JoeDTW

None of these stops is correct. I'll give a hint: all five stops were in Africa.

YVR Cockroach

Last stab at this, based on what may have been commercially-important destinations of the day.

EBB Kampala Entebbe
FIH Kinshasa
LOS Lago
ACC Accra
ROB Monrovia

JoeDTW

You're very, very close. Entebbe was not a stop, so you got 4 out of 5 right, in geographical order.

The flight's route was JNB-FIH-LOS-ACC-ROB-xxx-JFK

jlemon

Well, those PI B767-200ER flights were so long ago that I honestly do not remember. I do recall the very gracious service and excellent food. And I also recall being impressed with the IFE music selection, especially jazz selections featuring the Pat Metheny Group.

jlemon

Thanks for these great quiz items, JoeDTW! I've been letting others take a stab at them but shall now try my hand with a couple of semi-wild guesses....

10. Routing may have been San Francisco - Honolulu - Pago Pago - Nadi - Sydney - Denpasar. As for the equipment, I'll go with a 747 SFO-HNL with a 707 the rest of the way.

11. I think the next stop was Hong Kong.

YVR Cockroach

Going by what I used to guess, the last stop is probably Dakar DKR?

Seat 2A

I'm just going to move JoeDTW's questions up to the forefront for ease of access. Great questions and answers to far!

THis quiz is based on the Oct 31, 1976 Pan Am system timetable. If other airlines are mentioned, their schedules are from around the same time. Auto assembly plant information is based on Wikipedia for the 1977 model year.

Intermediate stops on Pan Am flights often varied based on the day of the week. If a day of week is mentioned in a question, the answer will be for that day of the week, but I'll mention alternate routings for the flight once a question is answered. And now, on with the quiz.

In the fall of 1976, you're working as lead mechanic in the executive parking garage at Ford world headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan. Quality was NOT job one at Ford in the 1970s, so you're kept very busy maintaining the cars of Henry Ford II, Lee Iacocca, and other Ford executives. One day, you're able to leave work a little early, and drive over to the almost new six gate International Terminal at Detroit Metro Airport, to pick up the latest timetables of British Airways and Pan Am, the only airlines using the (almost empty) building. To your horror, Henry Ford II shows up for a flight to Europe, but instead of berating you for leaving work early, he invites you to join him upstairs in the Clipper Club, and asks you about your airline enthusiasm.

1. On Tuesday, November 2, you get a call from Mr. Ford. Lincoln has just launched the Continental Mark V, and the Shah of Iran will pay top dollar to have one by Thursday. Mr Ford doesn't think it can be done, but he asks you to try. You place a quick call to the Wixom assembly plant about 30 miles away, and they have a Mark V in the Shah's favorite color on the factory lot. You check the Pan Am timetable, and they have a freighter that very night from Detroit to Tehran, for Thursday morning arrival.
The flight makes one enroute stop in the US, and three stops in Europe, with a 747F from DTW to the final enroute stop, and a 707F the rest of the way. Name all 4 stops.

2. The Shah is so happy his Mark V arrived on time that he invites you to Tehran to give you an award. Pan Am doesn't have a direct flight from DTW to THR, but you can take a 747 from DTW to Europe with one intermediate stop in the US, then another 747 from your connecting airport to THR with one enroute stop. Name the airport you change planes in, and the airports each of your flights stops at.

ANSWERED: The first flight is DTW-BOS-LHR, and the second flight is LHR-FRA-THR.

The timetable says both flights used 747s, but it does not differentiate between 747-100s and 747 SPs. I know PA was using both aircraft at various times in 1976 on DTW-BOS-LHR, but I don't know what was being used in Nov 76.

3. On Wednesday, November 17, Mr. Ford calls again. The son of the Uruguayan Finance Minister has just burned up the engine of his Thunderbird, and Uruguay is threatening to impound all of Ford's assets in the country unless someone can be in Montevideo with a new engine ASAP. You make a quick call to the plant in the Los Angeles suburb of Pico Rivera, California where the TBird is assembled - yes, they have the exact replacement engine you need in the factory's inventory. You race to DTW, are on board UA 81 to LAX just before the DC-10's door closes at 10:10 AM, and spend the afternoon in Pico Rivera crating the engine for shipment.

Pan Am has a Thursday only 3 stop passenger flight from LAX to MVD, with a 747 as far as the 2nd intermediate stop, and a 707 the rest of the way. Name all 3 stops.

