Airlines you wish still existed
 

Personally I have 3. When I was a child I used to travel with those airlines all the time. I think aviation back then was different from now, there was something more magic about it.

Air Afrique:

http://photos.airliners.net/photos/m.../8/0515885.jpg

Sabena:

http://photos.airliners.net/photos/m.../7/0417768.jpg


UTA:

http://photos.airliners.net/photos/m.../4/0057478.jpg

Could become a long list.

Imperial Airways
Laker
BOAC
BEA
Starways

Several hundred more from "British Independent Airlines since 1946". :sad:

Independence Air
http://www.airliners.net/open.file?i...ext_id=1003415

British Eagle - Kemble museum please paint G-ANCF in this scheme
BEA
BOAC
Cambrian
Laker
Dan Air

It is a shame that Duxford have repainted G-ALWF in BEA colours when Cosford already have one in those colours. IMHO she should have remained in the quite attractive red & blue Cambrian scheme that she made her final flight in. I watched that final landing at Liverpool.
http://photos.airliners.net/photos/m.../3/0111396.jpg
Perhaps if the airlines at Cosford survive, they could be a tribute to British Independent with the VC10 in the lovely BOAC navy blude & gold scheme. "Laker" B707, "British Eagle" Britannia, "Dan Air" BAC1-11, and there must be a timex Dove somewhere that could represent the humble beginnings that many of these grew from. Though I would like to see Dan Air as either a HS748 or better still, a Nord 262.
http://photos.airliners.net/photos/m.../9/0245948.jpg

The SABENA 737 brings back memories for me of the truly fantastic crews of the SABENA Friendship OO-SCA which operated out of Heathrow. None to touch them - they were the best.
Also reminded of Linair - a subsidiary of SABENA which operated in Libya in the 60s.

Is this just us all wanting to see the old planes & liveries, not that there is anything wrong with that? British Midland seem to still be doing well, but miss the old Heralds & Viscounts.

British Air Ferries - Carvairs!!! Looked great in both their original livery, with the white, pale blue, dark blue swoops from the nose, down the window line. Also the 1980's Viscounts. Nice relaxed bunch when I flew with them.

Dan-Air seems to be a popular choice. Memories of the Comet 4s (my first flight, 1972!) and the 727s. Happy, relaxed crews & pax, even on the charters to Spain. Not like today.

British Caledonian. All together now "Wish they all could be Caledonian..."

Channel Airways. Just so I could stand at the end of the runway at Southend & watch the Golden Jet Trident take off one more time...

ACE (Air Cargo Express?) and would that they were still flying Connies! Never saw them though, a bit before my time...

Tradewinds...

Gatwick in the late 70s with Capitol, CP Air and Braniff adding a colourful note.

Scoggy, just acquired a CD by Clare Torry which includes the 1970s British Caledonian ad "Let's Go British Caledonian" which she sang on... That brought back a few memories!

Court line with their pastel coloured BAC1-11's and Tristars.:D

HEATHROW DIRECTOR,

That's a Sabena A310 not a 737.

Scoggy,

You may miss things like Heralds but they took an absolute age to get you anywhere!

The old 'erald may not have been particularly quick (the Carvair was even slower...) but it's HOW you get there what matters. Style, of sorts.

More from the dust vaults of Scoggy's mind;

Heavylift - Beautiful Belfasts.
BEA - It's a Trident thing I've got.
Pan Am - Clipper style.
Brymon - Please ensure your seat-belt is secure, this is London City we is landing at...

It's nice to look back to my early days - to unravel memories - but I must admit I have a yearning to go back to what had long ended before I even existed.

If we could slip further back into the past I would like to see (and experience) some of the 1930's era aircraft. An Imperial Airways HP42 maybe of Short Calcutta. Most of all a De Havilland Albatross..

From my early days at Newcastle:

BKS Ambassadors, replaced by Britannias and eventually Tridents.
Silver City Dakotas and Bristol Freighters to the Isle of Man. Dan-Air Daks to Norway, Doves on the stopping service down to Bournemouth, Ambassadors to Carlisle for 18 bob (£0.90) one way,
Starways Daks to Newquay, Mercury Herons to Leeds and Sandown.
Cunard Eagle DC6s to Bergen. Skyways and Euravia Constellations on Sunday charters. Occasional visitors Autair and Channel Express Vikings, Derby Airways Daks.

Oh, and the Tyne Tees Airways Dakota permanently parked (they also had a Bristol Freighter over at Usworth).

Now where’s me Zimmer frame?

BEA with their Vanguards, Viscounts and Tridents

BOAC with the VC-10

Old BMI with their 707s

Anyone who flew proper jets that smoked and made a bloody racket.

I'm not old, I just have a very good memory

:\

Treadigraph

ACE was Air Charter Enterprises, and i remember them dropping oil all over the ramp at Changi ( a REAL a/c, those Connies ) :cool:
Horlicks and bed time now

My first trip to the Paris Airshow, June 1967. A "real" a/c Air France(Modern Air) Convair 990 N5605. Wow!

Any chance of posting a photo of N5605 or for that matter "any" CV990?

This one. :sad:

PAN AM - those IGS Pilots were among the best in the industry. Ever seen a 727 in a sideslip ? Witnessed the last flight from STR to THF...

SÜDFLUG - charter airline, homebase STR, killed by Lufthansa in the late 60´s, early 70´s.

ATLANTIS - anyone remembers the story of the DC-8 crew that left the A/C on the runway, engines running fleeing from the airport cause they were ordered to taxy back for an alcohol test ? Happened in STR in the mid 70´s...

