Is this photo of any relevance to your question?

DTW-YUL on BA L1011? I discounted them because I didn't think they used the Tristar TATK. 500?

Last effort for #2: Air Hawaii DC-10 ;).

The DTW-YMX schedule shows BA operating an L10 (As opposed to an L15). I seem to recall BA using the Tristar on some of its flights into New Orleans and either Tampa or Orlando or both. Possibly miniliq or jlemon may know something about those services...

As to that HNL-LAS flight, it's proving pretty tricky. Western used to fly it with a DC-10 and America West would go on to fly it with a 747, but in between another airline flew it - twice weekly with widebodied equipment.

Air Hawaii? Didn't they go out of service a couple of years earlier, like in 1986 or 87? I remember that they didn't last very long... but I did manage to score a postcard of their DC-10 before that happened.

:confused::confused:

Oops! :o I'm sorry about that, AW. In all the subsuquent banter about this question, I'd totally forgotten that it was one of yours correctly answered early on. Hawaiian it is - or was. Well done!

These questions still remain:

8. You’ve been invited to judge a barbecue competition in Kansas City. Mmmm! This airline offers the only nonstop wide bodied service between New York and Kansas City with a single morning departure. Breakfast will be served. Which airline and aircraft would you be flying upon?

14. What was the first U.S. Airline to sponsor an English football club?

15. This airline became the first to install television aboard its airplanes. Which airline was it and what year did this happen?

16. In 1961, this became the first U.S. airline to utilize a centralized computer based reservation service. What airline was it?

I'll be really interested to see what the answer is. I also considered PANAMAC, but this page, and this page, among others, confirmed what I had remembered, that AA's Sabre was introduced as the first in 1961. So that's what I answered with.

Good morning all from a frosty London, with my car all frozen over !

No, the photo, which is of an Air 2000 Boeing 757 leased to US charter operator Apple Vacations, is not connected. Charter companies in the Northern USA, and particularly Canada, have their peak time for vacation travel demand in the winter, down to the Caribbean/Mexico etc. Those in Europe have it in the summer, and business drops away in the winter. So there is a long tradition of leasing aircraft in both directions in the low season, as here.

The operation in the question is an actual Air 2000 operation.

BA used Tristars on various transatlantic routes, to a range of points, although it varied from year to year. The Tristar fleet, like the 767 fleet which replaced it, was divided into two, European and Long-Haul, with quite different cabin layouts for each, but the majority was always Long-Haul.

The series 500s were a bit of a silly story. Delivered in about 1980, the whole lot were disposed to the RAF in 1983 during a downturn, almost immediately followed by BA getting new licences for South American routes for which they had to go out and lease secondhand 500s from Air Lanka from 1985 to 1988. However, East Coast services would typically be on the -200 fleet.

I flew a 500 from Heathrow to Seattle in 1982, and onwards to Vancouver BC. We just stayed on board at Seattle and didn't enter the USA. Would cause apoplexy nowadays.

We discussed the BA Tristar 500 flights that briefly operated London-New Orleans-Mexico City around post # 1570 above.

I'll take a wild guess at this one....

Sanford Orlando Airport (SFB) and St. Petersburg Clearwater Airport (PIE) with services actually originating and terminating somewhere in the U.K.

Indeed we did and hats off once again to WHBM for making me aware of this. Quite frankly, I did not know that BA had operated TATL flights into MSY with L15 equipment....

Which engenders a question: was BA permitted to carry local traffic between MSY and MEX? Years ago, I believe there was nonstop service on this route flown at various times by Eastern and Aeromexico if my memory serves me correctly......however, those days are long gone and MSY does not have any international service at present with the exception of nonstop service to Toronto (YYZ) flown by Air Canada (actually operated by the Jazz division, I think, with a Canadair CRJ-705).

Oops! :o I'm sorry about that, AW. In all the subsuquent banter about this question, I'd totally forgotten that it was one of yours correctly answered early on. Hawaiian it is - or was. Well done!

And good old Hawaiian Air is still flying nonstop LAS-HNL these days with A330 and B767-300 equipment.....

Recently, when I was visiting my hometown of Pasadena in southern California, I watched the morning HA departure from LAS high above the San Gabriel Mountains heading to HNL. The A330 was producing one heck of a contrail on a clear, beautiful morning in SoCal......

Well jlemon has got this one 50% correct, so still scope for someone else .... :)

Going for broke here.....

How about SFB and RSW?

