Category: Gemini Jets

Three Swallows Pt2: Go Getters Go Ozark

28/11/2018

During its first 20 years of operation Ozark had fulfilled exactly the promise that the local service airlines had been created for. It had started and proved a wide range of feeder services and grown demand to the point that it could sustain not just prop-jets but pure jets as well. Even better it had done so profitably and begun to wean itself off of subsidy and pick-up longer routes that the trunk airlines no longer wanted. All in all it found itself in good position to grow into the 1970s and face the challenges of deregulation to come.

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Aviacsa Pt2: Pakal Falls

6/9/2018

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Aviacsa entered into the 21st Century as Mexico’s leading private airline and a serious competitive force to the nationalised Mexicana and Aeroméxico. Unfortunately it was not able to establish itself as a permanent fixture due to its inability to finance fleet replacement and compete as a low cost rather than a low fares airline with the new breed of LCCs in Mexico such as Interjet and Volaris. Within 10 years Pakal would be dethroned.

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1:400 Review of 2017: Gemini Jets

28/12/2017

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Welcome to my third year of the annual review of manufacturers and their output in 1:400 scale. In this 5 part series we start with Gemini Jets who remain for many the centre of the world in this scale. Not for me however. At the time of writing I have bought 138 new release models in 2017, but only 5 were Gemini Jets. That doesn't necessarily mean GJ produce crap models but sadly all to often that is true. Let's look a little deeper at the good, the bad and the ugly.

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Northwest's Heritage Nines Through the Decades: 1967-2003

26/9/2017

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Whenever I write a history of one of my US Douglas DC-9s in 1/400 scale there is a good chance that it will have ended up with Northwest, and even possibly Delta, through the continual mergers that constituted the deregulated aviation market in the USA during the 1980s. Following the recent release of a couple of nice NW nines by Aeroclassics in this post I'll quickly look at the livery transitions many of these Diesel Nines went through.

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PBA Maxes Out: Provincetown-Boston in the 80s

29/4/2017

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Provincetown-Boston Airways (PBA) started operations in 1949 and was consistently profitable for over 30 years. In 1980 its founder John Van Arsdale reluctantly handed over control to his sons and with deregulation in full swing everything was changing. The future looked bright, but over expansion coupled with a series of fatal crashes led to the death of the airline; although many of its routes and fleet continued on in new colours.

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Cherry Blossom Pacemakers: Piedmont YS-11s

27/4/2017

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In the mid-60s the local service airlines were well into their graduation from DC-3 centric fleets to those based predominantly around Martins and Convairliners and in fact most were beginning to look at jets as well. Piedmont had retired its last Dc-3 in 1963 and had been operating 8 Fairchild F-27s since 1958. It had added a sizeable number of Martin 404s since 1961, but was in the market for fleet renewal. It was interested in jets but also needed new prop-liners and found them in an unusual location.

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Starting from Scratch: The NAMC YS-11

24/4/2017

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The YS-11 programme remains something of a controversial topic in its native Japan. Some see it as an epic adventure and fabulous idea, a monument to Japanese industrial policy; whereas others see it as a folly doomed to failure from the start. Regardless it is clear that the aircraft itself was capable and although it clearly never met the financial targets set for it it sold 182 aircraft, a decent number, and continued in service into the 2010s.

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Skypower Pt1: WAAC to VC10s

5/4/2017

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Throughout the 1960s and 70s Nigeria Airways was one of the strongest and most affluent of the African airlines. The Nigeria state was far from stable however, enduring multiple coups and civil war, and these factors gradually built into the fabric of the state and the state run airline itself. In the long run this institutional weakness would prove terminal but in the 60 and 70s Skypower was a powerful symbol of Nigeria's pride and potential.

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MEA Cedar Jets Pt1: Lebanese Fleet Gifted

27/3/2017

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From the 1950s the history of Lebanon is one of sadness, destruction, and finally from the 1990s rebirth. Through it all the national carrier, Middle East Airlines, has kept flying showing a level of resilience unmatched anywhere in aviation history. The late 1960s was an especially difficult period for the carrier, which due to the hostile action of Israel faced extinction. Tied up in this was MEA's pair of VC10s, both leased aircraft and not the Super VC10s the airline had originally wanted.

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American Out West: AirCal and the San Jose Hub

24/2/2017

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Given the 1980s merger frenzy and increasing power of the richer trunk airlines it is questionable whether AirCal could have survived on its own, but was American Airlines a good fit? History would show that it clearly was not and AA's plans for California would not succeed. Nonetheless the owners of AirCal exited the scene with a decent pay off and American's plans certainly made more sense than USAir's contemparaneous plans for PSA. Here's the story of American's Californian punt.

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AirCal's Search for Silence: MD-80s to 737s to 146s

22/2/2017

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By 1984 AirCal had consolidated its position despite intrusion from new airlines in its core markets. The fleet consisted of 2 737-100s, 14 737-200s and 7 MD-80s and was connecting 13 cities with over 200 flights a day. It was time for fleet renewal, however this would still be incomplete when the airline was consumed in the later rounds of the 1980s merger mania that plagued the US deregulated era.

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A Hell of A Gamble: PSA's 146 Smiliners

20/2/2017

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Deregulation changed the state of play in the Californian market, where unregulated intra-state airlines like PSA and Air California had been battling with the regulated airlines since the 1960s. Competition was stronger than ever with new start up airlines and the trunk airlines looking to create West Coast networks where they had previously had none. This would lead to a tempestuous period for Pacific Southwest. Amongst all this it took a punt on a small four engined British airliner.

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1/400 Review of 2016: Gemini Jets

4/1/2017

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2016 has been very much business as usual for Gemini Jets. That's good news if you like modern US aircraft and fleetbuilding from a selection of other global legacy airlines, not so good if you are after more unusual or retro fair. Their business is built upon fulfilling corporate orders and if anything this year they have moved further away from the 'for collectors by collectors' tag with some hefty price increases. Let's take a closer look.

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Delta Widget Stretch Eights Pt2: Super 71s

3/11/2016

1 Comment

The DC-8 Super 60s continued to be excellent money makers into the late 1970s and airlines like Delta and United were keen to keep them going. This led to the Super 70 programme, which enabled Delta to keep widget Eights flying until 1989 and set the type up well for service into the late 2000s.

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Delta Widget Stretch Eights Pt1: Super 61s

27/10/2016

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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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<<Previous

Three Swallows Pt2: Go Getters Go Ozark

Aviacsa Pt2: Pakal Falls

1:400 Review of 2017: Gemini Jets

Northwest's Heritage Nines Through the Decades: 1967-2003

PBA Maxes Out: Provincetown-Boston in the 80s

Cherry Blossom Pacemakers: Piedmont YS-11s

Starting from Scratch: The NAMC YS-11

Skypower Pt1: WAAC to VC10s

MEA Cedar Jets Pt1: Lebanese Fleet Gifted

American Out West: AirCal and the San Jose Hub

AirCal's Search for Silence: MD-80s to 737s to 146s

A Hell of A Gamble: PSA's 146 Smiliners

1/400 Review of 2016: Gemini Jets

Delta Widget Stretch Eights Pt2: Super 71s

Delta Widget Stretch Eights Pt1: Super 61s

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