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Líneas Aéreas de Nicaragua, operating as LANICA, was the national airline of Nicaragua from 1945 until 31 August 1981. Its history is indelibly caught up with that of the Somoza family's dictatorship, which ruled the country from 1936-1974. Despite Somoza Garcia's thoroughly undemocratic actions after winning the 1936 Presidential elections his opportunistic support of the Allied war effort during WW2 not only enabled him to build up an enormous fortune but also to gain the interest of Pan Am which setup LANICA as a subsidiary with PA holding a 40% share. Initially the Somoza's obvious corruption and suppression of freedoms earned the ire of the US but the country's anti-communist stance and some deft politiking enabled Somoza to keep the US on side and LANICA to grow. Brasil has always had an interesting and colourful civil scene and like many South American nations its aviation history is now a graveyard of great names as airlines have been mismanaged and found themselves unable to compete with startups in the deregulated era. So Varig, VASP, Transbrasil and Cruzeiro Do Sul now find themselves consigned to the history book and replaced by TAM, Gol, Azul and others. Transbrasil must surely be the most colourful of the Brasilian airlines of the past... Despite introducing 727s and swallowing several smaller Alaskan operators, the early 1970s was another difficult time for Alaska Airlines, which had been leading a hand to mouth existence for many years. The crash of a 727 in late 1971 only piled on the pressure further and by 1972 the airline owed $22 million to its creditors. Finally, president and chief executive officer Charles "Chuck" Willis was deposed in 1972 by the airline's board and replaced by Ronald F. Cosgrave, a board member who had gotten his start in business providing Alaskans with mobile homes. He would see an overhaul of Alaska's poor image including its livery. 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. 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. Continental replaced their already nice Golden Jet scheme in 1967 with the classic Saul Bass colours. Commonly called the meatball its real name is 'Contrails'. The black version lasted until 1984 when the livery was modified with a red ball and enlarged titles. I have both the CO 727-200 releases showing both sets of colours. Continental’s fleet was defined by two types in the 1970s – the DC-10 and the 727-200. 19 of the latter (N88701-15, N32716-19) had been delivered between May 1968 and 1970. Three aircraft (N32721-23) built for THY were delivered in 1972 when deliveries switched to the upgraded Advanced model. 11 Advanced examples were added between 1973 and 1980 (N32724-25, N66726, 31-34, N69735-36, 39-40) with new aircraft deliveries continuing into late 1981 (N69741-42, N79743-46, 48-50) by which time 22 Advanced 727-200s had arrived from Boeing. |
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
February 2024
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