ANSWERED: The flight is routed JFK-GUA-PTY-EZE-MVD, with a 747 to PTY and a 707 the rest of the way.

4. You arrive in Montevideo on Friday morning, and are able to quickly install the new engine. On Fridays, Pan Am has a flight from Montevideo to New York City that makes just one intermediate stop. (a. name the stop, and the equipment. (b. on other days of the week, this flight makes another stop. Name the 2nd stop.

ANSWERED: On Friday, this flight routed MVD-EZE-JFK. On other days, it routed MVD-EZE-GIG-JFK. 707s were used on all flights.

5. You arrive at the World Port at 6:50 AM on Saturday morning, and decide to stop at the Clipper Club. You encounter PA president Bill Seawell, and when you tell him you are Henry Ford II's trouble shooter, he types up a letter asking PA employees to extend you "every courtesy possible".

You are really surprised at how few flights to Europe Pan Am has from JFK. Two cities are served 2x day, one city is served 1x day, and one city is served 3x week. Name the 4 cities, and the equipment used to each of them.

ANSWERED: LHR and FRA were the two cities served 2x day, with 747s. FCO was the city served 1x day. CPH was served 3x week with 707s. 1x week, the flight continued to Warsaw, and 2x week it continued to Moscow.

6. You're also surprised that PA has nonstops to six US cities from New York, although PA can carry local traffic to just one of them. Name the city PA carries local traffic to, the 5 they can't, and the equipment to all 6.

FAI is the local traffic city, with a 707.

SFO (747), MIA (707) and PHL (707) are three of the no local traffic cities. We still need two others. One was served with a 747, and the other with a mix of 747s and 707s. LAX, CLE, MSP, and BAL have been ruled out when people answered this question, and DTW was ruled out through an incorrect answer to Question 2 above.

7. On Wednesday, December 1, Henry Ford II "asks" you to escape the cold of Detroit for Africa. The daughter of a South African government official has a Mercury Bobcat with a defective transmission, and the mother of a Kenyan government official has a Mercury Monarch with a broken speedometer. Luckily, the factories that make these cars are close together; the Bobcat factory is in Edison, New Jersey, and the Monarch factory is just a few miles north in Mahwah. You take Northwest 46 to Newark that afternoon, and after your DC-10 arrives, you spend Thursday picking up the parts, before heading to JFK.

Pan Am has a 1 stop on Thursday night from JFK to JNB, with a 747 to the first stop and a 707 the rest of the way. Where is the stop?

ANSWERED: Rio de Janeiro is the correct answer.

8. Your flight gets into JNB on Friday night. On Saturday, you are able to get the Bobcat working again. On Sunday, you fly to Nairobi, and on Monday you complete the repairs to the Monarch.

On Monday afternoon, Pan Am has a 5 stop from Nairobi to JFK. Name all 5 stops, and the equipment used.

ANSWERED: The flight's routing is Nairobi-Kinshasa-Lagos-Accra-Monrovia-Dakar-New York City.

9. On the night of Monday, December 13, a VERY upset Mr. Ford calls you at home. Earlier that year, while he and his wife were visiting Imelda Marcos in Manila, he told his wife he was going away for a few days to a Balinese yoga retreat. However, he actually was doing the "horizontal mambo" with a very lithe Balinese limbo dancer. He'd arranged for her to get a brand new Pinto to show her his appreciation, but the Pinto's fuel filler pipe is already cracked, and she's so terrified the car, and her, will go up in flames that she's threatening to tell the truth unless someone can repair her car - now!

You immediately call the manager of the Pinto / Bobcat factory in Milpitas, California (near San Jose) and ask him to meet you at San Francisco Airport around noon the next day with replacement parts. Now, how to get to SFO?

American and United both have morning nonstops from DTW to SFO. Each flight originates in a different city east of DTW. Name (a the origin and (b the equipment for each airline's flight.

ANSWERED: AA and UA both flew DC-10s on the route. AA's flight originated in BUF, and UA's originated in PIT.

10. On Tuesday afternoons, Pan Am has a four stop flight from SFO to Bali, with an equipment change enroute. Name all four stops, with equipment. The flight arrives in Denpasar on Thursday afternoon.

ANSWERED: The correct routing was SFO-LAX-HNL-AKL-SYD-DPS. The change of gauge took place in SYD.

