Category: Douglas DC-6

Enigmatic Finnish Charter: Finlantic

5/6/2020

Some airlines are so obscure that even with an extensive aviation themed library and access to the entire internet it is still almost impossible to find out much about them. These airlines rarely get made in 1:400 scale so I don't usually get to blog about them and often they don't really warrant it anyway. However, infrequently obscure airlines do get made and it is usually by Aeroclassics. Finlantic is one such airline and I couldn't resist trying to find out more.

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Berlin’s Internal German Services Pt2: 1958-1965

26/3/2020

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By 1958 Berlin had been served by the airlines of the victorious Western powers for a decade. Operations had settled down to a routine whereby Pan Am, BEA and Air France could compete against each other normally even though the political situation surrounding Berlin was just as volatile as ever. Pan Am had the edge with its Douglas DC-6Bs but that would all change in 1958 as BEA upped the competitive pressure with its own prop-jets.

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Berlin’s Internal German Services Pt1: 1946-1958

24/3/2020

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The carving up of Germany after the end of World War Two led to the unfortunate scenario whereby the nation was permanently partitioned, as the Western allies and Soviets became protagonists in the immediate postwar era. This was especially challenging for the former capital city of Berlin, which although itself split into zones, allotted to the victorious powers, was as a whole deeply situated within the Soviet zone. As a result, it would become the front-line of the Cold War and also have its own unique civil aviation arrangements.

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Six Survivors: Canadian Pacific's Versatile DC-6Bs

13/5/2017

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Canadian Pacific turned to the trusty Douglas DC-6B to carry it through the 1950s, but even though the type was replaced by new turboprops, and then jets, on the long haul routes it was reliable and economic enough to be repurposed. The Sixes provided an upgrade to passengers on the domestic routes and continued to serve CP into the late 1960s, a testament to the type's rugged excellence.

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Stability First: Ansett and TAA's Cross-leased DC-6s

2/12/2016

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The DC-6B is widely seen to be the best piston engined aircraft of the 1950s, bringing a reliability not seen in the later DC-7 and efficiencies that the competing Constellations couldn't match. However on shorter routes it was no match for the turboprop Viscount and by the end of the decade it was obsolete in comparison to the larger turboprops and early jets. So just how was it that TAA became a new DC-6 operator in the 1960s?

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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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Five Star Flagships: American DC-6s

7/4/2016

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TWA's introduction of the Constellation in 1946 put American and United at a serious disadvantage on their all important transcontinental routes, but it also disadvantaged Lockheed who were tied to an agreement, with Howard Hughes, which stopped them selling to his competitors. This pushed American towards Douglas and hundreds of sales of the new DC-6 and DC-7 throughout the 1950s.

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SABENA: Brussels to the Congo and New York

14/5/2015

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The Societé Anonyme Belge d'Exploitation de la Navigation Aérienne (SABENA) can trace its history back to 1923. The airline built up a a typical European route network before the Second World War but also was instrumental in Belgian's Congo colony pioneering long over jungle flying and in 1935 connecting the colony with Europe. These strong ties to Africa continued after the end of the war and even after Congolese independence would define the airline for the rest of its history.

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El' Pacifico: Panagra's DC-6B Service to South America

19/4/2015

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Pan American Grace Airways (Panagra) was formed in January 1929 as a marriage of convenience between Juan Trippe's Pan American World Airways and W. R. Grace & Company Shipping. The former wanted to own as much of the air traffic in Latin America as possible whilst the latter wasn't keen on Pan Am competing against its interests and shipping down the east-coast of South America.

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Enigmatic Finnish Charter: Finlantic

Berlin’s Internal German Services Pt2: 1958-1965

Berlin’s Internal German Services Pt1: 1946-1958

Six Survivors: Canadian Pacific's Versatile DC-6Bs

Stability First: Ansett and TAA's Cross-leased DC-6s

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

Five Star Flagships: American DC-6s

SABENA: Brussels to the Congo and New York

El' Pacifico: Panagra's DC-6B Service to South America

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