Indelaware

Philippine Airlines with a DC-4 is correct. While their first commercial service, which started in December, 1946 did operate from Manila to San Francisco, they first crossed with Pacific with a charter flight on July 31, 1946. Its routing was Luzon - Wake Island - Johnston Island - Honolulu - Oakland.

WHBM

Having used CSA on the way out, this would be again a Bristol Britannia, operated this time by Cubana, planned to run Havana-Gander-Shannon-Prague.

Planned because the intermediate stops were varied as required by the weather and winds. It was common for the westbound to operate further north than the eastbound due to this, so while coming from Europe was most commonly through Canada, eastbound was frequently through Bermuda and the Azores.

It was actually a single operation between CSA and Cubana. The four Britannias delivered to Cubana just before the revolution, for flights to New York etc, just came in so convenient for these long flights when things changed. One of the four (which one varied over time) was leased to CSA, fully painted in their livery, for much of the 1960s as a guard against pressure being exerted at the intermediate points to stop handling Cuban flights. I believe it still had Cuban crews, who were not changed en route but flew all the way from Havana to Europe, with a separate crew compartment and midair crew changes, just like on a ship.

Cubana had a fleet of Antonov 24 twin turboprops, which handled short haul flights within Cuba (it's quite a large country and roads were poor). These had to be sent back to the Antonov factory in Kiev every few years for overhaul. Their predecessors, the piston engine Ilyushin 14, had wings etc removed and were sent by ship as deck cargo for this, but the Antonovs were flown, commonly routing Havana-Nassau-Bermuda-Yarmouth (Nova Scotia)-Gander-Narsarssuaq (Greenland)-Reykjavik-Shannon-Prague-Kiev. This was done for many years to and fro, they never had any accident with them along the way. Their crews would commonly take an aircraft over, and then bring the previous overhauled one back, but I'll bet they were from time to time sent to/from Kiev by the Britannia through Prague.

The various job assignments in tropical Cuba were VERY sought after by those from socialist Eastern Europe, the Soviet air force postings there were pretty inaccessible to anyone other than those with good family connections with The Kremlin !

I would imagine the northernmost point for Piedmont would be London as well.

jrl767

Aeroflot's first jet was the Tupolev TU-104 twin-jet, introduced in 1956

I believe PI's northernmost destination in the summer of 1989, prior to being absorbed into USAir, was London (Gatwick?) and within the US it was Seattle ... I was on PI 1146, the last flight to carry a PI designator: N647US, a 767-201ER operating the LAX-BWI redeye on 9 Aug 1989

WHBM

Surprised this was still going on by the end of 1946. The UK government took ocean liners to bring vast numbers back from Burma etc in the autumn of 1945. There was a very special effort made to repatriate first those who had been in the POW camps, by air, for which the RAF mobilised whatever they had to hand. It became a considerable intercontinental operation, from Singapore, China, and Japan itself, right through to Britain, the aircraft used could not handle many, some were bombers with seats fitted, Lockheed 18s, and even some of the big flying boats.

Mr WHBM Senior ^ , RAF "for the duration", navigated his DC3 from Singapore to Karachi, which was used as a halfway transfer point for this, several times as part of this. They thought they were going to get a trip right through to Britain but after finally returning to Singapore were stood down and then put at the BACK of the queue to be returned to Britain - by sea (SS Ile de France, 1920s pride of the French transatlantic fleet). However, having met directly their passengers on these flights, they realised they had been the lucky ones.

jlemon

Last call for the above! Should there be no takers, I'll provide answers tomorrow afternoon.....and now all ANSWERED

jlemon

And still looking for responses to the above as well with some hints now provided here and there.

I'll let these sit out there until this Saturday morning and then provide the answers.....and now ANSWERED

jrl767

let's take a run at this:
A- I suspect the airline was Pan American Grace Airways, aka Panagra
B- in 1950 a twin-engine domestic segment would have quite probably featured a a DC-3; more likely, though, it was a Convair 240
C- the most plausible transfer point is New Orleans, which saw a fair amount of service across the Caribbean to destinations like Panama City, Caracas, and Havana
D- speaking of those cities, Havana is probably a reasonable choice for the first stop, and since we're looking for two islands, the second could logically be Kingston Jamaica ... I'll flip a coin between the other two destination possibilities and speculate that the flight terminated in Caracas
E- the international portion of the flight could have been a DC-4, but I think a DC-6 is a better guess

jlemon

Excellent response thus far with several guesses either being spot on or close to the mark......

WHBM

1950 is pretty early. I think it was our carrier mentioned a couple of times just above, Chicago & Southern. They probably couldn't get licences for the domestic run from Houston to New Orleans, but could get international ones from both points down to the Caribbean, so could just take international flyers on the domestic tag. I believe domestic and international licences were given out by separate departments of the government.

C&S had a bit of a rickety fleet so I'll guess it was a DC3 on the tag, connecting to a DC4 across the Caribbean, which had probably come down from Chicago. They bought Lockheed Connies later but they didn't last, and were sold on to TWA after only about a year

jlemon

Chicago & Southern (C&S) is correct! Here are the scheds.....

CS 56: Houston (Hobby) 2:25p - 4:22p New Orleans
Op: Daily
Equip: DC-3 "Dixieliner"

Connecting to....