Memories of many happy trips from STN-FRA with buzz:

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...69/buzz146.jpg

..until the wooden-footed wooden-headed fools at KLM sold out to Mikey-the-pikey and they started flying instead to where-the-hell-is-Hahn!

Friendly, affordable, frequent, efficient, they were everything you could want from a lo-co carrier. And no "You vant buy scratchcard" nonsense either!

So nowadays it's back to Lufthansa for me......

Pan Am

The last Pan Am, aircraft I saw was spread over 18 miles of Scottish Countryside. Sadly some memories are better forgotten and yet they are the ones that stay with you for life. I was on one of the first helicopters there, and it took us an age to find the cockpit despite it being the image that many will hold. Upon return to Aldergrove (& a late lunch) a ground engineer (also eating late) made the mistake of having a poke at aircrew getting additional (flying) pay, it wasnt the day to do that, and he never did complete his lunch!

Lockerbie probably contributed to the demise of Pan Am .

Lockerbie *was* the demise of Pan Am. (They weren't quite a basket case before it occurred, they certainly were after)

Cheers Sled Dog, they were still an "Ace" airline"! Almost Ruskin...

The Heralds were slow but faster than the WGAF Do-28Ds that occasionally rattled up (or down) Green One. A good half hour of augmented Lycoming accompanied their passage... Happy days...

TIA

TWA

TCA

PLUNA

Cimber

BUA

Autair

Silver City

Northeast (HS121 moment)

Aviogenex

Capitol

Universal

Treffield

Modern

:{

Sir George Cayley

I was wondering how Wardair could have been missed out on this thread and then I clicked on Pigboat's link:
I only flew on Wardair once, back in their 707 days, but my parents often talked about the wonderful service on their Wardair flights from Gatwick to Calgary. It was rumoured that other Canadian airlines used to send their cabin crew as fare paying pax, in order to see how in-flight service should be done.

And talking of other Canadian airlines, I wish Canadian Pacific were still around with that wonderful callsign "Empress" and their cheerful, friendly crews.

Sled dog

I think it was Aviation Charter Enterprise, Dropping oil ! :eek: I think they were marking their territory:)

Be lucky
David

Perhaps you are right. Well, it was 40+ years ago :eek: :cool:

Any airline that doesn't raid the pension.

For this to happen, it would require re-regulation.

Yes... we were scheduled to fly on one for our Honeymoon but the thing went tech and we ended up in a Dak - what joy!

Do Slick, Flying Tiger and Seaboard still exist? Recall their CL44s at Heathrow.

The'd all gone by the late 1980s, sadly, HD. They'd moved on from CL-44s by my day (think Transmerridian and Tradewinds acquired some of the fleet) but SW and FT DC-8s and 747s made a colourful addition to an airport ramp. Slick were no more by the late 1960s I think.

Saturn Airways! DC-8s and L-100s!

Flying Tiger took over Seaboard in 1980. They were in turn taken over by FedEx in 1989. Slick were gone long before that.

Seaboard were a great bunch. 3am one night in Heathrow Tower the R/T on 121.9 went something like this:

Seaboard (testing his mic): "One two"
Me (with nothing better to do): "Three four"
Seaboard: "We'll be pickin' up sticks in a minute".

For 3am that was real sharp!

Wardair were a great airline to fly with, even in economy they were excellent, Canada 3000 were an excellent airline to deal with.

Air Europe looked the biz and could easily have changed the face of British flying today if the factors working against them had not happened.

Flying Colours were good and had a great name in the charter business and anglo cargo bit off more than they could chew when they had that fantastic liveried 757 delivered.

Air Charter,

For the day I stood at Stansted with b***er all happening until late in the afternoon, out of the murk, appeared one of their Avro Super Traders which then performed a touch and go before landing and taxying on to one of the dispersal points. Only Tudor/Super Trader I ever saw flying. Also for their Super Freighters at Southend in the Fifties.

Channel Airways,

For their "Royal" Viking which took me to Ostend, Easter '63 for a football tournament and for their "Golden Viscount"s., one of which flew myself and Mrs S on honeymoon to Jersey.

Skyways,

For their beautiful pale blue Hermes and Yorks

Spantax,

For their DC-7C's which took me on my first international flight from Gatwick to Palma and return.

The list could be endless and, as mentioned in an earlier reply, includes most of the entries in Tony Merton Jones' magnificent epic "British Independent Airlines since 1946"

Cheers in nostalgia

Southender

My son got a Model Channel Airways Trident as a Christening present!

Britannia.

Nothing matters very much, most things don't matter at all.

B.U.A. 111s

Invicta Airways and their Vikings. I liked those.

I enjoyed taking leave from Germany to LGW in a Viscount - 800 trooping flight but I can't remember the operator. It was about the only time I didn't mind going back to camp either - just for for another ride in the Viscount.

The 1-11's of Dan Air on LGW - ABZ route were a joy albeit at 0700 and commonly known as the red-eye special.

BIA to Jersey.

So nice all of them

Mercury Airlines 4 engines for long haul. DH Heron, Manchester to Isle of Wight. Happy memories.

Airclues

For me here in the US it is Braniff Airlines.

www.braniffinternational.org/


They almost made it.

Many happy memories of this one.........


http://i2.tinypic.com/rksavq.jpg


Both of the airline and the aircraft.

Late 70's Golden West Airlines DHC Twotter Summer trip LAX-Palmdale-Mohave- IYK No more than 2,000' over the high desert. Half the pax and the copilot lost their lunches. Anybody have a picture?