![]() South African Airways was formed in February 1934, when the government of South Africa tookover Union Airways. Prewar equipment was largely German but postwar Avro Yorks gave way quickly to DC-4s. In 1950 four Constellations arrived and only two years later SAA was using jets when it leased a pair of Comet 1s from BOAC. The Comet's failure saw a fallback to DC-7Bs in 1956, but at least these had the range to operate from Johannesburg to London with only one stop (in Khartoum). Fortnightly service to Perth (via the Cocos and Mauritius) began in late 1957. Viscounts took up short-range routes and the real jet age arrived in July 1960 with 3 707-320s.
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![]() The departure of Apollo (Witty) from the 1:400 scene is unfortunate as they produced some fine models at times. I didn't care much for their DC-10s (long legs) and their recent 727 noses look a bit odd, but the models they made on their 747, L1011 and CV880 moulds were always excellent -plus they came with very nice stands. Certainly the Apollo 747-200/300 mould is superb (my understanding is it is the old Big Bird mk1 mould). One of my last new Apollos was the beautiful delivery scheme 747-300 - HB-IGG. ![]() An interesting sight at Gatwick in the 1980s was a rather unusually coloured Viscount wearing the red of the new thorn in BA's side: Virgin Atlantic. Several short-haul aircraft have operated in Virgin mainline colours over the years from 737-400s to A320s (always leased from or operated by other airlines), however the Viscount is clearly my favourite. ![]() On 1st January 1979 British Air Ferries, having already ceased car ferry services in 1977, transferred its entire Herald operated scheduled network to British Island Airways. From that point onwards operations were concentrated on leasing. oil support and charter services. To facilitate these activities the airline gradually purchased 18 ex-British Airways Viscounts between 1981 and 1984 making it the world's largest Viscount operator at the time. ![]() British European received its first series 700 Viscounts in 1953 followed by the first series 800 in January 1957. Of the 79 Viscounts operated by BEA 37 of them saw service from 1974 with its successor British Airways and 35 of these were series 800s. The Viscounts were gradually disposed of during the 1970s, replaced by One-Elevens, Tridents and 737s on most trunk domestic services. Despite this many remained in service with the Highlands and Channel divisions into the early 1980s. ![]() Aeroclassics has recently released a bevy of new Viscounts - mainly the longer 800 series. Interestingly many Viscounts saw roughly similar career paths, with a large number of the type starting their service with British European Airways. In this way they are similar to Northwest's DC-9 fleet many of which largely operated along a familiar pathway: through the fleets of Bonanza/West Coast to Air West to Hughes Airwest or North Central / Southern and then onto Republic to Northwest and then even some to Delta. Anyway back to the Viscounts, and in this and the next few posts I want to look at the history of Aeroclassics recent releases and trace this shared path so many took. ![]() United took delivery of 28 stretch 727s from May 1968 through till June 1969. It was to be an 8 year wait until they took delivery of further -200s in the form of over 60 Advanced models, which became the mainstay of their medium haul fleet in the 1980s. Aeroclassics just released their Stars & Bars liveried version of the 727-200 a few months ago. To be honest I wasn't going to get it because I already had the Aurora version from years before, which actually uses the same mould as the new Aeroclassics version. An order mixup however has given me the chance to be able to compare the two releases which depict the same colour scheme on different frames. |
AuthorI'm Richard Stretton: a fan of classic airliners and airlines who enjoys exploring their history through my collection of die-cast airliners. If you enjoy the site please donate whatever you can to help keep it running: Archives
January 2025
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