JAT (Yugoslav Airlines) Boeing 707s
Thanks rog747 - I didn't expect any 'regular' flights of these typs with the restrictive runway length, I was really looking to see if there were any specials/diversions etc. of these type.
Comets maybe?
Comets maybe?
Thread Starter
The nearest thing to a Comet LBA has hosted is the Caravelle. Transavia and Sterling in the 1970s. Perhaps also Hispania in the 1980s, before they acquired 737s.
Nimrods occasionally visited on training jollies during the 1990s.
Nimrods occasionally visited on training jollies during the 1990s.
I don't recall any Yugotours stuff on Saturdays but it's such a long time ago I can't be sure.
Pula and Split were on Sundays, with the JAT 707 in 1985 (YU-AGI and the same Captain every week) for Pula and an Aviogenex 727 or 737 on Split. The Iberia A300 operating for Aviaco was also Sunday afternoon.
Ljubljana was on a Monday morning and varied between a JAT DC9-32 and a Tarom/Adria RomBac One-Eleven. If I remember rightly, there was an Aviaco DC9-34 direct LBA-Tenerife on a Monday morning as well. I'm convinced it only ever reached V2 heading south somewhere near Woodall Services on the M1. There were a few memorable departures which would make compulsive viewing on Youtube nowadays if it had been around back then. If ever an aircraft, a runway and a route were an ill-suited mix, the DC9 on Leeds-Tenerife was right up there alongside the British Island One-Eleven 500 on Saturday's Leeds-Palma for Arrowsmith.
The DC9-34 was a further enhancement of the DC9-30 series for greater MTOW. Not many were ordered and I think Aviaco was the principal purchaser, and may even have initiated the development, principally for routes from The Canaries to Northern European points. It basically was a beefing up of structure and gear, to allow more fuel on a high density configuration. It also had a 1 degree twist of wing incidence to enhance cruise economy, which inevitably had a downside on low speed runway performance. It would be OK off a Heathrow length runway. Douglas never seemed to have it together with their aerodynamics, the DC8 in particular had multiple goes at reworks of the wing, and the trend went right through to the reduced stab of the MD-11 of course.