CS 301: Chicago (Midway) 10:30a - 11:56a St. Louis 12:15p - 1:40p Memphis 2:15p - 4:07p New Orleans 5:30p - 10:00p Havana (R. Boyeros) 10:50p - 1:35a Kingston (Palisadoes) 2:05a - 7:00a Caracas (Maiquetia)
Op: Daily
Equip: DC-4 "Skymaster"

Chicago & Southern called this flight from Chicago to Caracas "The Caribbean Comet". It also appears C&S had the authority to serve Montego Bay, Aruba and Curacao on this routing but apparently chose not do so.

Delta, of course, then acquired Chicago & Southern and for a short time the combined airline went by the name Delta C&S. This development also gave Delta access for the first time to the Houston market. In 1954, Delta C&S was operating daily "Super" Convair 340 service on a Houston Hobby - New Orleans - Havana - Port au Prince - Ciudad Trujillo (now Santo Domingo) - San Juan routing and by 1958 DL was flying DC-7 service once a week on a Houston Hobby - New Orleans - Caracas routing (the airline called this latter flight "El Petrolero"). In both cases, Delta was not permitted to carry local traffic between Houston and New Orleans on these flights; however, this situation would change by the time of the introduction of the Convair 880 into the DL fleet when the airline was finally allowed to fly local traffic between HOU and MSY.

BTW, Delta C&S was also operating daily Lockheed Constellation service in 1954 on a Chicago - New Orleans - Havana - Montego Bay - Caracas routing. The airline still called this flight "The Caribbean Comet" and the aircraft type operated on the service apparently was a result of the merger with Chicago & Southern. As WHBM notes, the Connies were then disposed of and replaced with DC-7 equipment.

WHBM

Delta seemed to have a bit of a love-hate relationship with the Connie. They never bought a new one, but inherited the C&S fleet. After a year they sold these off, some inevitably to TWA, and the others to Pacific Northern. These were the ones that ran for years from Seattle to Alaska, right up to when PNA was absorbed by Western, with whom they survived for another year or so.

But only a year after ending their first Connie experience, Delta in 1956 changed their mind, and bought the same number, and the same model, from Pan Am. These lasted until 1960. Delta were buying a large fleet of DC7 at the time, so a bit surprising.

jlemon

Time to put these to rest, I believe.....

3. There were 281 seats on the main deck of PSA's TriStar aircraft in either an eight or nine abreast configuration (depending on the specific location in the all-coach cabin) featuring nine small "lounge areas" where the seats faced each other. Another 16 seats were located in the aforementioned lower deck lounge.

7. Initially 35 minutes at LAX and SFO. This was increased to one hour when the second L-1011 began intrastate flights.

8. TWA.....however, Trans World apparently decided that scheduling issues concerning the two aircraft operation would not produce the desired results and the plan died in its infancy.

And that concludes my most recent set of OTAQ&D quiz items....almost.

I'll leave you with one more.....

9. At the end of 1981, Pacific Southwest Airlines was operating a total of 31 aircraft. There were three different aircraft types in the fleet. Identify all three and also provide the number of each type operated by PSA at this time. ANSWERED

Catch our smile.....PSA!

WHBM

I'll finish this one off as well, from the photo back at post No 11060
That was not a Ford Tri-Motor. It may look rather like one, but is in fact a Letov S-32. Which I think I can confidently say, even without searching our 11,000 posts, we have not mentioned before.

The CSA Ford Tri-Motor, just one, was shipped over to Czechoslovakia in early 1930, doubtless with all its engineering manuals. It operated for a few months but crashed in August 1930. No more were ordered.

The Czech Letov S-32 first flew at the end of 1931. Notably advanced for the era, as (like the Tri-Motor) it was of all-metal construction. Five were built (don't believe Wikipedia). It looked very like the Tri-Motor, and I'm sure if Ford had not been looking to exit aircraft production at the time they might have had a thing or two to say about it. It was a wholly Czech production, with Walter engines. Like many early 1930s aircraft they lasted just a few years. One also had a crash in 1934, killing among others a prominent actor of the era, and they were replaced at the end of the year.

jlemon

Good evening all! Just back home from yet another business trip to Houston....and just in time for the usual round of afternoon thunderstorms courtesy of deep tropical moisture over south Louisiana coupled with afternoon daytime heating of the atmosphere. My transplanted St. Augustine turf in our yard is looking good!

Still have the above bonus quiz item looking for answers.....so I'll let it sit out there for a day or two longer.

I've also been in telephone contact with the illustrious Seat 2A during his most recent trip to and from southeast Alaska on board Alaska Air Boeing 737-400 equipment in the front cabin. And he discovered that while his cell phone did work on the ramp at Cordova during a stop there while on board AS 66, it did not work on the ramp at either Yakutat or Sitka or at the Ketchikan Airport. He has now returned to Denali National Park and his summer gig.

Seat 2A also has an excellent new set of quiz items waiting in the wings.....but, alas, he is still experiencing massive internet difficulties up there in the wilds of Alaska. This problem will hopefully be rectified in the near future, perhaps later this month. Until then, please standby and he will submit his new OTAQ&D items when the aforementioned internet issue is finally laid to rest. Thanks for everyone's patience!

jrl767

9- I'm pretty certain of the first two types, and I think the numbers for each are in the right ballpark; #3 is a totally random guess

1. 727-200 (23)
2. 727-100 (6)
3. BAe-146 (2)

speaking of Seat 2A, I have nowhere near the volume in my log that he boasts, but I did record entry #2500 this week (DL 4022, JFK-DCA, CRJ-900 N935XJ)