JoeDTW

My guess for the MDW-DAL route:

DL served MDW longer than some other airlines did, so I'll guess a DL DC-9-30, via STL, MEM, and LIT, with 8 seats in F.

jlemon

Correct! Boeing 727-200 flights operated by Southwest were few and far in between back in 1979, including:

Three roundtrips a day DAL-HOU

One roundtrip a day DAL-ELP

One roundtrip on Sundays only DAL-LBB

One roundtrip a day HOU-HRL (operated DAL-HOU-HRL r/t daily except on Sundays)

One roundtrip a day HOU-MSY

The "Our History" section of the Southwest website has these interesting statements concerning the Boeing 727-200 as well:

August 3, 1978 - "Southwest Airlines and Braniff International jointly announce that the two companies have settled all of their long-standing differences and have signed agreements under which Braniff with lease a 727-200 aircraft to Southwest for a period of two years (effective March 1979), and also provide training and maintenance services in connection therewith."

However, it appears this BN 72S did not even last one year in the WN fleet.....

January 10, 1980 - "Southwest returns the Boeing 727-200 that was under lease from Braniff International."

Then the 72S apparently came back into favor at Southwest......

September 8, 1983 - "Southwest leases two Boeing 727-200 aircraft for one year."

February 24, 1984 - "Southwest announces the acquisition of two additional 727-200s that were on lease from People Express."

And it also appears a fifth 72S was added to the WN fleet at some point....

September 10, 1985 - "Southwest announces the return of five 727-200 aircraft operated from HOU by the end of 1985 and will replace them with quieter Stage III Boeing 737-300 aircraft."

So that makes six Boeing 727-200 aircraft formerly operated by WN. The lone Braniff airplane is the one I saw at HOU and MSY back in 1979 while the other one I saw later on at LAX apparently came from People Express.

Indelaware

Still looking for one:

Indelaware

Correct. 22 fatalities including crew.

http://aviation-safety.net/database/...?id=19890321-0

jlemon

30. You are off to an excellent start here as Delta is the airline we are looking for. However, the aircraft was not a DC-9-30 (although it was a twin engine jet, which leaves......)

Plus, St. Louis and Little Rock were not served by this flight....but it did stop in Memphis.

And there were more than eight seats in first class.

jlemon

I want to say the third airline was Continental. However, CO may not be correct as I know United was operating separate interchange services with DC-6B equipment both with BN and CO back in the early 1960's.

In both cases the interchange point was Denver.

The BN-UA service operated northbound HOU-DAL-LBB-DEN-SLC-SEA.

The CO-UA service operated northbound TUL-ICT-DEN-BOI-PDX-SEA.

Indelaware

Continental is correct. The schedule I have is from 1959 and does not include LBB. I have since learned that the aircraft was owned by Continental but maintained by United. Good work coming up with the right answer when the question was wrong.

jlemon

Still looking for a response on this one....and it appears there was only one stretched Heron and that the airline that operated it may have performed the modifications including the lengthening of the fuselage and installation of new engines in-house.

Paging WHBM.......

WHBM

Aaah, De Havilland.

I believe there were multiple stretched Heron versions, by different stretching companies.

Alas I was in the office at 0730 and left at 2200, currently just collapsed here after midnight with a whisky and lemonade still sat here mainly undrunk (self likewise), let's wait for tomorrow ... zzzzzz.

jlemon

We look forward to your response, sir! And I hope you saved that drink!

The Heron I am referring to was operated by Prinair. And if I've got this right, it was modified in Opa Locka, Florida. The fuselage was stretched around 17 feet and Continental 520 piston engines were installed. The result was a very interesting looking aircraft....downright elegant looking, I might add, which I think in the aviation fantasy world just might be the result of a Super DC8-61 giving birth!

One can see this airplane on airliners.net by selecting "Advanced" in the photo section and then plugging in"N574PR" in the "Reg" column.

jlemon

And on a Friday morning as we roll into a big holiday weekend here in the U.S., here are eight quiz items concerning Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) and the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar.....

1. How many new L-1011 aircraft manufactured by Lockheed at their plant in Palmdale, CA were painted in PSA's full company colors?

2. Lockheed added a fairing underneath of the forward fuselage of the PSA TriStars. Why did they do this?

3. How many seats did PSA's L-1011s have on the main deck of the aircraft?

4. What was unique about the PSA TriStar aircraft in terms of the location of 16 passenger seats?

5. Why did PSA send an L-1011 with a full complement of twelve lady flight attendants to Hong Kong (HKG) in 1974?

6. On what date was PSA's first TriStar placed into revenue service on an intrastate flight in California and where did it depart from on this first flight?

