miniliq

Best guess: Qantas and Pan Am

WHBM

Quite correct Mini. The conversion was only possible on the short range 707-120 and 720; the intercontinental aircraft changed their wing structure when the fan engines came along and a straight engine swap wasn't possible for those.

Qantas had ordered the 707 very early on when only the shorter range model was available, giving it more range by having a custom fuselage length reduction, compensated by more fuel capacity. They re-engined them as soon as they could for even more range, and then replaced them just a few years later. Two of them ended up with Laker Airways for much of their existence, on holiday flights from London Gatwick down to the Mediterranean.

Pan Am's pioneer 707 jets (which couldn't even make it over the Atlantic in one go) were redone quite some years after purchase, they operated from Miami down to the Caribbean.

miniliq

Your Mexico plan, combined with your list of trip reports involving train travel, got me thinking about one of the few noteworthy train trips from my past -- a 24-hour overnight ride my wife and I enjoyed on The Aztec Eagle from Nuevo Laredo to Mexico City back in 1966, where I wound up as a volunteer substitute bartender in the club car after the official bartender was temporarily out of commission due to over-sampling his own wares. Our next trip to Mexico City was much quicker -- from Reynosa on a Hawker Siddeley 748 operated by Aeromexico.

jlemon

Here's a couple of bonus quiz items....

1. It's the summer of 1961 and you are in Sao Paulo on a Monday. A message is delivered and your presence is requested for meeting on the other side of the world in Tokyo. So how to get there? To your astonishment, you discover there is a weekly direct flight that departs Sao Paulo every Tuesday evening and arrives in Tokyo on Saturday morning. And, yes, first class is available. This flight makes seven stops en route including an overnight stop. Identify the airline that operated this flight as well as the equipment, all seven stops in the order in which they were made and the location of the overnight stop. ANSWERED

2. In 1967, this airline made the following statement in its timetable: "19 Years of Experience. Fastest Low Fare Jet Flights between U.S.A. and South America. Continental Cuisine. Complimentary Beverage Service." This air carrier was operating three departures a week from Miami at this time nonstop to Bogota with continuing service to two other destinations in South America with a jet configured with a single class cabin. Name the airline and the jet type. And for bonus points, identify the two other destinations served by this thrice weekly flight. ANSWERED

miniliq

Thanks, WHBM. I think you just solved a puzzle for me that came up when we discussed Laker's flights in posts 892-894 (4 years ago!) -- my records were sketchy for a trip we made from LGW-AGP (Malaga) in February of 1979, which I thought were on Laker's DC-10's. I'm now thinking they were indeed on the 707's that came from Qantas. Sure wish I kept better logs in those days.

WHBM

They are a REAL name from the past

http://www.timetableimages.com/ttima...l61/rl61-4.jpg

There are all the stops, along with a decidedly minimalist overnight stop at LAX, arriving there (theoretically) at 0050 on Thursday morning - by the time you were through checks and into their hotel it had to be 0230 local at least. What were the chances the DC-6B was on time though ?

They ordered our old friends Convair 990 jets, but before they were delivered the airline tan out of cash and got merged into Varig, which is how Varig got, reluctantly apparently, their couple of Convairs.

jlemon

Indeed, the carrier was Redes Estaduais Aereas Limitadas Transportes Aereos (marketed as REAL Airlines in the U.S.).

Referencing the timetable you were kind enough to provide the link to, note the time intervals for the stops at all of the intermediate destinations: it was one hour at every stop including the airfield on Wake Island with the exception of Los Angeles where the DC-6B was on the ground for a scheduled ten hour and forty minute RON.

It is reported that REAL may have initially operated this service with a Constellation; however, I've been unable to confirm this.

And can you imagine flying in coach on this flight?

BTW, in the back of the above referenced timetable is this marketing message:

"THE CONVAIR 990: In line with REAL Airlines policy of providing the most advanced aircraft for its huge fleet, jet carrier service soon will be available - using Convair 990 Jetliners, the planes that are years ahead for years to come.

REAL CONVAIRS TO SERVE LEADING U.S. GATEWAYS

REAL, the largest airline of South America, will provide Convair 990 service from the Miami and Los Angeles gateways to all South America, and from Los Angeles on our Orient route to Honolulu and Tokyo."

But, of course, after ordering them, REAL never operated the 990 and the aircraft were then delivered to Varig which apparently wasn't all that excited with regard to receiving them.

miniliq

[QUOTE=jlemon;26485029]Here's a couple of bonus quiz items....

