WHBM

... based in the USA ???? !!!!

Panama. The one in the Canal Zone, I assume, not the (very pleasant) resort one in the Florida panhandle. 1973, so pretty regulated. Who can I possibly think of ?

Pan Am ? The never ran from Chicago down to the Caribbean, or to anywhere other than London.

Braniff ? Already dismissed.

Panagra ? Already sold out to Braniff. And they were never allowed to run north of Panama anyway. And no 727s

Delta ? They had those obscure routes across the Caribbean, inherited from C&S (see above), but not to Panama and not direct from Chicago.

Eastern ? hadn't grown in the Caribbean much beyond San Juan.

American ? Although they had absorbed Trans Caribbean, nothing around the area. And not from Chicago.

OK. let's embarrass ourselves. Pan Am.

jrl767

how about Baton Rouge (BTR) as the second stop, and 20 F seats out of (I think) the 64 on the jet

WHBM

And one day on, another. There is a longstanding DH89A Dragon Rapide sightseeing operation out of Duxford, which offered a long trip at weekends down to, then across, Central London. They were more prominent some years ago, but gradually faded away, although each year there were still a few. Anyway, they are back with a vengeance this year, every Saturday and Sunday. And one, 1945-built, just put-putted over the house at 1,500 feet. A familiar but unique sound, and cruising at just 100 knots gives time to hear it coming and rush out into the back garden. Someone in flight dispatch has seemingly planned "Due south to overhead WHBM's house, then turn due west along the Thames.".

http://www.classic-wings.co.uk/dragon-rapide-flights/

The DH89A Dragon Rapide was the ultimate secondary scheduled route aircraft of the 1930s in Britain, and many of the then-colonies. A couple of hundred built pre-war, then thousands in WW2 for all sorts of training and communication work. Typical De Havilland, so all-wood construction, of course. It led on post war to the Dove and Heron, as described above, and had its own 4-engined stretch, the DH86A Express. Before too long it's going to have chalked up 100 years in public service.

jlemon

29. No reason for embarrassment..... and that is because Pan Am is correct! Here's the round trip sched.....

PA 243: Chicago (ORD) 11:00 - 14:55 Montego Bay (MBJ) 15:25 - 15:55 Kingston (KIN) 16:25 - 17:55 Panama City (PTY)
Op: Daily
Equip: 727

PA 244: Panama City (PTY) 08:30 - 10:05 Kingston (KIN) 11:00 - 11:30 Montego Bay (MBJ) 12:10 - 15:50 Chicago (ORD)
Op: Daily
Equip: 727

Pan Am's daily service to Jamaica and Panama was the only flight it was operating from Chicago O'Hare at this time according to its April 29, 1973 system timetable.

jlemon

30. Ah, this flight did not stop in Baton Rouge. So here is what we know thus far and what we are looking for:

Delta operating a DC9-10 on a routing of MDW - ___ - MEM - SHV - DAL.

And the DC9 was configured with more than 20 seats in first class.

Indelaware

What is between Chicago and Memphis? St. Louis.

jlemon

Ah, STL has already been guessed by JoeDTW. However, this flight did not stop in St. Louis. And it did not stop in Indianapolis (IND), either. Please guess again!

WHBM

Having looked up the Chicago & Southern routemap (1950 the most recent available) as part of the "Panama pandemonium", there are a few other potential points; Terre Haute, Evansville and Paducah.

http://www.timetableimages.com/ttima...s50/cs50-1.jpg

Evansville (anyone ever heard of it ?) looks like a junction point. let's choose that (Illinois ? Indiana ? Kentucky ?)

If a 1950 route map for a different airline answers a 1973 question that will be notable.

jlemon

30. It is indeed notable, sir, as Evansville, Indiana is the stop we are looking for. Here's the sched....

DL 363: Chicago Midway (MDW) 5:40p - 6:30p Evansville (EVV) 6:45p - 7:30p Memphis (MEM) 8:19p - 9:14p Shreveport (SHV) 9:35p - 10:19p Dallas Love Field (DAL)
Op: Daily
Equip: DC9 Fan Jet
Meal service: snack
Number of seats: 28 (!) in first class and 40 in coach for a total of 68 seats

And now it's time to go buy some St. Augustine grass sod for the yard....and I may just have to replenish the microbrew beer supply as well.

