Wally Bird

Pink, orange, cream and turquoise, but since each had three shades thereof it's actually 12 colo(u)rs. Also many examples of hybrid schemes with partial shades - see airliners.net. The L-1011s were pink and cream, the third one (turquoise) was never delivered.

Seat 2A

A combination of work schedules, road construction, time zones and quality internet access has delayed response time but it looks as if WHBM has swept up most of these questions anyway, so minimal impact noted. We'll give him (and perhaps the rest of youse) some more in a few days!

[QUOTE=WHBM;19016985]1. Electra Miami to Panama. Likely one of Ecuatoriana’s, operating on through to Guayaquil and Quito.

You would likely be correct!

2. European 707, Guayaquil to Bogota. Well this is a toss-up between Air France and Lufthansa. I’d go for the latter.

An excellent choice. Lufthansa it was.

3. Bogota-Barranquilla-Miami in another Electra. There were two Colombian Electra operators in 1969, Aerocondor and SAM, and I think they both served Miami.

I didn't see any SAM schedules into Miami (and I'm not so sure they even served MIA either, at least not in 1969), but AeroCondor did indeed operate its colorful Electras into Miami on this route.

4. There were still various long-distance US trains in 1969, but I doubt the accolade “crack” still applied to many/any. Steve Goodman’s “15 cars and 15 restless riders” in 'The City of New Orleans' (written two years later) sort of sums it up. What a shame (incidentally, I rode by chance, the last week’s operation of traditional Roomette cars in 1980 on the Southwest Limited, Chicago to LA, in 1980. I doubt the cars had had any maintenance since before 1969). Anyway, to the DC8 from Washington to London. This would be the Pan Am-Delta interchange flight from Atlanta up through Washington to London. Operated for years just by pan Am aircraft, the arrangements had changed and the last Pan Am DC8-33 had been sold to Delta just a couple of months before, whose aircraft therefore started appearing in London, quite a novelty.

Throughout its 40 years of service (1939–79) the Champion was always a big money maker and remained a fast, reliable, full service operation until Amtrak took over in 1971. ACL, SAL and SCL had maintained exceptionally high standards on its popular Florida streamliners while other railroads gave up on passenger service. According to former ACL/SCL/Amtrak train attendant James Longmire (now retired in Jacksonville, Florida), "The Champ was always packed and we didn't stop serving dinner until everyone got fed... no matter how long it took. We called the Champ "Big Bertha" because tips were so good we didn't have to cash our paychecks."

You're right of course that by 1969 many of America's great trains were mere shadows of their former glory. Some dimmed less than others though - two notable examples being the California Zephyr (which I rode 1n 1969) and Santa Fe's Super Chief, along with the Champion.

5. Oh dear. Well, firstly Holiday Inn weren’t trading in the UK in 1969, notwithstanding that they have been UK-owned corporation for the last quarter-century. Try The Excelsior, facing Heathrow (nowadays incorporated into the Park Inn), it’s brand new in 1969. But the bar won’t be open by the time you get back, so you had better have a bottle or two in your room. Oh, and darts matches “for money” would have been against UK law at that time without a licence – which were never granted!

"Oh dear." (I love it!) Well this is where I had to employ my warped imagination. Good thing I'm not burdened with an abundance of either pride or ego lest the chagrin of such egregious errors silence me for good! As it were, I'm going to operate on the assumption that there were some discrete side bets made and won by our traveler at the dart tournament and as for accommodations - well, next time let's try for Super 8!

Air India had a longstanding daily flight, Qantas operated this way to Australia, then (really scratching my memory here) El Al routed through London a couple of times a week. I’m guessing Kuwait Airways for the last, who were on the route later but don’t know the start date. However, I just cannot believe anyone would choose a 707 flight on this route when BOAC were operating VC-10s!

Good call on Air India, Qantas and El Al. The other airline operated a DC-8 on this route...

6. New York to Port au Prince. I think Pan Am only went there from Miami at this stage, so I’ll go for …. Air France, on another 707. They had doubtless got their First Class caterer in New York up to top notch for the Paris flights, so these would be an experience as well (note that AF have long had great service in First Class, and pretty much the opposite in Economy).

Air France would certainly seem the logical choice, but alas, Air France did not serve Haiti from New York. Anyone else care to hazard a guess?

7. Back to the Caravelle – or not. Who had DC9s around the Caribbean in 1969? Well, there are several to choose from. Dominicana, Air Panama and ALM had the DC9-10, while Caribair had the DC9-30. That takes care of my choice for the larger sized aircraft, as for the baby – hmm, put the names into that Panama hat – Dominicana.

