Continental's Short Nines Pt2: Lorenzo's 14s

As was discussed in part 1 Continental took a punt on the DC-9-15RC in the late 1960s that never paid off and in the end standardised its fleet around the larger 727-200. That wasn't the end for the Diesel Nine at CO however. As the 1980s brought deregulation and merger chaos ominously for Continental and Eastern employees this also heralded the arrival of the great satan: Frank Lorenzo.

Continental Airlines Douglas DC-9-14 N651TX Jet-X 1:400 Scale Model Airliner

The short DC-9 had proved perfect for operation by the local service airlines during the 1960s as their first jets, especially after several (including Frontier and Bonanza) were denied the right to buy British One-Elevens following Mohawk's order of the type. The CAB had said it was concerned about the already high rate of subsidisation that the jets operating on local routes would require over the existing props, however this issue miraculously went away when an American alternative appeared. It's hard to see it as anything other than blatant protectionism. Anyway of the local service airlines Allegheny, Bonanza, Central, North Central, Ozark, Pacific, Southern, Trans-Texas, West Coast all ordered DC-9s. Only Frontier, which overstretched itself with 727s, Lake Central, which ordered 737s, and Piedmont, also 737s, operated alternative aircraft. If only most of these aircraft existed in 1/400 scale :( .

As the 1970s arrived the local service airlines grew into what were termed regionals (not related to the later use of the term to mean a prop commuter airline) and as deregulation loomed mergers and consolidation began. Implausibly this led to the small Texas International (formerly Trans-Texas) taking over the much larger trunk airline Continental and all hell breaking loose. Suffice to say Frank Lorenzo, who owned TI, through his Jet Capital, was not a popular man and he took the 'Proud bird with the Golden tail' through bankruptcy in order to lower costs and destroy any staff resistance to his cost cutting reign. I doubt many of them thought that 'together we're even better' as the below timetable asserts:

Timetable image above left from http://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/co.htm

This also meant that the shell of the old Continental was gradually merged with various other Lorenzo acquisitions and startups. Two of these were DC-9s operators - namely Texas International and Lorenzo's non-union New York Air. As a result Continental inherited a boatload of 'new' aircraft many of which were very old. We have already looked at the 737-200s and 300s Continental acquired in an earlier blog post but the DC-9 also made a comeback in both its short DC-9-14/15 and longer 30 series forms. As far as DC-9-14/15s went Continental acquired from Texas International in October 1982:

• 2 original Trans-Texas DC-9-14s (N1301T-1302T)
• 1 original Trans-Texas DC-9-15MC (N1307T)
• 5 ex-TWA DC-9-14s (N1051T-55T  subsequently re-reg'd as N651TX-N655TX)
• 2 ex-Air Canada DC-9-14s (N5726 and 5728 subsequently re-reg'd as N626T and N628T)
• 2 ex-Eastern DC-9-14s (N8901E and N8902E)
• 3 of the leased original Continental DC-9-14s (N8961-62, N8963 became N949L)
• 1 ex West Coast / Hughes Airwest DC-9-14 (N9102)
• 1 ex Swissair, Air Panama and Ozark DC-9-15 (N968E)

So hardly a uniform group of aircraft even though all had seen some service with Texas International. None dated from after 1967. Unlike the more spacious 737s and larger DC-9-30s the short Nines were ripe for replacement even if Continental was in no position to pay for new aircraft. They soldiered on until 1991 just after Continental had entered its second bankruptcy within a decade.

One sad footnote to the DC-9-14/15s career with Continental was the loss of N626TX on November 15, 1987 when she crashed on take-off from Denver Stapleton. She had been cleared to take-off 27 minutes after de-icing, which provided enough time for further ice to accumulate. The aircraft lost lift abd struck the ground after rotation with the left wing separating from the airframe. It then hit the ground again (this time the left side cockpit and forward fuselage) and the plane skidded to a halt inverted. Sadly 28 of the 82 occupants were killed. The crash was blamed on the failure to de-ice for a second time as well as confusion between the flight crew and ATC.

N651TX, the aircraft the model represents, was actually only the 7th DC-9 off the line and was one of five aircraft leased from TWA in 1974, returned in 1975 and eventually purchased in 1977. She had originally been delivered to TWA on 25th March 1966 as N1051T and kept that registration until November 1982 when Continental made her N651TX. After her retirement by CO she was leased to Aerocalifornia as XA-RXG and was withdrawn sometime in 2005. Ferried to Mojave she was scrapped in 2009.

References

Waddington, T. Great Airliners Series: Volume Four - McDonnell Douglas DC-9, World Transport Press.
N626TX - Aviation Safety Network
Aeromoe's Fleet Pages