In my opinion, perhaps no other aircraft type wore Trans World Airline’s (TWA’s) classic 1961-75 “double-globe” livery better than the Boeing 747-131. The look just seemed perfect on the original “Queen of the Skies” and from the first TWA 747 roll-out in late 1969 until 1979/80 when the last aircraft received the completely redesigned 1975 paint scheme it was always a pleasure to see one of these airplanes, whether at rest or in motion. Such views were readily available as TWA was a major operator of Boeing’s “Jumbo Jet,” with the airline being second only to launch customer Pan American World Airways in putting the type into service, inaugurating the first U.S. transcontinental 747 flights beginning in February of 1970 (the company actually flew 747’s from that year until retiring the last aircraft in 1998). One of those original -131’s, “N93107” is seen here at Paris-Charles De Gaulle Airport, apparently just after a rainstorm, sometime in the 1970’s. The airline flew a total of 36 747’s during 28 years including the Special Performance (SP) model and a number of “second-hand” -200 variants. Also included among the -100 series aircraft were four 747-125’s originally ordered by Eastern Air Lines in 1967. These aircraft were under construction in Seattle in early 1970 when EAL decided to go exclusively with the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar as its widebody flagship for the 1970s. All four aircraft were sold to Trans World instead.
National Airlines possessed one of the more striking and expessive liveries of the late 1960’s and 1970’s. The orange and yellow stripes and “Sun King” logo (in my opinion one of the best ever designed for an airline) made it crystal clear that NAL was very much “Florida’s Own Airline,” based in Miami for many years before arch-competitor Eastern moved its corporate headquarters there in 1975. Late in 1971 National launched its famous (or, for some, infamous) “Fly Me” advertising campaign which included virtually every NAL aircraft receiving a female name painted somewhere near their jet’s forward passenger loading doors. Boeing 727-25 “N4614” was no exception, being christened “Ann.” This practice continued until 1977 when “Fly Me” was finally replaced by “Watch us Shine” as the offical corporate slogan and by 1979 most, if not all, of the names had been removed. This photograph depicts Ann at Miami, possibly undergoing some line maintenance, and looking like she has just received a repaint. Time is unknown, but it is quite possible this image dates to the period shortly after “Fly Me” ads began appearing in October of 1971. N4614 continued to fly National’s domestic routes until the airline’s ill-fated merger with Pan American in January of 1980. At that time the Boeing trijet received a new name: “Clipper Reporter.” After passing through periods of ownership by several other operators the 727 was reported as being scrapped in Ottawa, Ontario in 1995.
A perennial “crowd favorite,” especially in the United Kingdom, are Court Line’s two Lockheed L-1011 TriStars. G-BAAA “Halcyon Days” is seen here taxiing at London-Gatwick sometime in 1973 or 1974. Sadly, these were the only two years G-BAAA and her sistership “G-BAAB” (also known as “Halcyon Breeze”) operated before the worldwide slowdown in world air travel in the aftermath of the 1973/74 OPEC Oil Embargo put Court under for good. For some reason the multi-shaded pink hues of -BAAA seem to show up in the few good color photographs of these ships quite a bit more often than -the yellow/oranges of -BAAB. That is what makes this gorgeously well-lit shot of “Halcyon Days” so special, in my opinion. Court was also famously known for its single-class, nine-across seating, L-1011 charters, making the 400-passenger TriStars the most densely configured of this era. As for the gloriously colorful liveries the only thing that came close on an L-1011 were found in the mid-1970’s livery of Pacific Southwest Airline’s (PSA’s) two examples, which wore multiple pinks and reds with a white crown.
While undated, this photograph of United Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 Friend Ship “N1825U” at San Francisco likely was shot in the mid- to late-1970’s. Many people know and love United’s “pre-Saul Bass” four-star livery. What many do not know is that there are actually two distinct versions of the “Star’s and Bar’s” color scheme. Starting in late 1973, just a year before United introduced the also very popular “Tulip” design, a decision was made to change all the “United” titles on the company’s aircraft from black to a thicker blue lettering style. Print advertising featuring the new font began to appear in the spring of 1973, but it appears the modification on existing aircraft in the fleet (several new aircraft were delivered this way) did not appear until very late that year. One thing this livery wasn’t was subtle. Like many 1970’s-era colors on U.S. carriers the “Blue Friend Ship” look really jumped out at you and was quite distinctive. When a United aircraft flew over your head or taxied by your gate there was no way you were not going to know what airline that airplane belonged to! Even after the Saul Bass-designed “Tulip” look was introduced with great fanfare in 1974 the sheer size of United’s fleet (it was the largest airline in the “Free World” at the time) meant that it took several years for the “Friend Ships” to disappear. Several were still carrying this old livery well into the late 1970’s.
Photographs of Delta Air Lines Douglas DC-8-11’s in the 1959 “pre-widget” delivery livery, particularly in color, are almost non-existent. That is what makes this shot of “N803E” at Atlanta truly a rare gem. Delta beat United Air Lines by just a few hours in inaugurating the world’s first service with this pioneering first generation jetliner on 9/18/59 from NY-Idlewild to Atlanta (where the aircraft used the one and only “Jetway” in use at the destination airport at the time). Delta would go on to fly not only these very early -11’s, but also the DC-8-33/-51/-61/-71 variants (with the last stretched, re-engined DC-8-71 not being retired until 1989, thirty years after service start with the aircraft type). The original JT3C powered -11’s, such as N803E, were eventually converted to JT3D turbofan equipped -51’s during the early 1960’s, at which time the earliest version of the still in use triangular “widget” logo was applied to the aircraft.
While Braniff International Airways (BI) awaited the factory delivery of several Boeing 747-227’s and 747SP-27’s for their rapidly expanding international route system (including new services across both the Atlantic and Pacific), they needed more than just their single owned “Jumbo Jet” 747-127 “N601BN.” So, ironically, they leased one in the early spring of 1978 from American Airlines (AA), the company that would be most responsible for BI’s demise four short years later. Needing to press 747-123 “N9666” into operation as quickly as possible upon delivery, Braniff decided to forego the usual solid color covering the entire fuselage and simply painted a single wide orange stripe over American’s triple stripe of red, white, and blue. They also left AA’s overall bare metal fuselage and simply added their “BI” tail logo and “Braniff international” fuselage titles to create a one-off design never seen on any other Braniff aircraft in the company’s history. Chances are the American interior was left untouched as well (although BN had installed leather seats in both coach and first class sections of N601BN by this time). BTW, N601BN was known informally inside the company as “Big Orange” since 1971. What was the nickname for partially bare-aluminum N9666, seen here at DFW, during her two-year stint with Braniff? “Big Alcoa,” of course!
Eastern Air Lines tried out a number of experimental schemes in 1964 before settling on the famous “hockey-stick” livery which endured, in one form or another, until the shut-down in 1991. This, however, is the ONLY color photograph I have ever encountered showing this design, where the lower “Ionosphere Blue” stripe diverges from the lighter “Caribbean Blue” stripe towards the front of the aircraft. When I recently discovered this Nassau, Bahamas-shot of DC-8-51 “N8781R” I actually paid to have a print made up for my own EAL collection. I suspect she was the only one of the legendary carrier’s aircraft painted up this way and this look wasn’t around for long. Eastern’s factory-delivered DC-8’s, by the way, were mostly the -21/-61/-63 variants. Four of the company’s five -51’s were second-hand aircraft. In this rare photo please also notice the lack of painted outlines for doors and emergency exits. These outlines on U.S. transport aircraft would not be mandated by the FAA until July of 1966.
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