Excellent breakdown here, WHBM. Caribair (D9S) and Dominicana are correct.

8. Could start this one by commenting on it being the propeller tips that were near-supersonic on the 748 (the real one, not the recent Boeing imposter). Anyway, Bahamas Airways had a good fleet of them, deployed on short routes from Florida to the islands like this.

Bahamas Airways is correct. As to the source of the noise from the Dart engines, here is my source, third paragraph down.

9. Conch fritters. Well if they’re like the ones in Key West you can keep them. Disgusting! But we’re off on the flight from Nassau to Nadi. Ah, it’s THAT flight, which we have mentioned upthread I think. Qantas 581, left London on Saturday afternoon for many years, went through Nassau in the evening, then Mexico, Acapulco, Papeete to Nadi, where it’s just sunrise the next morning – except it’s Monday. Last stage was on to Sydney. You’d be sat with groups of UK emigrants to Australia, Qantas liked to put this one-way low-yield, Australian government paid-for traffic on this flight, to avoid them using seats sold for real money on the main route. I wonder how many crew changes there were along the way on this once-weekly flight, and how long therefore the crew were away from home.

Qantas it was. I would have loved to have flown that flight, stopping off for a week in each destination. I should imagine our traveler, if sat in First Class, would avoid all but the most well off of emigrants.

10. Last leg. CP Air, operating Sydney-Nadi-Honolulu-Vancouver.

CP Air it was. CP Air operated five DC-8-63s, four of which were named after Canadian provinces (Empress of Manitoba) and one (Empress of Sydney) assumedly after the Australian city but who knows - perhaps it was the Nova Scotian city.[/QUOTE]

Seat 2A

Thanks to jlemon for an excellent collection of questions. I've got to head off to work but if there are any left when I return this evening I'll look forward to attempting an answer.

tonywestsider

Folks,

In honor of this thread, and its 1444+ posts, Tonywestsider is on travel on a hybrid version of the Silk Road Route, which began last Tuesday like this: WAS-BOS-LHR-IST-HKG-SIN. I note that I had an 8 hour layover in LHR last Wednesday, where Mr. WHBM was still on holiday, otherwise I would've inquired his availability for a landslide meetup at LHR during my transit stay. I will be back in DC by Tuesday night.

If you wish to hear a short trip report after I get back, please let me know. In the meantime, I'm enjoying reading all of your wonderful posts from SIN, which at least weather-wise, has the same heat/humidity as WAS.

jlemon

Roger that, Seat 2A!

And I must admit your question #6 concerning New York - Port Au Prince first class service back in 1969 is driving me crazy!

jlemon

Hope you're having a great trip, Tony!

And I'm sure we'd all love to hear about it upon your return!

miniliq

jlemon This is turning into a marathon! But I'll try a quick response to a couple that jumped out at me.

15) I'm fairly sure it was New York, Chicago (possibly both airports)and Cleveland.

16) I'm guessing it was Pacific Western. In 1970 I had a business trip that took me on PWA from Edmonton's old municipal airport (YXD) to YEV (with a stop in Norman Wells, YVQ) on a 737. Then flew to Whitehorse YXY in the Yukon -- (I think it was an Electra) on a now-defunct airline Jet Air International JX; return trip YXY-YXJ-YQU-YEG (Edmonton International) on a Canadian Pacific 737.

miniliq

I have to put jlemon out of his misery -- I think it was Trans-Caribbean, which really concentrated on service to SJU, AUA and CUR, but had a couple of DC-8 flights to Port au Prince.

jlemon

15) Well, two out of three ain't bad! The three U.S. cities served by Trans-Canada nonstop from Toronto with the Vickers Vanguard turboprop in the spring of 1962 were Chicago, New York City and.......Tampa.

TCA flew between Toronto and Chicago up to six (6) times a day: three flights with Vanguards and three flights with Viscounts.

Between Toronto and New York, TCA flew up to nine (9) round trips a day: three flights with Vanguards and six flights with Viscounts.

TCA also flew a daily round trip nonstop with a Vanguard to and from Tampa. And two days a week, on Fridays and Saturdays, this flight then continued on to Nassau, Bahamas.

Cleveland was served from Toronto but not with the Vanguard. There were up to four (4) round trips a day flown with Viscounts with two of these flights making an intermediate stop in London, Ontario. And TCA also flew several times a week between Toronto and Cleveland with a DC-8.