There's enough time for a full meal and beverage service on the USA flight .......

16. In 1961, this became the first U.S. airline to utilize a centralized computer based reservation service. What airline was it?

My source for this question was HERE and HERE, but in the interest of accuracy, I'm all for more information.

A quick check of SABRE history found this write up on Wikipedia. Now Wikipedia is not the end all source per se, but we'll use it as a start point for now. I quote one point in particular:

Two points from that: 1.) The first experimental system went online in 1960 (Does this mean it was being used "experimentally" in conjunction with the existing system?) and 2.) the system took over all booking functions in 1964 (might this be considered the actual introduction of SABRE?)

14. What was the first U.S. Airline to sponsor an English football club?

During the 1983/84 season, Air Florida sponsored the Southampton Football Club.

Ah, I see.......perhaps further north up the U.S. eastern seaboard? BGR, perhaps?

Interesting bit of research, I'd never heard of Mohawk mentioned as a pioneer of computerized reservations services. I agree that the dateline for Sabre is murky, but it could be that it's simply become generally accepted that it was the first, something I can readily understand, since the expense to launch the technology which Sabre, PANAMAC and later Apollo was based upon was immense, and may not be the type of investment an airline such as Mohawk could afford. I honestly believe that PANAMAC may stand a good chance of being the first, based upon the parameters one could use to judge the date, such as merely going online vs. fully implemented systemwide.

I equate this with the trivia concerning which was the first FF program. AAdvantage takes that honor in 99.999% of published pieces on that topic, even though Western had a very similar program somewhere around 5 years prior in the 1970s. Randy Peterson is one of the few who acknowledge this.

One of the problems we run into is fading memories and lack of readily available real documentation. A couple of similar examples: The guy who runs departedflights.com swears up and down that NYAir never ran LAX-IAD red-eyes nonstop with a 733 because it doesn't appear in any timetable. Yet I was at a boarding gate next to the flight one evening at LAX so I know it existed, plus CO flew 733s from the merger which were equipped with IFE specifically installed by NYAir for that route. Another example, people claim that Eastern flew LAX-ORD as part of their Moonlight Specials, since it does appear in at least one of their timetables of the era. I was flying LAX-MKE a lot during that period, but never once found that flight ever in live OAG schedules on CompuServe nor on any departure board at LAX nor available for purchase directly from Eastern, even though I wanted to buy a ticket on it more than once.

The truth is out there somewhere! :)

(P.S. Anyone have an idea for the answer of the codeshare flight question I posted earlier, or do we need a hint?) :)

Good Afternoon All,

Well, it's a beautiful day here at Acadiana Regional Airport (ARA) which just happens to be the location of my office. Earlier, we had a NASA T-38 Talon supersonic jet trainer in the pattern practicing approaches as well as touch and go landings, most likely out of Ellington Field over in the Houston area near the Johnson Space Center. Always great to see those folks go rocketing out of here in a steep ascent with the engines roaring! And if you want to learn more about ARA, check out the wikipedia listing for the airfield - you may just recognize some of the writing!

I've come across a couple of websites that contain some very classic airliner photos taken back in day at both LAX and ORD that I wanted to share with all of you:

http://jonproctor.net/lax-through-the-years/

http://jonproctor.net/chicago-1960-1963/

Hopefully, these links will work as I'm not the most computer-savvy person! The commentary accompanying this photography is excellent as well as the person writing it worked in the industry. And not to be missed are the photos of Caravelles at both LAX and ORD as well as a Vickers Vanguard at ORD!

I'll also wait a bit to post my next set of quiz items until the most recent questions posed by others have been answered.....

More questions from jlemon are always well anticipated and appreciated, so let me speed up my remaining questions:

3. Business calls you to Detroit, Michigan. If it’s any consolation, springtime in Detroit is a heckuva lot nicer than winter in Detroit. You’ve booked yourself a seat aboard the only airline serving the Las Vegas to Detroit market with a wide bodied aircraft. Name the airline and aircraft.

Air America operated this flight with a single class L-1011. They also flew from Honolulu to San Francisco with L-1011 equipment.

8. You’ve been invited to judge a barbecue competition in Kansas City. Mmmm! This airline offers the only nonstop wide bodied service between New York and Kansas City with a single morning departure. Breakfast will be served. Which airline and aircraft would you be flying upon?

This was Eastern, which along with Braniff had a mini-hub operation going out of Kansas City in the late eighties. The morning nonstop from New York was operated with an A300B.

