jlemon

9. You are off to a great start here.....

The Boeing 727-200 is correct....however, Pacific Southwest was operating less than 23 72S aircraft at the end of 1981.

The Boeing 727-100 is correct as well.....but the airline was flying less than six 727 aircraft at this time.

And PSA had not yet begun operating the British Aerospace BAe 146.

WHBM

I think PSA will have begun their MD-80 fleet by 1981. They came pretty rapidly at the start, possibly a dozen in use by this time.

PSA served Long Beach, where the MD-80 was built. I'm trying to think of other major carriers who operated from airfields where their airliners were built. I can think of two in Europe. I suppose that could be a bonus question.

jrl767

I believe the CASA C-212 line was at Sevilla (SVQ), although I'm not aware of any small Spanish airline that may have operated it ... nowadays in Europe a fair number of Airbus operators of course serve Toulouse-Blagnac (TLS)

going back to the early 1960s on this side of the pond, Delta and American served San Diego, where their Convair 880 and 990 fleets, respectively, were produced

jlemon

9. The McDonnell Douglas MD-80 is correct, of course. And your guess of a dozen of the type being operated by Pacific Southwest at the end of 1981 is very close: PSA was operating thirteen MD-80 aircraft at this time with more on order.

As for the Boeing trijets in the fleet, the airline was operating fifteen B727-200 and three B727-100 aircraft by the end of 1981 and was planning to phase out all of the 727s from its fleet with nine 72S aircraft being sold to Piedmont during 1981.

Just several years earlier, the 727 figured prominently in the PSA fleet. In 1977, the airline was operating twenty-three 727-200s and six 727-100s. Four Lockheed L-188 Electras were also being flown at this time primarily for service into Lake Tahoe.

By 1982, PSA was down to nine 727-200s with twenty-one MD-80s in the fleet. The two L-1011 TriStar aircraft were still around as well at this time but were parked and not being flown.

And by 1983, Pacific Southwest had added four used DC-9-30 aircraft to its fleet. The first of twenty BAe 146-200 aircraft was on the way and the MD-80 fleet was planned to reach twenty-six aircraft by mid 1984.

Good old PSA.....I enjoyed my flights on their L-188 Electra, 727-200, MD-80 and BAe 146-200 aircraft.

So how about another PSA bonus quiz item?

10. During the early 1980's, Pacific Southwest was planning to begin a hub and spoke operation at an airport it had never served. Sixteen destinations were to be served from this airport and PSA was in talks with another airline as part of the plan to begin this new operation. Identify this airport and also name the other air carrier. ANSWERED

jlemon

Although I think this airline actually had its corporate headquarters in nearby Signal Hill, Jet America's home base was Long Beach Airport (LGB) and its primary aircraft type operated in scheduled passenger service was the MD-82. Of course, Jet America was not a major air carrier but did serve destinations across the U.S. during its existence before being acquired by Alaska Airlines. I also believe Jet America had a couple of Boeing 707 aircraft at one point but they were only used for charter flights.

WHBM

Random musings ...

Regarding the PSA Tristars, their second one, N10112, has been making a flight today, which is probably the only Tristar flight this year, and maybe for some years. It's been at Tucson AZ for a long time, but was taken "home" to Kansas City, their old TWA maintenance base, flown by onetime crews.

http://uk.flightaware.com/live/flight/N910TE


"411A" was doubtless looking down and speeding them along ...

Meanwhile, believe it or not, there's a De Havilland DH89 Dragon Rapide (British domestic airliner of choice in the 1930s) operator still going out of Duxford airfield, near Cambridge, over here. They do various little experience flights, generally at weekends, among which coming down to do a sightseeing run across central London at 2,000 feet is their big one. They've been doing it for years, steadily less and less over time, but that familiar gentle tinkling sound of the Gipsy Major engines is always enough to have me out of the house pronto, as the basic routing seems to be "South to overhead WHBM's house, turn west there along the River Thames, then back home".

Anyway, this year they are back in force. It's been every weekend all summer. Today it was even visible before I heard it, coming so slowly towards me, a fine biplane with those elegantly tapered wings coming straight towards me. If we ever have a summertime OTAQ&D Do in London, that has to be on the agenda.

Regarding airlines serving where their aircraft were built, did either Delta or American ever use their Convair jets to San Diego ? A quick scan of Delta's 1966 timetable, pretty much their Convair jet peak, shows everything to California on a DC8. Likewise American, did they ever use their Cv990 to San Diego ? However their piston predecessor, the Convair 340, was certainly a regular there in its time with both United and Western.

