Continental's Short Nines Pt1: Rapid Change

Bob Six's Continental Airlines had always been the smallest of the certified trunk airlines but also one of the most adventurous. The US manufacturers were relatively slow to address the need for short-haul jets but as Douglas finally decided upon the DC-9 Continental took one of its characteristic leaps of faith and ordered a new variant. Even though this wasn't a success the DC-9-14/15 would feature in CO's fleet again but for a very different Continental.

1965 was a good year for the DC-9 programme as the first aircraft made its maiden flight and the Douglas nine overtook the BAC One-Eleven in terms of orders. Indeed airlines like Eastern, West Coast, Ozark and KLM were all placing orders. Eastern was already ordering the stretched DC-9 model that would become the series 30 (at the time Eastern called it the DC-9B). Later in the year Ansett, TAA, Swissair, Iberia, Saudi Arabian and Standard Airways would all be added to the order backlog although the battle at United was lost to the new 737-200.

From the collection of http://www.timetableimages.com

Continental had a small fleet of 11 Vickers Viscount 812s it was looking to replace with jets and it too liked the look of the Douglas jet, ordering 12 aircraft on March 16, 1965. Continental however didn't go for the standard DC-9-10 and instead became the launch customer for the DC-9-15RC (Rapid Change), which it initially advertised as the DC-9C. As its name suggests the RC model could be operated as either a passenger aircraft or a freighter.

The RC was fitted with an upward opening cargo door on the port side which measured 81x119 inches allowing the carry of 12 54x81x119 inch pallets, each accommodating 180 cubic feet of cargo. To ensure maximum space even the hat racks could hinge downwards over the windows. The aircraft could of course also operate in a combi configuration with a mix of passenger and cargo on the maindeck. Removable cabin dividers shielded the passengers from the cargo compartment.

To enable rapid re-configuration all the seats and galley were palletised and it took only 75 minutes to reconfigure the aircraft. To cover until its own DC-9s entered service Continental took four standard DC-9-14s on lease from Douglas with the first, N8961, arriving in March 1966. Continental received its first DC-9-15RC in March 1967 with all the fleet but one delivered by February 1968. The last aircraft didn't arrive until July and in the end 19 aircraft had joined rather than the 16 originally ordered. They were registered N8901-N8919 and replaced the Vickers Viscounts the last of which had left the fleet in May 1967. The leased DC-9-14s were also returned to Douglas between July 1967 and January 1968.

Continental Airlines Douglas DC-9-15RC N8903 Jet-X 1:400 Scale Model Airliner

The idea of the RC variant was that an airline would operate passenger flights during the day and cargo flights at night, however on this occasion Bob Six had made a mistake and the potential freight market he foresaw never really eventuated. The DC-9-15RCs rarely operated in all cargo config and were no doubt less efficient on passenger operations, due to their extra weight, than standard DC-9-15s. During the early 1970s Continental decided to standardise its fleet around the Boeing 727-200 and McDonnell Douglas DC-10 and the DC-9s began to be sold off from April 1972.

Eight, including N8903, as CF-TOP, went to Air Canada who operated them in both passenger and cargo configuration. She was sold to Air Florida in 1977 as N60AF. Owned by Ross Avtn as N79SL from November 1979 and then ERDA US Energy (later as N179DE) she ended her service with the US Marshalls Service from 1999 as N814RW and was withdrawn by 2004. Despite their lack of success at Continental the DC-9-15RCs would find later careers with US domestic overnight small package operators for which they were ideally suited.

I should also note that Jet-X, the manufacturer of this model, has erred in not showing the cargo door at all on the port side! It should be obvious as well as the non-standard window configuration to accommodate it - see the below photo. Oops!

Continental continued its success into the 1970s but the tumultuous deregulated period of the 1980s would see the airline turned upside down and the short DC-9 re-enter the fleet along with its larger brother the DC-9-30. In part 2 we'll look at these later additions.

Note on the mould: The DC-9-10 series is possibly the most under-represented main version of a jet in 1/400 scale. Aeroclassics produced many on one of its first moulds at the end of the 1990s but this can't stand up to modern scrutiny which leaves only a handful built on Jet-X's, not perfect but pretty darn good, mould as you see here. Unfortunately Jet-X made a disaster of its TWA version's printing so not even this handful of releases are all collectable. I for one am crying out for more DC-9-10s so I can represent this important early jet in my fleet.

References

Waddington, T. Great Airliners Series Vol 4: McDonnell Douglas DC-9. World Transport Press. 1998