15. This airline became the first to install television aboard its airplanes. Which airline was it and what year did this happen?

Although the first continuous television signal was sent to a Western Air Express plane in 1932 (See HERE and HERE), according to a write up in Wikipedia the first airline to install in-flight television was Capital Airlines.

Another early start over here, and a freezing foggy, minus 1 Celsius, morning, like something out of a Charles Dickens film. The overnight BA A318 from JFK to London City has just done a go-around, climbing out over our house. Maybe in 10 minutes he'll be back. Oh, and my car's all frozen over again.

Meanwhile, back in the heady days of the holiday flights to Florida, where freezing fog is doubtless rare, Air 2000 had a significant operation into Sanford SFB, a somewhat less impressive gateway that MCO, always routing there across the Atlantic and through BGR, so jlemon is correct. Once ETOPS got well established over the ocean, the 757 was the aircraft of choice for several operators, it comfortably got to Bangor (well, in operational terms, 220 charter-pitch seats in a 757 on a two-leg 11-hour transatlantic flight was never going to be comfortable), and customs clearance took place there while the aircraft was refuelled (yes, we spell that with two L's over here), so it was a domestic leg onward to Florida. The general style of the big UK holiday airlines was to have one or two aircraft based at each significant UK airport, which all flew to the same places on the same day of the week because that suited the hotel changeover arrangements, so on a given day you might have flights on busy days following one another having started off from London Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow maybe ending up on the ground at Sanford all together. On other days, just a flight from London

Back to today for a moment, the BA A318 has taken up a VOR hold overhead the airport, it sounds like.

The UK tourist industry has always concentrated on Orlando, whereas the comparable operations from Germany, also 757s with carriers such as Condor or LTU, spread a bit wider; these were the European ones you might see in St Petersburg or Fort Myers. It's another part of our heritage from 25 years ago, the market has moved on to mainstream carriers, with proper long-haul aircraft and seat pitch, operating through MCO, in particular Virgin Atlantic, while the Sanford charters, the crew stopovers at Bangor with the high jinks at the Airport Holiday Inn there, the 757s to a considerable extent, and even Air 2000 themself, have all disappeared into aviation history.

And to round off, the BA A318 has just diverted to Gatwick. Sorry folks, not a great welcome to London for your Christmas shopping weekend from New York.

Good Morning Everyone!

It's a cool, gray, overcast morning here in south Looziana.....and one of two FedEx 72S aircraft that the company bases here at LFT just landed from MEM using what sounded like minimum reverse thrust. UPS also bases a 757 here. There's a good write up concerning Lafayette Airport on wikipedia that yours truly had a hand in updating recently.....

And, thankfully, no freezing fog here this morning! I certainly know what that is like having dealt on a number of occasions with an SUV encased in ice before dawn when attempting to travel to a local airfield to catch a sunrise departure!

So let's return to the quiz on this first day of December.....

1) What was the first jet aircraft type operated by Western Airlines? ANSWERED

2) What airline was the first to operate scheduled passenger jet service into Bakersfield, CA (BFL) and what type of equipment was used? And for bonus points, what year did this take place? ANSWERED

3) Where and when was the last scheduled Boeing 737-200 passenger flight in the U.S.? ANSWERED

4) Back in 1973, what airline flew nonstop DC-9-30 service between Miami (MIA) and Houston (IAH)?

5) Also back in 1973, what airline flew direct, no change of plane jet service from Keene, NH (EEN) to Miami (MIA)? Also identify the aircraft type. ANSWERED

6) It's the first week in September in 1968. You are in Los Angeles and need to travel to Great Falls, MT (GTF) from LAX. You would like to depart late afternoon and fly directly there with no change of plane. There is a flight that meets your requirements; however, it make six (6) intermediate stops en route. Identify the airline and the aircraft type. And for bonus points, also identify all six stops. ANSWERED

7) It's July of 1972 and you are back in Los Angeles. An old buddy rings you up to let you know he has just purchased a new powerboat at a marina on Lake Havasu on the Colorado River. "Come on over", he says, "we'll go waterskiing!" You discover there is a nonstop flight to Lake Havasu from LAX. Identify the airline and the aircraft operated on the route.

