Airline History Blog - Yesterday's Airlines

Top 10 Aircraft Types In My Collection

29/6/2015

There is a literal avalanche of new Waffle Collection sale items on their way but before they arrive I thought it was an opportune moment to take a look at what types of airliner rank highest in my collection to date. As of June 29, 2015 my 1:400 model collection stands at 948 aircraft (some 748 above what I originally planned on collecting)! Here's the top 10 aircraft in the fleet:

LCCs Go West: Chongqing Airlines Transforms

28/6/2015

Airline ownership within China follows several models. The largest and most powerful airlines are Government owned, there are a raft of government and local government joint ventures, a small number of truly private airlines and some companies either owned or partially owned by state owned enterprises. Chongqing Airlines falls into the latter category being a joint venture between the Government owned China Southern (60%) and the Chongqing Municipal Development & Investment Company (40%).

Obscure Russians 4: Baikal Airlines

27/6/2015

Irkutsk is a city of extremes - freezing in winter down to -49.7°C and heating up in the summer to up to 37°C. Despite this it has a history as a city of culture on the shores of Lake Baikal. It is the lake which gave its hometown airline its name and also inspired what must be one of the most attractive liveries worn by a Russian airline in the 1990s. Baikal Airlines was one of the many 'Babyflots' that sprung up in the 90s after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Obscure Russians 3: MAVIAL Magadan

24/6/2015

There are some places in Russia so remote that air travel is the only sensible way to reach them. The city of Magadan is one such place - somewhere with a dark history and a hostile environment to match it. From 1993-2006 the city's main link to the outside world was via MAVIAL Magadan Airlines, which even acquired some small recognition outside of Russia by operating direct to the USA across the freezing Bering Straits.

Super Advanced: Cruzeiro & VARIG 737-200s

23/6/2015

From the mid-1970s the Boeing 737-200 Advanced model became the backbone of the fleets of the three major Brasilian airlines - VARIG, Cruzeiro do Sul and VASP. Only Transbrasil resisted the temptations of the baby Boeing - opting for BAC One-Elevens and then 727s instead. VARIG and Cruzeiro were inextricably linked from 1975 and they used the marketing name Super Advanced 737 to promote their Fat Alberts.

Southern Cross Caravelles: Cruzeiro do Sul's First Jets

22/6/2015

Brazil has a rich history of great airlines but since the 1990s the old industry has been almost completely swept away so that now in 2015 none of the original players remains, not even Varig itself. One of the most pioneering of the original airlines was Serviços Aéreos Cruzeiro do Sul - the second oldest airline in the country. For many years its colourful blue aircraft were common on a wide domestic network and the French Caravelle introduced the carrier to jet operations.

Braniff Jellybeans Pt6 - Beige, Ochre & Turquoise

21/6/2015

Probably the most obscure of the primary colours used in the Jellybean era are Beige, Ochre and Turquoise. The funny thing is that both beige and ochre were actually two of the commonest of the colours used and lasted beyond the H&G colour switch of 1967 - the only original Jellybeans to do so.

Braniff Jellybeans Pt5: Yellows

19/6/2015

As with the oranges the yellow Jellybeans made a particularly attractive aircraft combination and also like the oranges two shades were used over the 1965-1971 Jellybean era. In addition like the oranges the two shades, though similar, did look different in service and can be told apart if you know what to look for.

Braniff Jellybeans Pt4: Oranges

18/6/2015

Orange is perhaps one of the signature Braniff Jellybean colours, though frankly I think you'd have to be a genius to be able to distinguish between the two different orange shades that were used - at least if you are using only old photos anyway! It's just as well that John Evanich III (JEE3) has done the hard work for us. It's certainly a personal favourite of mine amongst the Braniff fleet.

Braniff Jellybean Pt3: Red

16/6/2015

In comparison to the greens and blues red is an easy Jellybean colour since there was only one version used. In fact red didn't even feature as a 'End of the Plain Plane' shade until the 1967 H&G refresh. All the earlier 7 shades were much more pastelly. Despite this late start red would go on to be one of the most popular of the colours used and I must say it does look superb.

Braniff Jellybeans Pt2: The Blues

15/6/2015

Braniff's brilliant Alexander Girard designed Jellybeans were loud and proud but for the colour-blind aviation enthusiast sitting in 2015 it isn't half difficult to work out which shades were which. Nowhere is this more difficult than with the blues, since there were no less than four different shades throughout the Jellybean era. Fortunately John Evanich III (JEE3) over at www.airlinercafe.com's forum has done a quite astounding job of sorting it all out. Looking at my Braniff blues it appears that Aeroclassics could have done with checking out his work!

Braniff Jellybeans Pt1: The Greens

14/6/2015

In 1965 Harding Lawrence was appointed to the Presidency of Braniff International. Up till then it had been a well run but relatively small trunk airline. Lawrence had other ideas and the wild ride that characterised his tenure would change Braniff from an also ran to a colourful and vibrant airline. Unfortunately Lawrence would also prove to be the downfall of Braniff but that wasn't until 1982. First there was the 'End of the Plain Plane' era.

Court Line: Halcyon Days

14/6/2015

Court Line started as just another of the small independent airlines fighting for crumbs from BEA's table during the early 1960s but following takeover changed into something altogether brighter. The new swinging garish Court Line was an airline that burnt brightly but also burnt out quickly - a pioneer in IT charters that helped shape the British charter industry, which became such a huge player in the UK aviation scene until low cost airlines arrived. Even in failure it helped shape the industry's practices.

Long-legged Cranes: Lufthansa's Long Haul 720Bs

11/6/2015

Lufthansa had only been allowed to restart flight operations in 1955, yet by 1960 it had already regained its position as one of the leading European airlines thanks to excellent levels of service, punctuality and reliability. It certainly wasn't to be left behind with jet operations either and on January 23, 1957 it made its first order for jets. These would be Boeing 707s started a long tradition of being a staunch Boeing customer.

Private In China Pt4: Kunming's Ruili Airlines

9/6/2015

The first wave of Chinese private airlines were not an overwhelming success with most failing or falling under the ownership of the big four Chinese airline groupings. The CAAC announced a moratorium on new airline licenses from 2010 but as airport capacity issues have eased and the concept of low cost airlines in China has gained official backing the CAAC has begun to issue new licenses. One of the first of the new breed of private airline to start operations is Ruili Airlines based at the popular city of Kunming.