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Cathay A350s: XWB to AKL

28/10/2016

Whilst this site is called Yesterday's Airlines you can I hope forgive me the occasional lurch into more modern material and it doesn't get any more modern than Airbuses' new A350. Today that aircraft began services to my home airport of Auckland, New Zealand and since I happen to own the JC Wings version of it in 1/400 Scale I thought I'd make a quick blogpost to mark the event.

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Delta Widget Stretch Eights Pt1: Super 61s

26/10/2016

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By the mid-1960s Delta was well on its way to challenging the big 4 US Trunk airlines, including its big Atlanta rival Eastern. Now equipped with transcontinental routes and growing bases at Atlanta, Chicago, Memphis and New Orleans it was keen to grow its big jet fleet so it was just as well that Douglas was at that time stretching its DC-8 to create a worldbeating licence to print money.

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Wuhan Knife-fight: East Star's Battle

24/10/2016

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Operating in totalitarian societies where the rule of law is fluid can be a tenuous existence even when you're not trying to go up against state owned assets during an economic downturn. So goes the story of East Star Airlines - the only Chinese airline to ever go bankrupt. Was it misfortune or something more machiavelian that did for China's 4th private airline?

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United DC-8s Pt6: Super 70s into the 80s

17/10/2016

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Despite rising fuel costs the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 continued to form the nucleus of many of the major US trunk airline fleets throughout the 1970s and there was some surprise when American announced that it would retire all of its 707s by the end of 1981. All the other major trunks followed suit and the era of the first generation jets in front line service came to a close far more rapidly than anyone had thought it would. Unlike the 707 however the stretch DC-8s still had potential and would continue into the 1990s.

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I-BUSes: Alitalia A300s

11/10/2016

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Alitalia had a diverse fleet during the 1970s and 80s as it bought new aircraft to replace older types but then sold them on at quite a young age. In fact it had already passed up Airbuses new widebody A300 once in the mid-1970s only to come back round to the type in the late 70s. It would go on to be the mainstay of its high density short and medium haul routes for nearly 20 years.

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I-Trijets: Alitalia's 727s

8/10/2016

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Alitalia saw massive growth during the 1960s and 70s and acquired a large fleet of jets to service this. Despite these acquisitions by the early 1970s the airline was looking for a new medium range jet to build its European fleet around and fill the gap between its DC-9s and larger, increasingly obsolete DC-8s. Despite the arrival of the new Airbus and a larger variant of the DC-9 it was instead to Boeing that the carrier looked.

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From BCPA to TEAL: DC-6s over the Pacific

5/10/2016

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Aviation in New Zealand was a late bloomer and it wasn't until just before WW2 that the country was connected to the world by air travel. TEAL was a rather complicated beast but it prospered despite its joint ownership and benefitted from the less fortunate BCPA to be able to move beyond flying boats and into the era of land planes in the Pacific.

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C3 to India: The Rise & Fall of Canada 3000

1/10/2016

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Deregulation has brought its share of turbulence to the Canadian aviation scene as it has elsewhere. With Canadian Airlines on the ropes as the new century arrived the charter airline Canada 3000 transformed itself into a new competitor for Air Canada. It stretched its reach to global destinations like India as well as scheduled domestic ops. Sadly for Canada 3000 it overstretched itself dramatically, resulting in a bizarre and unexpected collapse.

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Cathay A350s: XWB to AKL

Delta Widget Stretch Eights Pt1: Super 61s

Wuhan Knife-fight: East Star's Battle

United DC-8s Pt6: Super 70s into the 80s

I-BUSes: Alitalia A300s

I-Trijets: Alitalia's 727s

From BCPA to TEAL: DC-6s over the Pacific

C3 to India: The Rise & Fall of Canada 3000

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