Polar Byrd/Bird, Berliner Bar/Berlin Bear & Other CV990's
Feb 28, 2023 1:53:33 GMT
alex94 and Nathan Ford - HJG like this
Post by aerofoto - HJG Admin on Feb 28, 2023 1:53:33 GMT
This's a project Paul and I commenced last year, but, couldn't complete in time for our December/Christmas website update .... only given the load of new release files we currently have on hand, along with my own greater "REAL WORLD" priorities at the moment too, a bit of time may advance before we can actually see to getting the following subjects released.
ANYWAY .... and for what it's worth here's a bit about the first of these subjects representing MODERN AIR TRANSPORT's Berliner Bar/Berlin Bear, Polar Byrd/Bird, and other (yet to be added) CV990's ....
MODERN AIR TRANSPORT CV990-A 30-5 "Berliner Bar/Berlin Bear" N5617 (1968)
Division of Germany following the conclusion of WW2 created Soviet controlled East and Western assisted/influenced West Germany .... and also imposed travel restrictions upon German citizens. The rapid economic recovery of West Germany by the 1960's though was also met with the relaxing of such travel restrictions and a corresponding rise in demand for overseas leisure travel .... particularly in regard to IT holidays supported by air travel. This new market was quickly exploited by British independent operators and US supplemental carriers servicing both Berlin-Templehoff and Tegel airports since with the exception of French, UK, and US operators (exploiting the somewhat more liberal air services regulations than were permitted within the USA) .... German carriers were, during this period, prohibited from operating through Berlin .... a restriction that applied to scheduled/non-scheduled as well as charter services. Following successful negotiations with BERLINER FLUGRING, FLUG-UNION BERLIN, TOURISTIK UINION INTERNATIONAL and other IT agencies during 1968, MAT also sought to exploit this particularly lucrative opportunity in order to further increase the utilization its CV990-A fleet and enhance its profitability .... operating contracted IT charters from Berlin-Tegel (as were also being undertaken by SATURN AIRWAYS) to some 19 popular tourist holiday resorts throughout Europe and the Mediterranean (among which included Athens, Corsica, Crete, Dubrovnik, Ibiza, Majorca, Mallorca, and Split) .... and later to Bankok, the Canary Islands, Istanbul (capitalizing on migrant charter opportunities), and as far abroad as Johannesburg. These operations initially resulted in 2 of the airlines CV990-A fleet (supplemented by a 3rd aircraft when additional capacity was necessary) being permanently based in Berlin-Tegel from March 20th 1968 and throughout the entire northern summer season. One of the first of these aircraft (N5617) was named "Berliner Bar"/Berlin Bear .... in reference to the West German city of Berlin's coat of arms. 1968 also saw the airlines natural metal/red/maroon "Silver Palace" livery replaced with its definitive orange/black/white identity .... and which included white painted rudder surfaces.
MODERN AIR TRANSPORT CV990-A 30-5 "Polar Byrd I" (Dustin Transpolar Flight) N5615 (1968)
Between November and December of 1968 MAT CV990-A, N5615, named "POLAR BYRD I", embarked upon a luxury charter flight touted as “the first commercial flight to ever cross both poles and with touch downs on each of the worlds 7 continents”. This particular flight was undertaken to commemorate the 40th anniversary of US explorer Richard E.BYRD's 1928 South Pole aviation expedition (BYRD also becoming first to overfly both of the worlds Polar regions during this and later expeditions). The flight was conceived by Frederik DUSTIN (the fuel engineer during BYRD's 1933-1935 Antarctic expedition) .... and arranged by Edward C.BURSK (chairman of the Boston based ADMIRAL RICHARD E.BYRD POLAR RESEARCH CENTRE and editor of the HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW) as a fund raising exercise on behalf of the BYRD CENTRE. The aircraft was equipped with a Polar Path Compass system to assist navigation within the geographic extremities of both Polar regions .... and supported a "DUSTIN TRANSPOLAR FLIGHT" legend as well as a gold double globe logo on its forward center and lower fuselage sections respectively (on the aircraft's port side only). It was configured for 70 PAX (an all male complement on this particular flight .... among which included Frederik DUSTIN himself) accommodated in a single First Class/4-abreast layout with a wider aisle .... and 10 crew. Under the command of MAT's chief pilot captain Harold L.NEFF (a former AIR FORCE 1 pilot), and operating flight KV 907, this excursion departed Boston for Thule/Greenland on November 8th 1968. It was then routed over the North Pole to both Cold Bay and Achorage/Alaska, Tokyo, Manilla, to both Darwin and Sydney/Australia, to both Auckland and Christchurch/New Zealand, and on to McMurdo Sound/Antartica where it arrived on November 22nd 1968 .... becoming the first ever commercial flight to land on the ice RWY at McMurdo's Williams Field. From McMurdo the aircraft was then routed over the South Pole to Rio Gallegos/Argentina, to both Rio De Janeiro and Manaus/Brasil, Paramaibo/Surinam, Dakar/Senegal, Rome, then Copenhagen and Moscow (this latter sector being assisted by an AEROFLOT navigator), then on to London .... and finally returning to Boston on December 12th 1968. The Russian stopover on this particular excursion became the first ever western charter flight to transit at Moscow. It also resulted in an unanticipated technical difficulty too which grounded the aircraft at Moscow upon discovery that the airports B707/B720, COMET, DC-8, CARAVELLE, and VC10 compatible GPU equipment (as well as that for Soviet aircraft types too) was incompatible with CV990/CV880 air intake valve connections. This resulted in a 3 day delay at Moscow and which necessitated an MAT GPU being flown in from Berlin-Tegel in order to facilitate the aircraft's departure and resumption of the charter flight itinerary. This experience later influenced MAT (in conjunction with GARRET AIR RESEARCH) to develop, and install, a CV990 specific APU .... located within one of the aircraft's starboard wing Anti-Shock Bodies/Kutchmann Carrots .... but which was never successful and therefore removed immediately following trials. PAX each paid some $US 10,000 (1968) for the experience of this trip .... and which cost MAT some $US250,00 to organize. This particular trip raised some $US700,000 for the BYRD CENTRE .... and resulted in a profit of some $US100,000 for the airline.
