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Braniff's Flying Colors 727s

27/2/2016

Harding Lawrence had taken over the leadership of Braniff in 1965 and changed not only the airline but also the industry as a whole with his marketing heavy image makeover. It had worked and Braniff had increased its profitability whilst making moves, like the takeover of Panagra, which strengthened its position. Fleet rationalisation was a key pillar of this strategy also. Lawrence wanted rid of the Electras and One-Elevens and to that end was building up his fleet of 727s.

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Milestone 737s of China

26/2/2016

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Nowadays it seems to be almost every other week that another production milestone is met by Boeing for its 737 programme. This is a far cry from the early 1970s when the baby Boeing was a slow seller and came close to cancellation. Now into its 4th generation with the MAX series the 737 looks set to continue breaking records for many years to come. Increasingly a significant number of the new 737s are heading towards China and several of the fleet wear special stickers to highlight significant milestones.

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Sheds in the US Pt2: Allegheny Commuter to USAir Express

22/2/2016

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During the 1960s Allegheny Airlines, like its fellow local service airlines, was becoming a regional player (the term isn't synonymous with the regionals of today). Growing its fleet and acquiring its first jets it was keen to divest itself of unprofitable routes whilst at the same time still having access to the traffic small towns and cities generated. Thus was born the Allegheny Commuter network a true pioneering system.

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Sheds in the US Pt1: Shorts Supreme

20/2/2016

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Short Brothers of Belfast, Northern Ireland took their rugged Skyvan and developed it into the perfect 'high capacity' (for the time) commuter airline just as deregulation sent the third level airlines into expansion overdrive. The Shorts Sheds (as the 330 and later 360 became known) were the cream of commuter aircraft into the early 1980s when a few regional airlines had grown large enough to operate what had been mainline types, like the F-27 and CV-580, or large converted executive types, like the Gulfstream 1.

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Ansett's 1980s Re-equipment Binge

17/2/2016

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Ansett entered the 1980s under new ownership and with a renewed sense of aggressive competition between it and TAA. Despite better cost control it also went on an aircraft buying binge, re-equipping its entire fleet with new Boeings and Airbuses. Though to a degree a necessity the over-ambitious and poorly thought through policy became a factor in the airline's eventual collapse.

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El' Inter Americano vs El'Dorado: Panagra & Braniff 7s

13/2/2016

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By mid-1950 Braniff had acquired permission from the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) to compete head to head with Pan Am and the Grace Shipping Company's airline Pan American-Grace Airways (Panagra) on long-haul services to destinations as far south as Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires. This direct competition was far cry from the sedate anti-competitive nature of domestic US services and necessitated the best levels of service and equipment. At the same time it also created serious enmity between the two airlines.

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Last Minute Korus: NZ's 737-300s

11/2/2016

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By the late 1990s the Boeing 737-300 was not new technology and had been superseded in Boeing's catalogue by the Next Generation 737-700 and 800. Air New Zealand has always had an eye for value and did not feel that it needed to acquire the very latest models when cheaper alternatives were available. Boeing itself has typically employed a soft changeover from aircraft sub-types meaning that there had previously been 737-200s newer than the first series 300s and 747-300s newer than the first series 400s. That gave Air New Zealand an opportunity to take the last 737-300s from the production line, probably at a discount.

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Seven Seas in Europe: DC-7Cs of the Mainland

9/2/2016

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Flying long-haul during the 1950s was a prestigious activity and competition between the major airlines, in what was a heavily regulated environment, was mainly down to two things - quality of service and speed. To that end the airframe manufacturers spend their times trying to outwit each other in an arms race to create the fastest aircraft possible with the longest range. The two most successful manufacturers at the time were Lockheed and Douglas and their Constellation and DC-6/7 families took piston liners to the edge of the envelope.

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Northwest Jumbo 400s Pt2: Shoes to Widgets Across the Pacific

5/2/2016

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Northwest had traded as Northwest Orient since the 1950s. Although the Pacific network was the cornerstone of its success to improve its relevance in the domestic market, which its purchase of Minneapolis competitor Republic Airlines had dramatically grown, it returned to being known as just Northwest Airlines. Even with this change the 'thermometer' scheme's time was limited as moving into the 90s Northwest adopted the 'bowling shoe' at the same time as its new 747-451s began to take the strain across the world's largest ocean.

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Northwest Jumbo 400s Pt1: Orient Launch Customer

3/2/2016

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Unlike its international US major contemporaries (Pan Am, TWA and Braniff) Northwest Airlines steered its way through deregulation successfully and built upon its extensive long-haul network so that it was in a good position to renew its long-haul fleet when needed. Northwest was famed for taking on well looked after secondhand frames and did so with both 747-200s and DC-10-30s but that didn't stop it being one of only two US majors to operate Boeing's much improved version of the 747 - the series 400.

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Braniff's Flying Colors 727s

Milestone 737s of China

Sheds in the US Pt2: Allegheny Commuter to USAir Express

Sheds in the US Pt1: Shorts Supreme

Ansett's 1980s Re-equipment Binge

El' Inter Americano vs El'Dorado: Panagra & Braniff 7s

Last Minute Korus: NZ's 737-300s

Seven Seas in Europe: DC-7Cs of the Mainland

Northwest Jumbo 400s Pt2: Shoes to Widgets Across the Pacific

Northwest Jumbo 400s Pt1: Orient Launch Customer

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