1. It's the summer of 1961 and you are in Sao Paulo on a Monday. A message is delivered and your presence is requested for meeting on the other side of the world in Tokyo. So how to get there? To your astonishment, you discover there is a weekly direct flight that departs Sao Paulo every Tuesday evening and arrives in Tokyo on Saturday morning. And, yes, first class is available. This flight makes seven stops en route including an overnight stop. Identify the airline that operated this flight as well as the equipment, all seven stops in the order in which they were made and the location of the overnight stop. ANSWERED

WHBM beat me by 20 minutes because I was so sure it was Canadian Pacific and I kept looking for info to back that up -- but CP's similar 4-stop service to TYO was from EZE to HKG (with a stop in TYO). http://www.timetableimages.com/ttima...p61/cp61-3.jpg
I think that held a record for one of the longest direct flights at that time.

jlemon

I am also reminded of the Japan Air Lines service into Brazil which was flown back in the mid 1960s to around 1970 with a DC-8. Routing was Tokyo - Honolulu - Los Angeles - New Orleans - Caracas - Belem - Rio de Janeiro. The service was operated "by special schedule" according to the JAL route map.....which I'll guess meant the flight was operated every once in awhile on a less than weekly basis.

miniliq

This is very interesting -- I kept thinking of Avianca and APSA (and even Braniff), but the "19 years of experience" steered me in a different direction -- the answer is AREA Ecuador Airlines, the route in question is Miami-Bogota-Quito-Guayaquil. As for the jet type, it was a de Havilland Comet 4, purchased from BOAC in 1966. It was the only Comet in AREA's tiny fleet. The interesting shenanigans accompanying a "lease" of an Alaskan Airlines Convair 990 in 1968 can be found here: http://www.airlinercafe.com/forums.php?m=posts&q=5729

WHBM

Principally aided by Mrs WHBM having taken over the beef stir-fry in the kitchen. A doubly useful move, as that doubtless ended up much tastier than I could ever have managed !

WHBM

There have been a range of South America to Japan services over time, there is a surprising amount of Japanese influence across the continent - the 1990s Peruvian President Fujimori was from a Japanese family who migrated to Peru in the 1930s.

Both Varig and JAL did services between Japan and Brazil, off and on, over the years, generally routing through Los Angeles. The attempt by REAL at the start of the 1960s was probably the first. As ever with "ethnic connections" routes, they can be low yield, susceptible to being picked off by connecting carriers along the way, and end up not worth doing. There is competition connecting through LAX or (as mentioned above) Vancouver, although Canadian Pacific's Buenos Aires-Vancouver-Tokyo flight, just like their Amsterdam-Vancouver-Sydney run, was little more than timetable presentation, being in truth normal connections at Vancouver. Air France even had a shot in the 1960s at Lima-Papeete-Tokyo with 707s, the aircraft through-routing to Paris at both ends and forming an RTW flight. As ever, didn't last.

Varig also did all-cargo 707 freighters to Japan, which took agricultural products westbound and manufactured goods eastbound, one such flight was lost into the ocean shortly after departure from Tokyo, it had been carrying among others a complete art collection of (another) Japanese-South American, a prominent painter, which were being returned from display in Japan, all of which were lost.

jlemon

Yes sir, the air carrier was AREA Ecuador Airlines (a.k.a. Aerovias Ecuatorianas) operating a Comet 4.....which appears to have been the one and only jet in their fleet at the time in addition to DC-3 and DC-7 aircraft. Here are the scheds....

RE 267: Miami 06:00 - 08:30 Bogota 09:30 - 10:50 Quito 11:45 - 12:25 Guayaquil
Op: Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays only
Equip: JET (Comet 4)
Class of service: S (Jet Standard Service)

RE 266: Guayaquil 08:00 - 08:40 Quito 09:15 - 10:35 Bogota 11:30 - 16:00 Miami
Op: Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays only
Equip: JET (Comet 4)
Class of service: S (Jet Standard Service)

There have been some reports the Comet 4 operated by AREA may have been seized at some point at Miami, perhaps due to financial difficulties being experienced by the airline. It appears this aircraft, HC-ALT, was parked outside in the elements for quite some time at MIA. Several photos of a rather forlorn looking HC-ALT at Miami can been seen at airliners.net.

jlemon

Ah, yes, where would we be without the respective ladies in our lives and their gourmet delights.......

Speaking of which, my lady prepared some absolutely scrumptious crawfish etouffe as well as a superb chicken & Cajun sausage gumbo earlier this week, both of which I'm delighted to report paired quite nicely with a Margaux.

So, Seat 2A, should you happen to read this as you head east toward Louisiana on Amtrak's Sunset Limited this morning, you are in for a treat here in LFT this evening in terms of appetizers before the main culinary event which shall feature several fine selections from Bordeaux as well......

WHBM

According to my Comet notes, this aircraft was retired by BOAC in November 1965, less than 6 years after initial delivery (the Comet 4s didn't last long with BOAC), and was sold to Area in March 1966. It was seized by bailiffs in Miami two years later, in March 1968, and then sat there for 10 years, finally being disposed to a scrap dealer in 1978.

This possibly accounts for why the Convair 990 of Alaska was leased/loaned to Area for a year from that same month, March 1968, through to 1969, as described in the linked article above. The Convair remained on the US register, which probably helped it avoid being seized as well. I wonder who the debt was with.

There was even an aircraft seized in, of all places, London City some years ago, a BAe146 of World Airlines, an impossibly grand name for a carrier who never got beyond one active aircraft and a couple of flights a day to Amsterdam. One day it was towed to the weed patch at the west end and the oldest airport truck parked across the nosewheel with wheelclamps on it, so presumably an airport authority debt. After a month it was released.