MODERN AIR TRANSPORT CV990-A 30-5 "Polar Bird II" (Travellers' Century Club North And South Poles 1970) N5615 (1970)
Following success of the airlines 1968 trans-Polar flight, a 2nd such luxury excursion was operated by MAT during early December of 1970 .... this time marketed by Los Angeles based HEMPHILL WORLD CRUISES, on behalf of the TRAVELLERS' CENTURY CLUB, and operated as a purely independent commercial venture. The aircraft was once again configured with a single First Class/4-abreast layout with a wider aisle .... but this time also featuring a forward cabin lounge. This particular and much shorter duration charter flight was again operated by MAT CV990-A N5615 .... renamed "POLAR BIRD II" .... and which this time supported a "TRAVELLERS' CENTURY CLUB NORTH AND SOUTH POLES 1970" legend as well as a coloured double globe route map logo with "HEMPHILL WORLD CRUISES LOS ANGELES USA" titles on its forward center and lower fuselage sections respectively (again on the aircraft's port side only). This particular excursion departed Los Angeles with 60 PAX under the command of captain Ross ZIMMERMANN. The flight was routed over the North Pole via Anchorage/Alaska, then through Europe, Africa, Southern Asia, and through the South Pacific .... transiting through Easter Island, then both Santiago and Punta Arenas/Chile. Unlike the 1968 excursion this particular flight did not transit at McMurdo/Antarctica. The USN had by this time withdrawn refueling facilities at McMurdo and restricted all Antarctic air services to essential support and scientific related operations only, and which rendered the transiting of commercial flights through McMurdo totally impractical. For this reason, and due to prevailing weather conditions at the time, the southern sector of this 1970 transpolar excursion simply overflew the Antarctic ice cap within a 900 mile radius of the South Pole prior to returning to the USA.
Just a couple of noteworthy details in relation each of the 2 MAT polar charter aircraft subjects ....
Both of these Polar aircraft were named differently .... though the names "BYRD" and "BIRD" are identically phonetically pronounced. What's evident in these textures is precisely what was represented on the aircraft which operated both flights and "is not" a typo/an error. The "DUSTIN" flight of 1968 was named "POLAR BYRD I" .... and the 1970 TRAVELLERS' CENTURY CLUB 1 flight was named "POLAR BIRD II". Both flights were also operated by the same MAT CV990-A .... "N5615" .... as has been "CONFIRMED" per photographic referencing. Some written references indicate the 1970 flight was operated by N5612, but this's certainly "not the case"/is wrong as MAT never owned or leased that particular CV990-A. N5612 went from AMERICAN AIRLINES to NORTHEAST AIRLINES (named "Flagship Rita") during February 1967, then to APSA (OB-R-925 .... later re-registered N6846 following its 1973 repossession from the airline) during June 1968, then to DENVER PORTS OF CALL (N8357C) during October 1973, and finally to CISKEI INTERNATIONAL AIRWAYS during January 1988. Again, N5612 was "never" operated by MAT. In any case N5615 was the only MAT operated CV990-A equipped with a Polar Path Compass system to assist polar navigation.
I have today presented a historical feature relating to the CV990/CORONADO operations of MODERN AIR between 1967 and 1974 (took some months to research all of this) and which may be viewed per the following link ....
"MODERN AIR MEMOIRS"
tonymadgehjg.proboards.com/thread/10271/modern-air-memoirs
I/we do have other CV990's to present (now the FDE for these simulations has been updated last December, new HQ sound packs released, and the aircraft base packs now also expanded to include each of the sub types among this aircraft family), but, I'm all-out-all-of-time now .... and with "FAR GREATER PRIORITIES" to attend to at the moment, so, these will be presented as is convenient/later on
Mark C
AKL/NZ
.... and if one was to ever suffer the misfortune of "pranging it" and virtually killing oneself, then, one will automatically qualify for going to FS Heaven 