8) It's February of 1976 and you are in Minneapolis/St. Paul on business. However, it's just darn cold in Minnesota and you need to warm up! You know you will be in a meeting until late afternoon so you book the last flight of the day in first class to Miami for some fun in the sun with good friends. However, you note this flight makes four (4) intermediate stops en route from MSP to MIA. What airline and what type of equipment will you be traveling on? And for bonus points, identify all four stops.

9) It's March of 1981 and you are in Banff, Alberta for a late season ski trip in the Canadian Rockies. There's a knock on the door of your room at the ski lodge and a message is delivered: you need to get to Dallas as soon as possible for a meeting. The nearest airport is in Calgary (YYC) and you quickly discover there is a direct, no change of plane flight to DFW. However, there is something unique about this flight. What makes this flight unique?

10) You have taken care of business in Dallas and are now in New Orleans enjoying some truly memorable jazz music with some very good friends. It's still March of 1981. You get a call from your ski buddies who are still in Banff and the news is good: there's fresh powder on the ski slopes! So you decide to fly back to Calgary (YYC) from MSY and rejoin the skiing expedition. You discover there is direct, no change of plane jet service from MSY to YYC. And once again, there is something unique about this flight. What is it?

11) It's now July of 1983 and you are back in New Orleans enjoying Oysters Rockefeller at a legendary restaurant in the French Quarter. However, you receive word that your presence is required once again in Dallas for yet another urgent meeting. There are three (3) airlines operating nonstop jet service from MSY to DFW. One of these airlines operates wide body aircraft on the route. Identify all three air carriers and the respective equipment operated. TWO OF THE THREE AIRLINES, AA & DL, IDENTIFIED

12) The year is 1973 and you are in New York City. You need to travel to San Francisco (SFO). Of course, you want to book a seat in first class on a wide body aircraft. And you also know there are several airlines that can get you there in the front cabin on a wide body jetliner. However, one particular flight makes two (2) stops en route with no change of plane. This is the one you want to fly on as you always enjoy landings and takeoffs, especially in a heavy jet aircraft! Identify the airline, the aircraft type and the two intermediate stops.

And here's a bonus question (which means I forgot to include it in the above set)......

In April of 1985, Cascade Airways was operating BAC One-Eleven jet service into eleven (11) different destinations primarily in the Pacific Northwest. Identify all eleven destinations.

I love these milk runs: Western's Lockheed Electra started in LAX, then stopped at LAS, SLC, PIH (Pocatello), (IDA) Idaho Falls, BTM (Butte), and HLM (Helena) on its way to GTF. I flew between YYC and DEN via GTF a couple of times that year, and WA had another 3-stopper on that route.

The restaurant is Antoine's -- oh, that wasn't part of the question, was it. As far as I can determine, the three carriers and their equipment were: AA - 727; WN - 737; and Delta, which had about four types of equipment in that service: 727, DC-9, L-1011, and even a DC-8.

I love these milk runs: Western's Lockheed Electra started in LAX, then stopped at LAS, SLC, PIH (Pocatello), (IDA) Idaho Falls, BTM (Butte), and HLM (Helena) on its way to GTF. I flew between YYC and DEN via GTF a couple of times that year, and WA had another 3-stopper on that route.

The restaurant is Antoine's -- oh, that wasn't part of the question, was it. As far as I can determine, the three carriers and their equipment were: AA - 727; WN - 737; and Delta, which had about four types of equipment in that service: 727, DC-9, L-1011, and even a DC-8.

6) Correct! And there's a great photo of a Western L-188 Electra taxiing to the runway at LAX in one of the links I provided above.....

11) You've a fine eye for fine dining establishments there, my friend! And two of three air carriers you mention are correct: In July of 1983, American operated Boeing 727-100 and -200 aircraft while Delta flew the L-1011 Tristar, Douglas DC-8 Super 60 series and Boeing 727-200 between MSY and DFW (no DL operated DC-9 service on this route at this time).

However, Southwest did not serve DFW and never has - only DAL.

So what was the third airline flying MSY-DFW back then and what type of aircraft did they operate?

1) Well, Wally, I do not think it was the Boeing 720.....but I could be wrong!

It appears the aircraft in question may have been the Boeing 707-139 if photos from back then are correct. Initial routes appear to have been between LAX, SFO, PDX and SEA back around 1960. I also believe these early 707s were then replaced with Boeing 720B turbofan aircraft. Western also inherited several Boeing 720 turbojet aircraft from Pacific Northern which they continued to operate for a time. WA then acquired new B707-320C series aircraft.....

If anyone has any other information concerning the first jet aircraft type operated by Western, please chime in!