WHBM

Just looked it up. The substantial layover time at each end is surprising, as is the lack of connectivity to any other 727 schedule; it needs two aircraft on something which could be achieved by one in a daily round trip. Turning now to the TT in question, I see it also operated a Panama-Caracas tag flight, overnighting in Caracas, to the PA 747 which ran daily LAX-Guatemala-Panama.

I'm also surprised that the Pan Am from Chicago to London had gone by early 1973. I thought the "swap" with TWA where they divided up the duplicated lesser London routes between one another happened in the fuel crisis of 1974.

Um ... don't use that expression in the UK !

MADPhil

Evansville Illinois is a bit close to St. Louis but Evansville Indiana/Kentucky is about midway between St. Louis and Louisville, and gets you two states for the price of one. If it was an Evansville it would not have been the one in Wisconsin, which lacks an airport, where I used to do some consulting.

Edit: I see that your answer was confirmed while I was contemplating!

Indelaware

I spent a week in Evansville, Indiana one evening; don't get the meatloaf. Still, it is a far more interesting town than Effingham, Illinois. The airport has three paved runways, the longest 8,000+ ft. Modern terminal with bridges. Currently it has non-stop service to ATL, CLT, DFW, DTW, ORD, & SFB.

jlemon

Pan Am was operating nonstop 707 service between Detroit and London in 1973 and one would think they might have had this flight originate and terminate in Chicago. Also interesting to note that BOAC was operating daily nonstop VC10 service between London and Chicago in 1971 while TWA was operating a 747 on their ORD-LHR flight in 1972.

By 1975, PA was no longer flying the ORD-MBJ-KIN-PTY service but was operating a 707 between ORD and JFK and I'm not sure where it went from New York. And by 1979, Pan Am was apparently only operating an all-cargo flight into Chicago.

Air Jamaica was operating from Chicago in 1975 with the aforementioned DC8 service nonstop ORD-MBJ daily except on Tuesdays and Wednesdays when the flight was routed via Nassau (NAS). I think this JM service continued on to Kingston.

Way down south, Copa was around but was not yet flying to the U.S. in 1973. However, I think they were operating Hawker Siddeley 748 service nonstop between Panama City and Kingston in 1969.

".....sod for the yard".

Ah, yes indeed.....and rightly so! Perhaps I should have said "turf" instead!

So, with that, the yard work has been safely concluded for the day and I do believe a rum drink is now in order as our lovely little planet inexorably rotates to the east and the sun begins to set in the west. Now, what to use? The stuff from Barbados or what's left in the bottle from Guyana? Decisions, decisions.....

jrl767

not only have I heard of EVV, I've flown both into and out of it a couple times (~1973-1976)

the first arrival was on an Eastern 727-100 on an icy December evening; I distinctly remember looking out the window as we made a 180-degree turn at the end of the runway, and NOT seeing asphalt below the wing

a year or so later I departed on a Delta DC-9-30; the FAs attempted a limited beverage service despite a fair amount of turbulence ... I was in a window on the 3-seat side, and we hit a substantial bump as they were handing a plastic cup to the guy in the middle seat ... after profuse apologies and a dash to the forward galley for more napkins, one of the other FAs asked the guy in the aisle seat if he would like water or a Coke ... with great aplomb he smiled and said "No thanks, I've already had one"

teddybear99

Sorry, I am not as much as an old timer as others, but did Pan Am even had a choice at this point? I mean wasn't the route regulated by the Government and the airline actually bid on the route when it was first conceived through regulation? This could mean that the Chicago-London route may have been awarded to another airline at that point, and the later deregulation then opened up multiple airlines on the same route whereas Pan Am then was able to operate Chicago-London.