Thanks everyone, reading your posts inspired me to sort through some of my Dad's collection of TAA stuff that he's hoarded in his shed over the years. Old Ollie worked in TAA "Aircraft Maintenance" from about 1959 to his retirement in 1985. He was an aircraft cleaner and windscreen washer
but took his job so seriously that you would have thought that whenever he called in sick they would have had to ground the entire fleet until he came back!!! He, like all you others, loved his TAA, and even now, from his nursing home still talks about the good times of Aussie aviation. It wasn't just about business and shareholders, it had a soul and was a living, breathing family affair. I grew up in an era when you could come to work with your Dad and walk out on the tarmac no ASICs, no AFP or SNP security to hassle you, just smell the kero and avgas and talk to the people who flew and maintained the aircraft. It must have had an effect on me (my wife reckons "scarred for life"
) because I'm still out there airside sniffing the fumes
.
Who remembers the
Super 30? What about the Super 80 that DC tried to flog us. Have a look at the article espousing the magic of brewing fresh coffee on the new DC9
I've quickly thrown together some images in a PDF file for those interested,(a 1.8Mb download).
http://users.tpg.com.au/nemtrans/TAA DC-9.pdf
BTW The DC9 on
that cover of TransAir magazine was actually one of many scale replica models that in about 1966, TAA commissioned Ollie to build, and they used them for promotional displays.
PS If my memory serves me right, The TAA DC-9s were registered VH-TJJ thru to TJU and they were assigned the names of famous old Aussies. A Chup-a-Chup to anyone who can correctly name all of them!! (answers in a couple of days if no one is up to it)
.