".

Which I haven't. Until now.

Care to name airlines 1 and 2, and indeed airline 3, who were actually operating it.

jlemon

I've had the opportunity to fly in DC-9-50's operated by Hawaiian, Northwest and Muse Air/Transtar - in coach on HA, in first on NW and in biz class on MC. And I did not know that CO operated the D95!

jlemon

Well, I'll take a guess at this....

I seem to recall seeing an American Eagle Convair 580 at BUR which I believe was operated by Wings West. AA operated a hub at SJC at one point, of course, and I think this was a feeder operation before the advent of the regional jet.

BTW, my first Convair 580 ride was back in the fall of 1986 with Era Aviation from Anchorage to Prudhoe Bay and back. The flight was a charter for an oil and gas company. On the trip from ANC up to the North Slope, I was invited by the Captain to ride in the jump seat which I gladly did with camera at the ready. We took off at dawn on an absolutely beautiful clear day, climbed up to FL 200, and then flew right by the 20,320 foot summit of Mt. McKinley which was level with us. I still have those photos somewhere......

Seat 2A

I can't say with any certainty, but didn't Aspen Airways operate that route for awhile? I thought it was earlier though which maybe it did thus leading to the pilot's faux pas. Air Resorts and Sierra Pacific were also Convair operators in the area though I don't know if it would have been on this route.

I did fly a Sierra Pacific 737 once.

WHBM

Good guesses.

It was indeed an American Eagle flight, actually operated by Sierra Pacific, aircraft N73166, in full American livery. The captain initially introduced the flight as "Continental Express" before the rapid correction to "American Eagle". The flight attendant explained that they had been doing flying for Continental in previous weeks.

Sierra Pacific aircraft at the time were going backwards and forwards to Wings West, so I wonder if the licences were actually in their name.

Aircraft built in 1956 for Sabena (so nearly as old as WHBM !) it's stiil around more than 50 years later as a firefighter in Canada.

jlemon

I believe that Metro Airlines flew Convair 580 aircraft as American Eagle as well out of the AA hub in DFW. I think they acquired these aircraft from Frontier.

Metro started out as Houston Metro flying DHC-6 "Twin Otter" aircraft between their company-owned STOLport adjacent to Clear Lake City, Texas (CLC) and then-new Houston Intercontinental Airport (IAH). Houston Metro's business plan was constructed around carrying traffic related to the nearby NASA Johnson Space Center after the airlines serving Houston relocated from relatively nearby Hobby Airport (HOU) to IAH north of the city (I believe this was before Southwest initiated operations from HOU). At one point, Houston Metro was operating up to 23 roundtrip flights every weekday between CLC and IAH, with the latter even having special STOL landing and takeoff areas for the "Twin Otter".

Metro went on to be involved with several regional airlines. However, their STOLport at CLC is just a distant memory now having succumbed to urban sprawl as Houston has grown......and there is no trace of it to be found these days.