ATW Time Capsule - Photo Gallery

SMB Stage Line Convair 440. If you would like to see an SMB Stage Line Convair 600 taxiing and taking off In January 1989 at LAX, see this You Tube video.

Trump Shuttle Boeing 727 in 1989. See Time Capsule for my blog.

The Lockheed L-100-30 Hercules was converted and delivered to Saturn Airways in October 1972 a Lockheed L100-20 conversion.  

Pan American world Airways flight attendants pose with one of five original Boeing 707s delivered to Pan Am in 1958. The Pratt & Whitney JT3C6-powered 707s flew transatlantic service to Paris, London and Rome.

Check out the check in

Eastern Air Lines and Eastern Metro Express

The one and only Beechcraft 34. This prototype flew in October 1947. Design and competition were the end of this 20-passenger transport.

Ecuatoriana Boeing 720-23B.

The Eastern Air Lines McDonnell Douglas DC-8-61

United Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-8-70

McCullogh International Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-8, early 1970s.

Flying Tigers McDonnell Douglas DC-8-63 Freighter.

Golden West Airlines de Havilland Dash 7s used to fly to Lake Tahoe.

I don't know which airline this is, but the most fascinating item is the cigar hanging out of the passenger's mouth. 

This is a Lockheed offering on Oct. 26, 1977. The Burbank, California-based company captioned the photo:

Cruising at 4,000 mph—Artist’s concept shows a passenger airliner of the future capable of flying 5,750 statute miles at hypersonic cruise speeds of about 4,000 mph.  Lockheed-California is developing a design concept for such an aircraft under a National Aeronautics and Space Administration study contract. The concept will include a dual propulsion system with both conventional turbojet engines and supersonic combustion ram (SCRAM) jet engines fueled by liquid hydrogen. The turbojets would be used for takeoff, landing and to accelerate to a speed at which the SCRAM jet operates. The SCRAM jets would boost the aircraft to cruise speed. Such an airliner could fly from Los Angeles to Tokyo in 2 hours, 18 minutes, carrying 200 passengers. The time includes subsonic climb and approaches to comply with airport noise regulations.

A Douglas Aircraft Co. rendering. The caption dated March 1986 reads: McDonnell Douglas conceptual design of a National Aerospace Plane, which would be in service by the year 2000, would travel at five times the speed of sound (nearly 3,400 mph or 5,472 kph) and operate at an altitude of 105,000 ft. (32,000 m). Able to carry 305 passengers between such cities as New York and Sydney in 2.5 hours, the National Aerospace Plane would burn methane fuel and operate from conventional airport runways.

In May 1990, British Aerospace published the concept of the SST successor.

Caption:

Capitalizing on the technological lead achieved in the production of Concorde, British Aerospace has continued to study the possibility of a supersonic successor for the beginning of the 21^st century.

Studies are carried out on various sizes of supersonic aircraft from 12-seat business jets upwards, and the design shown here is for a 300-seat, trans-Pacific supersonic airlinerwhich will travel at between two and two-and-a-half times the speed of sound.

I found some old photos of supersonic and hypersonic transport designs. I cannot identify them all, but I find every one intriguing. The engineers must have loved these concepts! I cannot imagine the takeoff and landing, or even the adding of people to some of these equations.

Some of these are identified with captions, which I will share with you. Others are just mysteries. If you have anything to share with me on these, please do so!

Myanma Airways Fokker F28 at Bangkok

This is the Boeing 727 fitted in the No. 3 engine position with the Unducted Fan. This and next two photos were sent in by reader Jerome Perigne. He worked with SNECMA on the UDF.

Thanks Jerome! 

Another great shot of the Boeing UDF sent in by Jerome Perigne

Boeing UDF sent in by Jerome Perigne

The GE Unducted Fan.

For a McDonnell Douglas press release written on the UDF from 1988, see my Time Capsule here

MD UHB Demo at Long Beach

MD UHB during taxi

UDF was called the MD-91X. It would have seated up to 110 passengers and was to enter service in 1991. Propfan projects were cancelled due to lack of airline interest.

Another view of the model of the McDonnell Douglas MD-91X Propfan

Photo by Rob Finlayson

Photo by Rob Finlayson

Photo by Rob Finlayson

Photo by Rob Finlayson

Photo by Rob Finlayson

Photo by Rob Finlayson

Photo by Rob Finlayson

Credit: Qantas

Qantas Boeing 747-400 VH-OJA on its final flight. Credit: Qantas ATW Time Capsule ATW Video

Qantas 747-400 on its final landing at Illawarra Regional Airport in New South Wales. ATW Photo: Qantas

Qantas renamed all of its 747-400s "Longreach." ATW Photo: Qantas

The flight crew of Qantas' final flight of its first 747-400. ATW Photo: Qantas

In Feb. 1977, McDonnell Douglas announced that a new wide-cabin jet transport under study was called the DC-X-200. The twin-engined airliner was to replace narrow-body, short- to medium-range jets. It would carry 200 passengers in a cabin the same size as the DC-10. Fuselage would be 138 ft. (42 m) long with a wingspan of 150 ft. (45.7 m). Tail height would be 52 ft. (15.8 m). In mid-1978, Douglas announced it was canceling the DC-X-200 project. It was facing competition from the Lockheed L-1011, Boeing 767-200 and the Airbus A300.

The D-3300 was cancelled right after the announcement of the deaths of the MD-90 and MD-100 programs in 1983 by McDonnell Douglas. The D-3300 was to compete with the Airbus A320 and the Boeing 737NG. The company said the improvement in performance of the D-3300 over the MD-80 did not justify the investment.

McDonnell Douglas MD-80 propfan proposal, the MD-91X, would have seated up to 110 passengers and was to enter service in 1991. Propfan projects were cancelled due to lack of airline interest.

