Local Service Airlines: Missing Models

The local service airlines had their routes in a postwar need for service to smaller communities and feeder routes into the the trunk services of the majors. Initially called simply 'Feeder Airlines' in July 1944 by the CAB they became known as 'Local Service' airlines when the survivors were certificated permanently in 1955. These airlines grew into majors over time and have had a decent representation in 400 scale, however there are significant gaps still to be filled.

In this post I'm only going to focus on moulds that are available for usage. There are literally tens of DC-3s that would fill in the early histories of the local service airlines but sadly the Aeroclassics DC-3 is out of action and JC Wings / Gemini never use theirs. Likewise I'd love to see some Martinliners but I can't see it happening. The DC-9-10 is another obvious missing aircraft so important to these airlines but once again currently there is no mould.

The airlines that survived to gain permanent certificates were as follows:

• Allegheny Airlines
• Bonanza Air Lines
• Central Airlines
• Frontier Airlines
• Lake Central Airlines
• Mohawk Airlines
• North Central Airlines
• Ozark Air Lines
• Piedmont Airlines
• Southern Airways
• Southwest Airways (later Pacific Air Lines)
• Trans-Texas Airways (later Texas International Airlines)
• West Coast Airlines

​All of these have some representation in 400 scale aside from poor little Central Airlines. I have representatives from all of them I can get:

Each had its own geographic area of operations. Over the years several were merged into each other so that by the mid-1970s the survivors were:

• Allegheny Airlines (later US Air)
• Frontier Airlines
• Hughes Airwest
• North Central Airlines
• Ozark Air Lines
• Piedmont Airlines
• Southern Airways
  
• Texas International Airlines

The cut-off date for this blog entry will be 1980.

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ALLEGHENY AIRLINES

Missing working moulds for the DC-3, Martin 202, Nord 262, DC-9-10 and One-Eleven 200. There are still a few others to be made on existing moulds:

Above: Allegheny operated a large Convair fleet from 1960 initially in this livery.

Above: Allegheny operated 10 F-27s between late 1965 and 1973:

Above: Only Gemini have made a DC-9-30 and their mould is poor

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CENTRAL AIRLINES

Central was always one of the smaller local service airlines but did get beyond its original DC-3s into Convair territory:

They later turned their CV-240s into CV-600 turboprops and I know there isn't a mould but it's very close to the CV-240 and their last livery was great:

Jon Proctor [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)]

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FRONTIER AIRLINES

Once again there is no CV-600, or obviously DHC-6, but will Gemini ever make the CV-580s?

Perry Hoppe [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)]

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LAKE CENTRAL AIRLINES

There's no active DC-3 or Nord 262, but there are several Convair 580s:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lake_Central_Convair_CV-580_N73131.png

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MOHAWK AIRLINES

Mohawk has been quite well covered aside from DC-3s and Martin 404s, but there are still a few Convairs left to do:

Below: There has been a long nose CV-440 in this scheme made but not a short nose CV-340.

http://www.edcoatescollection.com/ac3/Airline/Mohawk%20Airlines%20Convair%20CV340.html

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NORTH CENTRAL AIRLINES

Herman has been quite busy in 400 scale, aside from the many DC-3 schemes, but the late 1960s jet age gold and aqua scheme has been forgotten:

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OZARK AIRLINES

The three swallows of Ozark have been rather under-represented in 400 scale to date and although there are no DC-3s, Martins or DC-9-10s there is still plenty of room for more

RuthAS / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)

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PIEDMONT AIRLINES

The Pacemaker has also had some sporadic service in 400 scale. No DC-3s or Martins again and you could argue a new 737-200 is also needed to replace the old SMA and Gemini releases. In addition there are these 5:

RuthAS / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)

RuthAS / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)

Jon Proctor [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)]

RuthAS / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)

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PACIFIC AIR LINES

Pacific has had a few F-27s but there's still one more to go. The usual lack of DC-3s and Martinliners is a hindrance but the 727 is a glaring omission that will hopefully be rectified soon.

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TRANS-TEXAS AIRWAYS

TTA is another largely forgotten local service airline in 400 scale. There is at least a DC-3 and a few Texas International DC-9-30s, but in between those we need a Convair 240. All the CV-240s were converted to CV-600s, which there isn't a mould for sadly. This problem also befalls the TTA and TI DC-9-10s.

Jon Proctor [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)]

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Summary

If there was a working DC-3 mould in 1:400 then this list would be about twice as long. Add a Douglas DC-9-10 and the list doubles again, not to mention the Martin 202/404. Even so there are excellent Convair 240/340, Douglas DC-9, Fairchild F-27 and Fairchild Hiller FH-227 moulds with Aeroclassics, plus of course Gemini Jet's underused Convair 580 and NAMC YS-11. Given these are core US airlines I would expect there is enough sales potential to see almost everyone of these made in the future.