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jlemon

12. Ah....I think I remember this flight now. Back in those days, I used to stop by the local travel agency and request out of date OAGs. And I seem to recall wondering why Sabena was operating service into Guatemala City.

If the air carrier was indeed SN, routing would probably have been Brussels-Montreal-Mexico City-Guatemala City flown with a Boeing 707 a couple of times a week.

And I still do not know why the national flag carrier of Belgium was serving GUA......

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By now it’s a well-known fact that quite a few people follow but don’t necessarily participate in the OTAQ&D. As of thirty seconds ago when I last checked, we had[/SIZE] 454,815 456,399 456,890 457,716 458,918 459,855 460,905 - many many many times more than any other thread in the Travel Buzz forum. It’s always a good day when someone new decides to take the plunge and have a go at our quiz with an answer or two. Welcome aboard! You'll note I've left the old amounts in using smaller colored print. Since I first posted these questions on January 29th, the OTAQ&D has had over 6000 views. Check back here for updates on the total views - I'll continue to post them as long as questions remain unanswered.


THE TIMELINE FOR THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS IS THE LATTER HALF OF 1970

1. It’s late 1970 and 747s had been in service for less than a year. Following a thorough perusal of the relevant OAG, I have identified a total of four domestic coast to coast routes being flown at the time. Identify each of these routes and the airline(s) flying it. PARTIALLY ANSWERED See Post 8287
HINT: I'm surprised at y'all! Think about the original U.S. 747 operators and this airline and route will stick out like a sore thumb!

3. Identify the two shortest 747 routes being operated domestically in late 1970
HINT: They were both greater than 500 miles but less than 900 miles...

4. In late 1970 Northwest Airlines operated a total of four daily flights into Anchorage from three different airports in the Continental U.S. Identify each airport and the aircraft type being used on each route.

The following two questions as well as question #10 are a good test of your general awareness of airline routes and equipment utilization. When I was a kid, I'd walk into town and get the used OAGs from the travel agency, then spend hours looking up things like where every United DC-8 flew or how many widebodied jets flew into each city. I was all about the jets and when a city received its first jet service, it was seriously exciting to discover via the OAG. OMG, look! North Central's starting DC-9 service into Traverse City! Thankfully I had other interests like building tree houses, skiing and tearing around the fields on my bike with a pack of like minded friends. Otherwise I would've been spending an inordinate amount of time to myself. Amongst the core cognoscenti gathered here, I should imagine an educated guess would come reasonably close. Go fetch a map and a bottle of bourbon and think about it...

6. As of late 1970, there were three states that had jet service from only one airline. Identify each state and the airline that provided service to that state. PARTIALLY ANSWERED See Post 8315

7. A thorough perusal of the schedule available to me has revealed four states that have no flights operated with 727s. Thinking about 727 operators of that time – and the cities they served - can you identify each of these four states? PARTIALLY ANSWERED See Post 8315

9. A total of five airlines offered nonstop flights between Jamaica and Miami – two from Kingston and three from Montego Bay. No single airline served both KIN and MBJ nonstop from Miami. Identify the airlines providing nonstop service in each market.

10. Identify three states that had a total of 10 or less jet flights operated into or out of the state each day. PARTIALLY ANSWERED See Post 8239

19. The 720 mile nonstop distance between Chicago and New York does not lend itself well to multi-stop jet flights. As you scan down the 80-90 some-odd flights serving this route that are listed in the OAG, you see mostly nonstops and only a sprinkling of one and two stop flights. Suddenly, there it is… A harp glissando and a chorus from the heavens ring out as you ogle wide eyed at a listing that not only features four stops but will also be offering a dinner along the way between O’Hare and LaGuardia. Book it, Danno! Identify the airline, the four enroute stops and the aircraft used. A N S W E R E D

23. Boeing’s new 747 has been in service for less than a year. As we enter the high season for Caribbean tourism, there are three destinations that are scheduled to receive nonstop 747 service from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. Identify each of these destinations and the airline that will be serving them with the 747.

24. In 1970 five airlines were operating jets on the short leg between Cleveland and Detroit. Identify each of the five airlines as well as the respective equipment they were operating on this route. PARTIALLY ANSWERED See Post 8309

25. This state has nonstop jet flights from more airports to New York City area airports than any other state. A N S W E R E D


GENERAL COMMERCIAL AVIATION RELATED QUESTIONS

27. What airline and airplane were featured in the 1990 movie Die Hard 2?
HINT: Bruce Willis, Dennis Franz... Bad guys threatening all manner of unsavory things, especially towards airliners and the people on them. Now that I think about it there were two different jets in DH2. The first of them crashed spectacularly on the runway and the other almost ran over poor Bruce Willis...