In Europe, Toulouse, where the Airbus plant is on the main airport, certainly has had a good range over time, Air France being slowly overhauled there nowadays by Easyjet. You can only count A320s and the widebodies, as the A319 and A321 are all made elsewhere. The other one that occurred to me is Amsterdam, where the Fokker plant was on the opposite side of the airport. KLM never showed much interest in the F27 or F28, but finally got into big time fleets of the more recent ones, F50, F70 and F100, a few of these still being around.

And then I thought of PSIOW. Now I've done a Google search for them, nothing came up, so it requires some knowledge. Who were they, and whose aircraft did they buy from the factory across the field ?

jrl767

my first flight on a TriStar was aboard N10112 in Jan 1975

indeed; that would have been a great add to our visit last summer

DL ran the 880 into SAN in summer 1962 and AA had a flight in summer 1963

WHBM

Here's the details, anyone who fancies it. There are some good air-to-air videos on their linked Facebook page.

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

This must have been one of the lowest time Tristars ever, not that this probably shows too much after 42 years. PSA gave up operations with them at the start of 1976, it then sat in the desert until early 1979 when Aero Peru got it. They gave it back in mid 1982, it then sat for another 3 years until onetime Canadian charter operator Worldways took it. Back to the desert in 1990, then in 1994 it was taken (presumably at a residual cost) by a medical charity, who converted it into a flying hospital, which I am sure was very useful, but it only accumulated a fraction of the flying hours an airline would do. It did get to Africa a few times. It's been sat at Tucson since 2001.

jlemon

I believe Orbital ATK, an aerospace company, still has an operational L-1011 series 100, N140SC, named "Stargazer". The aircraft is used to air launch the company's Pegasus XL rocket into space. I saw this aircraft about a year or so ago at the Kennedy Space Center where it was being used to air launch a NASA payload. A NASA F/A-18 was the chase aircraft for the mission.

jlemon

In 1966, AA was operating Convair 990 service on a westbound JFK-ORD-TUS-SAN-LAX routing. We actually had a quiz item concerning this flight some time ago. Of course, as we have had over 11,000 posts here on the OTAQ&D and have been at this for over five and one-half years now, it's getting kinda hard to remember all of the quiz items that have been posted.....

jrl767

up until yesterday I was of the belief that "Stargazer" was the last airworthy TriStar on the US registry

and back to PSA: they of course were a big player at Burbank, home of the Electra; I don't believe Western ever served BUR with their turboprops, however

and speaking of BUR, TWA operated Constellations there -- on both scheduled and flag-stop service -- in Dec 1953

jlemon

I do not believe Western ever served Burbank with the L-188 Electra. In the early 1960's, WA was operating DC-6B service between BUR and SFO; however, Western then discontinued all service into Burbank. BTW, they did operate Electra service into Long Beach (LGB), Ontario (ONT) and Palm Springs (PSP) during mid 1960's. WA finally returned to BUR during the mid 1980's when they introduced B737-300 service between the airport and their Salt Lake City (SLC) hub.

And here comes our usual afternoon thundershower. Plus, for added excitement, NWS has issued a Special Weather Statement for tropical funnel clouds which are weak tornadoes aloft that do not touch down.....usually.

WHBM

I was in the San Fernando Valley in 1978-9. Burbank was a busy little airport then (I wonder how the volumes compare to today). Pretty straightforward operations, various Californian points were wholly with PSA 727-200s, and some out-of state points were Hughes DC9-30s. That was it. I think the Hughes routes were substantial operations to Las Vegas and Phoenix, maybe Salt Lake and Reno as well. PSA were to the set of northern California points, plus a significant number of 727 flights to San Diego, which mostly through-routed from the likes of Oakland or Sacramento. There always seemed to be a good planeload waiting at a San Diego gate when I passed through, this is a market which, for whatever reason, just faded away. And the 405 has not got any better !

I was at the time with someone who had (not too( old family photos of them on a Holiday Airlines Electra, Burbank to Lake Tahoe. Were Holiday schedules or a charter ? And were they based at Burbank ? That's another for the list.

Bonus question. Who famously stood in the Burbank terminal with a DC3 behind them ready to depart.

jlemon

Well, I'm not sure just where Holiday Airlines was based. Perhaps Seat 2A can dig up an old OAG containing their corporate address...

What I do know is that Holiday Airlines (HD) flight schedules showed up in the OAG under the heading of "Intra-State" (as did Air California and PSA) which leads me to believe they were indeed a scheduled operator.

Lots of thunder outside at the moment....and this may portend a rather strong thunderstorm arriving into our neighborhood in about half an hour or so....

jlemon

Wild guess time.....Bob Hope.

And getting back to the Long Beach Airport, I should mention that Western was operating DC-6B service from LGB by the late 1950's. However, I believe the DC-6B was not manufactured in Long Beach. Bonus quiz item: So where was the DC-6B built?