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Post by Erik Ingram - HJG on Jan 8, 2020 22:14:43 GMT
With the new year, it seemed like a good time to start a new preview thread. Unfortunately I had a hard drive fail on me so the last few things in the previous thread were lost before I could send them off for eventual release. I'll come back to them eventually, but in the meantime, here's a Texas International experimental livery from 1982, as seen on N1305T:
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Post by Benoit - HJG on Jan 9, 2020 13:12:29 GMT
Sorry to hear about your hard drive failure Erik. Nice rendition, I remember this livery. Benoit
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Post by Erik Ingram - HJG on Jan 9, 2020 21:09:29 GMT
Completing (for now) the Aeronaves TSM fleet, here's their DC-9-15MC XA-UXR as seen around 2018. Interestingly, the real aircraft has a non-standard "towel bar" antenna arrangement on the rear fuselage.
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Post by Erik Ingram - HJG on Jan 10, 2020 18:56:18 GMT
Some of Southwest's former 737-300s are starting to find second lives, and these two are no exception. First up is N625SW of Swift Air, circa last year: Apparently on the first of this month, Swift Air rebranded as iAero Airways (iAero Group being their parent company as of last May), and N397SW is one of the first planes to get the new branding. It remains to be seen if titles will be added at any point. I expect that in due course, this livery will also appear on their non-wingletted -300s and -400s.
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Post by Erik Ingram - HJG on Jan 12, 2020 3:35:38 GMT
Here's another exceptionally rare DC-9 from the 1980s; Columbia Air was planned to be a low-cost startup based in Baltimore using two ex-Air Canada DC-9-30s, the first of which was painted in late 1981. However, the project was so short lived that it didn't even begin operations before folding, and N715CL was sold to Altair as N904AK by the summer of 1982.
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Post by aerofoto - HJG Admin on Jan 12, 2020 9:05:06 GMT
Ex PAN AM president Dan COLUSSY was the individual behind COLUMBIA AIR .... planning to operate low-cost high-frequency services from Baltimore?Washington to Boston, New York, Norfolk, Pittsburgh, and Raleigh using 4 leased DC-9-30's .... and also planning to add an AIR FLORIDA B737-200 too in exchange for that airline later acquiring a stake in its intended action. At least 1 DC-9-32 (N715CL ex AIR CANADA CF-TLP) appeared in COLUMVIA AIR livery .... and which "justifies" Erik's representation of this aircraft (by virtue of its existence in this livery) and despite the fact the airline failed, through its inability to secure adequate financing before it even carried a single PAX .... JJ POSTCARDS IMAGENone the less .... those interested will soon be able to do, in FS, what this airline failed to do in the R/W This pasrticular DC-9-32 eventually went to ALTAIR AIRLINES (N904AK) during 1982, then to PSA (N904AK .... later re-registered N708PS) during 1983, then to US AIR (N914VJ) during 1988 and with whom it continued to serve shortly after this airline became US AIRWAYS during 1997. This aircraft was finally withdrawn from servivce and stored at Pinal Airpark, Arizona, USA, from Seotember 5th 1997 and was sold to AVTEAM during 1998 but never flew again as was later scrapped. Mark C AKL/NZ
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Post by Erik Ingram - HJG on Jan 14, 2020 17:54:47 GMT
Another day, another set of DC-9s! First up is N9339 of Republic circa 1981, featuring a metal underside on what was otherwise the standard livery: Next is DC-9-41 N934L of TWA circa 1987, in a hybrid Ozark livery following their merger in late 1986. Then we have two more -41s in the form of Airborne Express package freighters; I remember seeing them in Omaha frequently as a kid. From 1996 comes N969AX: And from 2002 comes N957AX with updated titles:
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Post by aerofoto - HJG Admin on Jan 15, 2020 3:26:42 GMT
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Post by aerofoto - HJG Admin on Jan 17, 2020 1:38:21 GMT
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Post by Erik Ingram - HJG on Jan 18, 2020 4:29:39 GMT
Two more Airborne Express birds to round out the fleet (with one more related aircraft still to come): DC-9-31 N907AX, 1983 with the original title style: DC-9-15 N926AX, 1984. Unfortunately this one crashed in Philadelphia on February 5, 1985 after trying to take off with snow and ice on the wings, though both pilots escaped mostly uninjured.
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Post by aerofoto - HJG Admin on Jan 18, 2020 6:46:38 GMT
There's been a couple of instances of that with DC-9 class aircraft (and others of too course) around the same period (CO at KDEN) .... including a much later one also that involved an SAS aircraft (at ESSA during the early 90's) which although de-iced "a couple of times" prior to departure still retained an undetected ice layer over its centre wing panels .... and which fractured off the wing surfaces as these flexed due to loading following T/O .... with the ice chips then being ingested into both engines resulting in a double engine surge and failure (FOD). A particular detail that came out of the investigation into this accident though was the fact that SAS's later DC-9 deliveries were equipped with an auto-power recovery feature (ATR) which the airline was apparently unaware of .... and hence its crews not trained in regard to. Diagnosing the surge this crew slightly retarded power in the correct manner .... only to have "the system" (sensing what it interpreted was power loss) auto-recover engine thrust by advancing power to the maximum, beyond even a normal T/O power setting, but which the crew didn't detect (as events quickly got in front of them within the little time they had to respond to the emergency) .... and which then worsened the surge .... to the point of double engine failure .... resulting in a forced, but otherwise successful, crash landing in a field outside Stockholm. This particular accident later became known as the Gottrorakraschen/Gottora crash .... or rather "The Miracle at Gottrora" .... since apart from some injuries not single one of the 129 POB were killed. SAS FLT SK751 DECEMBER 27TH 1991en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandinavian_Airlines_Flight_751CRASH REPORT SAS MD-81 OY-KHOaviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19911227-0AIR CRASH INVESTIGATIONS SAS MD-81 OY-KHO VIDEO REPORTwww.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp_AfiqxN9EMark C AKL/NZ
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Post by Erik Ingram - HJG on Jan 20, 2020 20:48:52 GMT
Two more for now, with one to complete the Airborne Express/ABX fleet. N900AX was the only DC-9 to receive these colors, as the rest were all repainted into the DHL livery while ABX supported them in North America. N2892Q of Best Airlines, circa 1983. Headquartered near Cincinnati, the only constant with them seemed to be change. Between 1982 and the end of operations in 1986, they had served about 30 cities in the eastern US, but never more than 8-10 at any given time. At least one other DC-9 was painted in this livery, while two others were leased from British Midland and Air Florida, which kept their basic respective schemes.
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Post by aerofoto - HJG Admin on Jan 21, 2020 2:09:42 GMT
I like the "BEST AIR" beast best Mark C AKL/NZ
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Post by Tony Madge - HJG on Jan 21, 2020 9:11:02 GMT
some very nice ones there Erik, I have been looking for some rare ones to do (hence my updated list on the staff section) but I missed these two I love the ABX one very neat
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Post by Erik Ingram - HJG on Jan 21, 2020 22:35:17 GMT
Thanks Tony! The post-deregulation period in the US certainly gave rise to plenty of rare and short-lived companies...even between all of the ones you and I have found, there are probably countless more still out there! Speaking of rare liveries, PSA briefly leased a pair of MD-80s from Hawaiian in the summer of 1985 (N819HA and N829HA). Perhaps unsurprisingly, they were looking a little sun-bleached by this time.
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