30. All of the airlines in the two groups listed below operated widebodied jets. What’s the difference between the airlines in group one as opposed to the airlines in group two?
Group 1: American, Continental, Eastern, United, TWA
Group 2: Delta, National, Northwest, Pan Am, Western

33. I was in a thrift shop the other day and I came across a DVD of this old 1970s era action flick - Whiteline Fever - starring Jan-Michael Vincent and Kay Lenz. The price was right – only $2.00 – and as an added bonus, Slim Pickens was in it. Well that settled it then! Never one to fritter away my life watching Merchant Ivory films in perpetuity, I bought the DVD and tossed it on my stack of movies to watch someday. That day came a couple nights ago. Imagine then my surprise and delight as in the opening scenes the camera panned across an airport tarmac showing a distinctive control tower with the airport’s location emblazoned down its side in large letters. As the scene unfolded further, a beautiful four engine jetliner approached from afar. The camera caught it nicely as it glided over the threshold, landed and then taxied up to the non-jetway equipped gate. Any of y’all seen this movie? Any thoughts on the airport and the airplane featured?
HINT: I consider the tower with the city's name emblazoned down the side to be a big hint. These letters were not painted but rather were lights. When turned on at night, they were pale blue. This airport also had one international flight per day at the time... It's in the western half of the U.S.

Bonus Question 35B: The First Class upstairs lounge on Continental's originally delivered 747-124s had first one name, and then another after the upstairs lounge was modified from three windows to ten windows. What were the two names?
HINT: The first lounge was named after a famous Hawaiian landmark A N S W E R E D

36. You are seated in the “Garden of Wisteria”. Name the airline and airplane you are flying upon. A N S W E R E D

38. What kind of airplane would you be flying upon if you were to visit the “Hawaiian Lounge” inflight?

40. What kind of airplane would you be flying upon if you were to visit the “Fujiyama Room” for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres?
HINT: You might also be presented with a steaming hot, scented Oshibori towel during your visit

42. In early 1968, this airline installed new $33,000.00 broiler ovens and began serving steak to both First and Economy Class passengers on all of its lunch and dinner flights out of Montreal.
HINT: All of the meal flights were longer than 500 miles...



THE ORIGINAL LISTING OF ALL 45 QUESTIONS CAN BE FOUND HERE

WHBM

Here's the actual timetable from a few months later, spring 1971, with a Sabena 707 twice a week routing Brussels-Montreal-Mexico-Guatemala.

http://www.timetableimages.com/ttima...71/sn71-04.jpg

I've no idea why Sabena thought they should serve Guatemala, I can't really think of any European carrier other than Iberia who I would anticipate so doing. Getting any sensible load between Brussels and Mexico City must have been unlikely enough in 1970, let alone Guatemala. Iberia actually had a lesser service there at the time, just a once weekly DC8 routing Madrid-Santo Domingo-Panama-Guatemala.

Even more surprising, when you look at the timetable here, was that the flight stopped overnight in Mexico City, and continued to Guatemala the next morning, did a quick turnround there and came straight back. My guess would be that the vast majority of the passengers they attracted on this leg were just doing Guatemala to Mexico City, and had nothing to do with Belgium at all. There doesn't seem to have been a lot of other service by the local carriers between these two adjacent countries.

Sabena also served a number of oddball places in Africa no other European carrier served, but in contrast these were about the only profitable parts of their network. I believe that overall they never made a profit in their existence.

However, I did find on the web this

https://www.wikileaks.org/plusd/cabl...EM01337_b.html

on Wikileaks, from that time, which seems like something straight out of a Graham Greene novel (known in the USA ? British fiction writer who did many books about seedy events across Latin America) which describes some decidedly oddball moments at the Sabena ticket office in Guatemala. I can't imagine that the office did a lot of other business, but it's sort of fitting that while Shady Character 1 was inside there trying to exchange a ticket for cash, Shady Character 2 was likely behind bushes across the street looking through binoculars at what was going on, and later going in and slyly slipping the clerk US$20 to tell about the conversation

Mr. Roboto

35B. Diamond Head & Oceania

36. Japan Air Lines, B747-100 first class cabin

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jlemon

19. Wild guess time.....

TWA operating a DC9 on a routing of Chicago O'Hare - Dayton - Columbus - Pittsburgh - Harrisburg - New York LaGuardia.

I'm also unsure concerning the direction of travel for this flight. It may well have been flown in the opposite direction instead.

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Good morning from the Centennial State! It is wonderful to be surrounded by so many people wearing orange and blue - a color combination that is not generally employed by most fashion conscious folks but here - on this day - it is considered the height of fashion. GO BRONCOS!

jrl767

19- other DC-9 operators serving both ORD and LGA in 1970 would have been Allegheny, Delta, Eastern, and perhaps North Central

the first stop on an AL flight would have been Pittsburgh, but in the absence of partial credit for jlemon's above guess I am leaning away from this option

DL and EA didn't change direction on too many of their multi-stop flights: ORD departures generally headed to the Gulf Coast or the Southeast

however, I can piece together a four-stop itinerary on NC -- Madison (MSN), Oshkosh (OSH), Green Bay (GRB), and Milwaukee (MKE)

James F

So here goes.....

3. North Central

16. United

19. United

21. BWIA?