Seat 2A

In addition to jlemon's unanswered questions, I have three of my own:

10. What airlines’ airport lounges were known as “Council Clubs”?

11. This airline provided nonstop 727-25 service between Newark, New Jersey and Niagara Falls International Airport from 1980 to 1984. Name it!

15. In 1988, this appropriately named airline’s aging 737-200 was used as the campaign plane for first Republican Senator Robert Dole and then Massachusetts Governor and eventual Democratic nominee for president, Michael Dukakis. Reporters assigned to Dukakis nicknamed the plane "The Sky Pig" because it was so slow.

WHBM

The Electra was little-used in Europe, only KLM bought them new, and when they were sold they were unknown until much more recent years when they started to come back as freighters with quite a few operators, including in Britain. Although most have now been retired, Atlantic Airlines continue to operate a couple, generally on overnight work. Iam guessing one rumbles high overhead my house in London most nights, but the Electra sounds the same as a Hercules, being basically the same components with a different fuselage.

To me the surprising thing about the Electra when sat on the ramp nowadays is how small they look, I always had a perception that they were a large aircraft, but parked alongside others they do not look so. I particularly recall when they were on the cargo ramp alongside a Vanguard freighter some years ago just how much larger the latter was.

Regarding that complete speculation by myself and jlemon on the Vanguard's route to Palmdale and back, I might have been tempted, though a long way round, to route from Montreal through Calgary and then down to California, on the basis that the Air Canada maintenance inventory there probably still had a good few Vanguard spares on the shelves. Knowing BA, if they were going to take the aircraft to such oddball places they would likely have taken a licenced engineer along with them.

jlemon

United with a B727-100 is correct!

And it has been many years since Pendleton, OR (PDT) had jet service.....

BTW, I've found another jet route that served PDT back in 1969. This one actually originated in Pendleton (the aircraft did a RON there) and was operated with a B737-200:

UA 807: PDT-PDX-EUG-MFR-SFO

jlemon

I'll try a couple here....

11. I believe this airline was Air Niagara with a pair of ex-Eastern B727s....

15. It's gotta be Presidential Airways! This carrier also operated BAe 146s, BAe Jetstream 31s & 32s, Beechcraft 1900s and I think Dash 8-300s. Besides their short lived independent operation, I believe they went on to fly codeshare feeder services for Continental and United....and maybe for Eastern as well, although I'm unsure with regard to the latter.

I am almost certain that Presidential had at least one BAe 146-200 painted in Continental's old red, white and gold colors ("The Proud Bird with the Golden Tail!") which was also most likely the only time the BAe 146 ever saw service on behalf of CO.

They also flew BAe 146s in their own colors. I remember seeing one many years ago at MIA which I think had just arrived from IAD.....

miniliq

Braniff -- in 1966 it had BAC-111 service from MSP to both places, but later dropped both from its route.

miniliq

I can only come up with one -- UA flight 800 in 1974 -- SBA-SFO-MFR (Medford)-SLE with a 727.
I suspected West Coast for the other, but can't find that they ever used jet equipment before becoming Air West, and SLE seems to have dropped off Air West's route map.

miniliq

Braniff -- originally formed as private clubs to meet local liquor regulations.

jlemon

Correct! In the spring of 1966, Braniff International was operating both the BAC One-Eleven and the Convair 340 twin engine recip into Sioux Falls (FSD) and Sioux City (SUX). Sioux Falls had more BAC One-Eleven service operated by BN when compared to Sioux City, with the latter primarily being served with the Convair 340. Examples of actual routes were MSP-FSD-OMA-MKC-TUL-DAL and MSP-SUX-OMA-MKC. There were other route variations as well.

At the same time, Braniff was also operating the Convair 340 into Rochester, MN (RST) and Waterloo, IA (ALO). I can find no evidence that BN ever served these two destinations with the BAC One-Eleven.

And by the summer of 1969, Braniff had discontinued service to all four cities.

jlemon

Correct! And also very interesting to learn that United operated the B727 into Salem, OR (SLE). I was not aware of this as I've only been able to identify B737-200 service operated by UA into Salem, such as this classic milk run route which I found in a 1969 UA timetable that features seven (7) intermediate stops including SLE between LAX and PDX:

UA 868: LAX-FAT-MCE-MOD-SCK-SFO-EUG-SLE-PDX

As for West Coast and Air West, I do not believe these carriers ever operated DC-9 service into SLE.

Horizon Air did serve Salem at one point, but I believe they only operated 19 passenger Metroliner turboprops into SLE and thus did not use the Fokker F-28 "Fellowship" to serve this destination.

In fact, for many years, Salem, which is the state capitol of Oregon, had no scheduled passenger air service whatsoever.....

Then SkyWest, operating as the Delta Connection, attempted SLE-SLC nonstop service with a Canadair CRJ-200 regional jet. However, this service was discontinued due to lack of traffic. And once again, Salem currently does not have any air service.

Cattle Airlines

The Caravelle questions are very interesting. All the questions are fun but the Caravelle ones were more interesting that some of the obscure routes. However, really obscure or unusual routes are sometimes fun (like between 2 non-hub cities or from a major city to a far away small city).

jlemon

Well, then, here's one for you and the gang.......

What airline operated nonstop jet service between Mexico City (MEX) and Windsor, Ontario (YQG)? Also identify the aircraft type.

cs57

I will venture to say it was CP Air, using DC-8 aircraft between Windsor and MEX. Much more to say, but thunderstorms are preventing internet realiability! (most of us via phone lines here in Vermont).

Seat 2A

Sorry gang - we've only just gotten the internet back up here at Latitude 64N. And now for the answers...

And yes, miniliq, you are correct with Braniff as the operator of Council Clubs. I remember buying one month memberships at $5.00 a pop back in the early 80s.

jlemon

Correct! Well, actually it was Canadian Pacific, the predecessor of CP Air, but close enough!

Actual routing was MEX-YQG-YUL with a DC-8. I do not think Canadian Pacific was permitted to carry local domestic traffic between YQG and YUL as one could travel between Windsor and Montreal on Trans-Canada via YYZ. TCA appeared to be the favored airline in Canada back in those days with regard to the Canadian goverment and route authority.

jlemon