11. You have plenty of time to think about how to get home from Bali on your long flight there. Pan Am has just two flights a week, on Thursdays and Mondays. Much as you'd like to spend a few days on Bali, you know that would never be acceptable to Mr. Ford. You tel ex ahead to Denpasar to have welding equipment waiting for you at the airport, then you show the letter Mr. Seawell gave you to Pan Am's station manager when you arrive. The station manager agrees to delay the flight in Denpasar until you can repair the Pinto.

After the Pinto is repaired, you board the same flight you came in on, with a written statement from the limbo dancer denying her earlier allegations, and take the flight one stop further. Where is the next stop after Denpasar?

ANSWERED: The next stop was Hong Kong

The city you arrive in is a regional hub for PA. You spend the night there, then fly home the next morning.

12. Mr. Ford is so happy that you've saved him from embarassment that he invites you to his office, and says "what would you like most for Christmas?". Most people would choose a new Mustang or Lincoln, but as an airline enthusiast, you say you want to fly on the Concorde, which began flying a few months earlier. The Concorde doesn't fly to DTW, but Mr. Ford gladly buys you a ticket on a Northwest 727 to DCA, arranges for a chauffeured Lincoln to take you to IAD, then an onward flight on the Concorde from IAD.

While you're at IAD, you stop at Pan Am's ticket counter, but there isn't a lot going on. Pan Am has just two international flights a day, one leaving in the early afternoon, and the other in the evening. Name the destinations and equipment for both flights.

London is correct.

Bermuda is incorrect. Pan Am's routes to Bermuda went to AA as part of the PA / AA route swap, and PA no longer served any Caribbean destinations from IAD.

Seat 2A

Only two questions left. Good Luck!

8. In late 1988, the Salt Lake City to Minneapolis route has traditionally been operated by Western/Delta. In mid-1988 however, there were four airlines offering nonstop service on this route. Identify each of the four airlines involved. And – just to make it interesting – the only correct answer accepted will be the one that correctly identifies ALL four of the airlines, i.e. it's like a combination lock so three out of four will be considered incorrect. Go get ‘em, guys!
A N S W E R E D

16. In its 1947 advertisements, this European airline referred to its largest trans-Atlantic aircraft as “Comets”. Identify the airline and the aircraft type so referenced.
A N S W E R E D

Seat 2A

5. You arrive at the World Port at 6:50 AM on Saturday morning, and decide to stop at the Clipper Club. You are really surprised at how few flights to Europe Pan Am has from JFK. Two cities are served 2x day, one city is served 1x day, and one city is served 3x week. Name the 4 cities, and the equipment used to each of them.

LHR and FRA were the two cities served 2x day, with 747s. FCO was the city served 1x day.

We're still looking for the city served 3x week. Paris, BRU, and AMS are incorrect.

This is a little off the wall because just as I was about to say Oslo, it occurred to me that Moscow also received direct service from New York at one point. I just hope that point was inclusive of 1976.

jlemon

8. Well, let's see here.....I think Delta and Northwest are the obvious and logical first and second choice what with their respective hubs in SLC and MSP at the time.

The other two air carriers are a bit more problematic. But what the heck, let's go for Pan Am and TWA.

Seat 2A

Per jlemon: 8. In late 1988, the Salt Lake City to Minneapolis route has traditionally been operated by Western/Delta. In mid-1988 however, there were four airlines offering nonstop service on this route. Identify each of the four airlines involved. And – just to make it interesting – the only correct answer accepted will be the one that correctly identifies ALL four of the airlines, i.e. it's like a combination lock so three out of four will be considered incorrect. Go get ‘em, guys!

Well, let's see here.....I think Delta and Northwest are the obvious and logical first and second choice what with their respective hubs in SLC and MSP at the time.

The other two air carriers are a bit more problematic. But what the heck, let's go for Pan Am and TWA.

We have acknowledged already that DL & NW are correct. Keeping it interesting here in the style of the original question, I'll say that you've correctly listed one of the two other airlines. Pick the correct one plus add one more and Bob's your uncle!

jlemon

8. Well, Monty, I'll stick with TWA. And behind door number four? Let's try America West.

Seat 2A

Ah what the heck - in the interests of expediency, let's admit here that DL, NW and TW are correct. HP is not. You're almost there! By 1988 there weren't a lot of other options... Good luck!

YVR Cockroach

There was a clue a couple of pages back that one of the non-hub airlines is still operating. Since AA was rather weak out west back then, I'll jump in and guess the 4th carrier was UA.

jlemon

Late 1988, you say....perhaps this was a seasonal service for the skis season? Hmmmmmm......how about United.