The MPC-75, dubbed he regional transport aircraft of the future at the end of the 1980s, was never produced.

This McDonnell Douglas-Fokker proposal never took off. An MOU was signed in May 1981 for development of the 150-seat MDF-100, but no orders were taken and after almost a year, the program was cancelled.

Eight United Air Lines hostesses in front of a Boeing Model 80 built in 1928.

An interior cabin scene of a Western Air Express Fokker F-32, taken in 1930.

Weighing mail preflight

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines' Douglas DC-2 "Stork" flying over Amsterdam enroute to the Mildenhall Aerodrome in London for the start of the 1984 air race. The race re-enacted the famous 1934 MacRobertson Air Race from London to Melbourne, Australia.

This Qantas retro Boeing 737 was painted in the iconic "winged kangaroo" color scheme, first introduced on the first Qantas 747-200 in 1971. VH-XZP is the 75th 737-¬800 delivered to Qantas, and the aircraft was named in honor of former CEO James Strong.

Juan Trippe (right), Pan Am founder, chats with aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh. Lindbergh was a technical adviser to Pan Am, having flown many survey flights for the airline in the 1930s.

The Pan American System Airways Martin M-130 China Clipper flying boat is a classic. This photo was taken on its inaugural flight Nov. 22, 1935 over the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Calif., which was under construction at that time. See Time Capsule, Clipper Charm.

The China Clipper's crew prepares for the inaugural flight Nov. 22, 1935, during a ceremony broadcast around the world. The destination was Manila and the Clipper made the flight from Oakland to the Philippines—8,210 miles—in six and half days, with 59 hours and 48 minutes of flying time. Along the way it stopped in Hawaii, Midway Island, Wake Island and Guam. The trip was staffed by seven crew.

Pan Am China Clipper in port in 1935. From Oakland to the Philippines, the Clipper stopped in Hawaii, Midway Island, Wake Island and Guam.

Pratt & Whitney JT8D-7

Not sure what year this is, but it is one of my favorite spectator scenes

Not sure of the year on this one either, but is wasn't one of the cooler shows

This says it all: Wear comfortable shoes!

Caption: Flight dispatchers, meteorologists, crew schedulers and other specialists work as a team to assure the safety and comfort of American Airlines passengers. Can anyone help with what year this is?

An artist's rendering of the Frontier Horizon Boeing 727-200 paint scheme. The airline had a short life of one year.

The real deal in 1984. The airline only survived one year.

The McDonnell Douglas Unducted Fan does a flyby at the Farnborough Air Show in 1988. The MD-81 testbed is seen in a video here

A company photo of the GE UDF. First flight occurred Aug. 20, 1986 on a Boeing 727-100 testbed. Visit a GE video

Wisconsin Central Airlines President Francis Higgins (L) , Executive VP Hal Carr and Secretary A.E. Schwandt are shown with a Lockheed 10A early in 1948. The company changed its name to North Central Airlines in 1952.

The US Space Shuttle Enterprise, mounted to NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (a Boeing 747), visits the Paris Air Show in 1983. It is the only Space Shuttle that flew overseas.

January 20, 1986. British Airways flies four Concordes in formation to mark the 10th Anniversary of scheduled Concorde services January 21, 1986. Photograph by Adrian Meredith

An Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-204 on display at the 1989 Paris Air Show

On September 9, 1946 a Trans Australia Airlines Douglas DC-3 took off from Melbourne for the three-and-a-half hour flight to Sydney.

United Air Lines’ flight crew bids farewell to Convair 340 airplane at San Francisco International Airport after its final flight March 1, 1968.

In the Dec. 18, 1972 edition of TWA’s Today employee newspaper, an article announced a new security device being deployed at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. The X-ray equipment was called Saferay and it was used to view carry-on luggage and parcels.

An Aeromaritime Super Guppy in 1970.

The first Boeing 747SP rolled out on May 19, 1975, and its first flight took place on July 4 of that year.

Henson Airlines established a base in Salisbury on the Maryland Eastern Shore as an Allegheny Commuter in 1968 and began using larger 50-seat turboprop de Havilland Canada Dash 7s (shown here) and 30-seat Shorts 330s in the 1970s.

Shown are some of the Air France fleet from the 1980s, including Boeing 737-200, 727-200, 747-100, an Aérospatiale-British Aerospace Concorde, Airbus A300B4 and ATR 42.

Thailand's Air Siam was the first private carrier to compete with Thai Airways International and it only did so for a short time. Pictured is its one and only McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30.

Alaska International Air serviced construction of the Alaska Pipeline using Lockheed Hercules aircraft in the late 1960s.

The Western Air Express inaugural flight from Glendale in 1930 with a Fokker F.32.

Civil Aeronautics Board Chairman Alan S. Boyd graced the second cover of Air Transport World in June 1964. The headline of the cover feature is Alan Boyd: CAB Chairman with a Purpose. The story behind Air Transport World’s first cover personality.

We are pleased that reader David Gregor sent this beautiful shot of the rollout of Qantas VH-EBA in February 1959. This is one of three Boeing 707-138s still around.

In February 1929, after eight years of operation, Pan Am CEO Juan Trippe took over Mexicana and opened the carrier’s first international route from its base in Mexico City to Brownsville, Texas via Tuxpan and Tampico. The first flight drew a crowd not only for its famous pilot but for its new airplane. It was piloted by Charles Lindbergh, shown here in the cockpit of the three-engined, nine-passenger Ford Trimotor, built in 1927.

Caption: In 1959, Northeast Airlines operated its first pure jet service using Boeing 707 "Intercontinental" jet liners. Northeast was the first airline to fly these high speed craft between Miami and New York and had the distinction of being one of the first airlines in the United States to offer pure jet service.