Category: Fairchild F-27

Three Swallows Pt1: Get Up & Go Ozark

25/11/2018

Ozark was St Louis's hometown airline and as with many of the local service airlines was a true pioneer of service for the regional customer. A well run and well equipped airline that proudly wore its three swallows for forty years. Its story started in 1943 when four local businessmen (two bus line operators and two attorneys) from the Ozark region of mid-west America came together to try and acquire one of the new licenses being offered by the CAB for feeder airline services.

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Air West Pt1: The Airline That Had to Happen

20/3/2018

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As the 1960s drew to a close the CAB in the USA was looking for ways to wean the local service airlines off of subsidies. This meant a gradual movement away from serving local communities and instead using economies of scale to serve wider regions. The result was mergers, including the unique tri-merger that created 'The airline that had to happen' - Air West!

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Quebecair Pt1: 1946-1970 Rimouski-Jets

1/7/2015

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In 1966, during the regulated era of Canadian aviation, five regional airlines were given the role of supplementing Air Canada and CP Air, which themselves reassigned many of their smaller services to the regionals. Within Quebec (excluding its North-west which was assigned to Nordair) services were operated by Quebecair.

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Pacific Coast Prop-Jets Pt2: Air West F-27s

27/5/2015

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By the mid-1960s it was becoming increasingly clear that the three western local service airlines needed to consolidate to help fend off competition from intra-state airlines like PSA, wean themselves off of state subsidies and expand their networks to more profitable routes. The result was the creation of Air West in April 1968.

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Pacific Coast Prop-Jets Pt1: Tri-merger F-27s

26/5/2015

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The thirteen local service airlines got their permanent licenses in 1955 and having proven themselves were keen to expand away from their DC-3 dominated fleets. Each had its own CAB allotted area of operation so there was no competition and many transitioned to prop-jets only via second-hand piston liners no longer needed by the Trunk airlines (mainly Martin 4-0-4s and Convair 240s). The three operators covering the west coast did not go down this route however and were instead early and enthusiastic operators of Fairchild's new license built F-27. In time they would all come together to form the 'Airline that just had to happen'.

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Route of the Gold Strikes: Bonanza Air Lines

7/3/2015

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Bonanza started operations as early as 1945 with a single Cessna. it was formed as Bonanza Air Services in Las Vegas by Edmund Converse, Charlie Keene and June Simon. Based in Vegas at Sky Haven airfield they offered charters to local towns with their 4 passenger Cessna and sold tickets out of the El Rancho Vegas Hotel and Casino. Moving to Alamo Field (nowadays McCarran Intnl Airport) and changing name to Bonanza Air Lines the little carrier expanded with extra aircraft (Piper Cubs and Cessna T-50 Bobcats) and gained a contract to ferry merchant marines to New Jersey in 1946, for which the first C-47 arrived. From these humble beginnings would grow a trendsetting little airline which operated on the 'Route of the Gold Strikes'.

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Three Swallows Pt1: Get Up & Go Ozark

Air West Pt1: The Airline That Had to Happen

Quebecair Pt1: 1946-1970 Rimouski-Jets

Pacific Coast Prop-Jets Pt2: Air West F-27s

Pacific Coast Prop-Jets Pt1: Tri-merger F-27s

Route of the Gold Strikes: Bonanza Air Lines

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