USA "through plane" flights to South America 1950s-60s
Have been having a look at 1950s-60s routes from the USA to South America.
There was a substantial Pan Am operation to Latin America, which appears straightforward.
There was also a "through plane" service from New York to Miami, Panama, and various points down to Santiago and Buenos Aires. Flights are shown as operated by National from New York to Miami, then Pan Am to Panama, then Panagra south of there. This seems to have happened by historical build up of route licences. But whose aircraft were actually used ? The same aircraft is claimed to work right through.
In jet days the type shown is DC8. National do not seem to have had enough DC8s to operate on the route in addition to their own domestic requirements. Pan Am seem to have been responsible for just a short sector in the middle of the flight. Panagra only did the operation south of Panama, despite being a US airline (owned 50% by Pan Am and by Grace Shipping). They did have DC8s, in fact enough to operate the entire schedule throughout, and with plenty of reserve as well.
There are also some National flights on their New York to Miami trunk route which appear to be turnrounds at New York of these aircraft. So did Panagra actually have a base in Miami, and hire time out to National as part of the deal ? Did Pan Am aircraft play any part ?
I wonder who crewed them as well. Did each of the three "operators" provide their own crews to the Panagra aircraft on each part of the trip ?
AS if that is all not enough, there was a second parallel operation, joint between Eastern and Braniff, where Eastern did the section from New York to Miami, and Braniff did south of there. This seems simpler, as the jet type shown is 707, and Eastern did not have 707s, whereas Braniff did, so it appears that the flights were always with Braniff aircraft throughout.
Am I correct ? Anyone still remember how it all worked ? In the late 1960s the Panagra operation was sold to Braniff, the competitor, which complicates things further.