16) Correct! Pacific Western's primary aircraft for jet service to far northern points in Canada from Edmonton and Calgary was the Boeing 737-200 including the Combi version. But PWA also operated B727 Combi service as well from Calgary and Edmonton to Inuvik, Norman Wells, Yellowknife, Cambridge Bay and other very remote destinations such as Resolute, which is located less than 400 miles from the North Pole.

Seat 2A

You da man, miniliq! It was indeed Trans-Caribbean, operated with a DC-8 nonstop to Port Au Prince.

As to some of jlemon's fine collection of questions, I'll attempt a few guesses, as well as save a few questions for others to try:

2) What airline operated BAe 146 service into Redmond, OR (RDM)?

I'm thinking PSA only because they (and not fellow 146 operator Air Cal) expanded into some of the smaller markets of the PNW, such as Redmond.

3) What airline operated BAC One-Eleven service into Redmond, OR (RDM)?

It had to be Pacific Express. I know this only because I was thinking of flying them to RDM once back in 1983.

7) Name four (4) air carriers that operated jet service into Redding, CA (RDD). And for bonus points, identify the specific jet equipment flown by each airline.

United (73S), Hughes Air West (DC-9, DC-9-30), Frontier (73S) and... uh, oh what the heck! PSA (BAE-146).

11) You have now had a nice stay in the Lake Tahoe area in the spring of 1981 but you have a meeting you must attend in Newport Beach, CA. The closest airfield with airline service to the location of your meeting is Orange County Airport (SNA). You have discovered that one airline offers nonstop service between TVL and SNA. Name the air carrier and the aircraft operated on the route.

Hmm... I think Holiday Airlines was gone by then, so how about Air California Electra?

12) It's 1984 and Wien Air Alaska has changed its name to Wien Airlines. You wish to fly on this air carrier from Fairbanks (FAI) direct to Denver (DEN) in business class with no change of plane. What type of aircraft would you travel on and where would the flight stop en route?

I believe that flight would be aboard a 727-100 with stops in ANC and SEA. I remember flying Wien from DEN to SEA in December 1982. It was aboard a single class 737-200 that was later purchased by Alaska. As for Wien's Business Class, I seem to recall that you got the same meal as in Coach but with free drinks. Further, I'm pretty sure that children under 12 were not allowed up there.

24) What airline offered "Star Jet" service on board its aircraft? Hint: this airline operated two (2) different jet aircraft types. Identify both types for extra bonus points.

I've never heard of Star Jet service, but Texas International did have a big star on its tails and upon divesting itself of its Convair 600s it operated just the DC-9-10 and DC-9-30. On the other hand, there was also TranStar, which I think operated DC-9-50s and MD-80, so let's go with them...

WHBM

75% right, Wally, for the Court Line colours, but there was never a cream version. The first Tristar was orange, the second was pink. Here's a shot of the two together, alas after Court Line had folded, bleaching their colour out under the Arizona sun.

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Untit...82d0ddb8ffcf3a

Wally Bird

OK, the "cream" I remember must have been a faded orange then (with Aviateca). So pink, orange, turquoise and ??? - got me stumped.

miniliq

Let's try to chip away at some more of jlemon's latest questions:
That would be Braniff with a Boeing 320; HNL-IAH-MIA, HNL-DFW-MIA, HNL-ITO-IAH-MIA

Both PanAm and later National had a 747 nonstop LAX-MIA, but at that time I'll guess it was PanAm.

I'll try Braniff with a DC-8.

Similar to question 1 -- Braniff, B-320, MSY-IAH-ITO

miniliq

I'd say BahamasAir, Dominican, and Liat

I suspect a trick here -- I can only find B11 (all series)

Well I know KLM offered F on that route with a DC-8, either CUR-MIQ-PBM-LIS-FRA-AMS or CUR-PBM-MAD-AMS; on other days they codeshared with Surinam Airways (PY) and LM on DC-9 flights that stopped in POS and GEO, but only in Y class. So you've got me stumped on the second airline. Not sure what was unique about the service.

Having lived in South Texas for a year, I can't imagine generating any local traffic for a 60-mile trip, but for awhile an airline called Emerald Air used a Fairchild-Hiller FH227 for the 20-minute flight. Later, Muse Air, using the DC-9-50, had routes originating in TUL, DAL and HOU that fed MFE and BRO, which probably made more sense from a traffic point of view.

WHBM

Lilac. It was not used in the first year of the livery, so tends not to appear in accounts of it, but was used on subsequent years' One-Eleven deliveries. Sometimes mistaken for the pink scheme, unless you saw the two parked side-by-side. 40 years of Kodachrome deterioration hasn't helped either.

http://www.airpixbycaz.co.uk/cazsite...bac111003.html