The apparent answer to this one somewhat surprised me. It appears that BFL service by UA was separate from their 737 milk-runs up and down the Central Valley.

So I'm going to go with very short-lived 727 service by Pacific Airlines. I'm going to take a stab at 1967 being the year.

Yes, the two 707-139 which had been ordered by Cubana but stopped by the embargo were leased to Western in May 1960 after a month or two stuck at Seattle. They went back to Boeing in September 1962, then on to Pan Am. One was destroyed in an accident shortly afterwards, but the other was refitted with fan engines and operated out of Miami for some years. It actually had worked its way to British Caledonian at Gatwick in the summer 1979 season, and was finally retired in the late 1980s.

http://www.airliners.net/photo/148834/M/

The first proper fan-jet engine 720Bs for Western came just a year later, in April 1961. However Western later got another small fleet of older non-fan engined aircraft, which on that occasion they kept for years. Anyone give the background to these ?

Braniff is an excellent guess! However, it was not BN....it was another airline.

Correct! It was Pacific Air Lines with B727-100 service. I believe the year was 1966 and I think the routing may have been LAX-BFL-FAT-SJC-SFO. It didn't last very long. Pacific was also flying three roundtrips a day at this time SFO-MRY-SBA-LAX with a 727 and this route did not last very long either as the stop in SBA was eliminated.

United was operating into BFL at this time with Convair 340 prop equipment. But by 1969, UA was flying B737-200 aircraft up and down the Central Valley to small airports in Merced, Modesto and Visalia as well as to Bakersfield, Fresno and Stockton. Most of these flights originated or terminated at LAX and also served SFO as well. And some of these 737 milk runs continued north from SFO into Oregon....

Ah, are you referring to the Boeing 720 turbojets that Western inherited from Pacific Northern following the acquisition of the latter by WA?

Western also inherited Lockheed Constellations when they acquired PNA which were primarily used for service by WA to such exotic destinations as Cordova, King Salmon, Kenai, Kodiak, Homer and Yakutat in Alaska from Anchorage and/or Seattle.....

5) Air Service 1973 Keene, NH --Miami, FL. (direct) This would be on Delta, using DC9 "Douglas Super Fan Jet" that had 12F and 80 Y seats. Delta noted this as a "D9N"
Flight originated in Manchester, NH at 12:45pm, proceeding to Keene, leaving there at 1:29pm, and getting to Miami at 6:35pm via LGA and PHL.

Return service from Miami was via JFK.

Small point. As thread etiquette is now an open matter, may I suggest that if an answer is ambiguous or not directly held by the person posing the question, then it either not be asked at all, or at least some indication given that the definitive answer is generally unknown or may be up for debate.

Thanks.

There were three; two new to PNA and one (N7081) which was kind of an oddball, delivered initially to Aer Lingus then bought by Braniff then PNA. For a short time it wore the BN "Jelly Bean" scheme (opinions differ as to whether it was orange or diaper-brown ;) ) with PNA titles.

I forgot about the first two short-lived 707s but I'm guessing they are the only Boeings with a customer code of 39!

Our man in Vermont is absolutely correct! The DC-9-30 jet service to Keene did not last very long.

Looks like you're going to make me work for this! My apologies - I was quoting from memory.....which can sometimes be a bit dangerous when one is an airline old timer!

So I looked up the following in the Air Times site (which is where I first saw it as the following served as the basis for my question).....

The inside front cover of the July 1966 Pacific Air Lines system timetable has this marketing message:

"Pacific Air Lines now flies Boeing 727 jets to San Jose, Bakersfield, Fresno, Santa Barbara, Monterey, San Francisco and Los Angeles."

Other sources state that Pacific first began operating Boeing 727-100s in 1966.

There is also a route map accompanying the above marketing message that appears to indicate jet routes in bold red lines with LAX-BFL-FAT-SJC-SFO being shown as such.

Next time I won't be so lazy but shall be more specific! :cool:

First-rate repartee stemming from jlemon's excellent collection of questions. I'm going to be heading farther north for a bit with limited internet access, so I'll be signing off for a while. In fact, I'm off to the airport right now.

Real quick as to the last 737-200 operations, any chance it was Alaska? Its last flights were in March of 2007. Some of those AS 737s went on to Aloha, but I think as freighters. If not, then of course I'd go with Aloha. No clue as to the route, (and possibly even the airline) so I'll look forward to checking out the answer down the road.