7. What was PSA's initial turnaround time between flights with the L-1011 and what was this turn time subsequently changed to?

8. After PSA removed their TriStar aircraft from service, another airline proposed to use these stored aircraft on a premium shuttle service operated on weekdays between Chicago O'Hare (ORD) and New York LaGuardia (LGA) and then attempt to operate charter services with them on the weekends. However, this plan never came to fruition. Identify the air carrier that proposed this plan.

WHBM

The Prinair Heron-Max was indeed a big project for an airline, they must have had some considerable technical staff, though much was done by a contractor at Opa Locka. I believe it was extensively tested but never managed to get certified and into passenger service. Shame

The Heron page on Wikipedia has a photo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:D...air_011273.jpg

The bigger conversion was the Saunders ST-27, which replaced the 4 De Havilland engines with 2 PT-6A turboprops. Not as tricky as it sounds, as the Heron wing was just an extension of the De Havilland Dove, which was a twin. About a dozen were converted, this also had a fuselage stretch to balance weight to power, it must have been easy to cut a Heron in two and put extensions in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saunders_ST-27

Principal user was Air Atonabee from Peterborough, Ontario, which ran to Montreal and Toronto, plus some early services from Toronto Island airport, nowadays the centre for Porter Airlines. The ST-27s ran to Ottawa and Montreal in the 1980s.

"Aaah De Havilland" is traditional to shout back whenever the DeH name is mentioned. That has a background, as when UK aircraft registrations restarted as G-AAAA in 1928, and went very strictly in alphabetical order for the next 50 years or more (they finally got to G-AZZZ and then G-BAAA in 1973, the latter just happened to be one of the Court Line Tristars), the eighth aircraft in the new series was De Havilland Moth biplane G-AAAH which belonged to 1920s aviatrix Amy Johnson, first woman to fly solo from Britain to Australia. It's now in the Science Museum, London if you care to go and see it.

But better to see, today, driving in Essex along the M25 motorway around London at lunchtime, coming towards me at about 2,500 feet (max for VFR there) was a WW2 deHavilland Tiger Moth biplane, essentially the same type. Wonderful. It had the extension strut on top which supports wing walkers, for whom the Tiger Moth has always been the favourite type. Nobody up there, but maybe this weekend there will be. I'll keep a lookout in the news.

jlemon

Absolute last call for both of these! As JoeDTW partially answered the MDW to DAL flight and WHBM made a solemn vow to provide an answer for the ORD to PTY service, I'll let these sit out there until tomorrow.

WHBM

OK. Last Chance Saloon. Air Panama had just got a few secondhand 727s. Did they attempt a service to Chicago through Jamaica ?

I may as well have a shot at the Delta one while I'm here. If it was a twin jet but not a D9S the only other contender Delta had would be a DC-9-10. Stops along the way ? Maybe Indianapolis, Memphis and Shreveport. Something of an old Chicago & Southern Airlines routing, who Delta absorbed in 1956.

jlemon

Yes sir, welcome to the Last Chance Saloon! Would that be an ale tonight, sir, or perhaps our signature G&T? Ah, we also have a lovely and properly cellared and aged Margaux, should you be so inclined....

29. Alas, it was not Air Panama. So here is an additional hint, respectfully offered: the airline in question was based in the U.S.

30. Indeed, it was a DC-9-10 which, of course, was the initial Douglas twin jet operated by Delta (I just read that DL very recently retired one the first MD-90 aircraft they had taken delivery of new all those years ago). And although the flight did not stop in IND, it did stop in SHV. But what about the number of first class seats on this DC9? Surprisingly, it was a relatively large number. In fact, it was almost as many as could be found back in coach.

Meantime, the Big Long Holiday Weekend is now definitely underway here in the Colonies. Something about our independence from the Mother Country way back in the day.....and it appears this event will be punctuated by brilliant incandescent colors accompanied by loud explosions. We've also heard there just might be a local flyby on the Fourth conducted by a couple of F-15 Louisiana ANG aircraft based down in the vicinity of New Orleans. We shall see.....and meantime, I've begun my observance this afternoon by imbibing a San Diego microbrew rendition of a classic beverage initially brewed in the U.K....being a Ballast Point Brewing Company "Victory at Sea" Porter with coffee and vanilla. Very nice!