Saeta DC-3 HC-AVQ

Guayaquil, June 1972 (Propfreak Collection)

SAETA (Sociedad Anonima Ecuatoriana de Transportes Aéreos) started operations in 1966. In 1971 HC-AVQ joined the fleet when she was bought from Bahamas Airways. Originally build in 1944 for the USAF, she later served with the RAF before entering civil life with BEA. After spending time with Cyprus Airways, Silver City Airways and Skyways she crossed the pond again to fly for Bahamas Airways. HC-AVQ and her 2 sisterships were used to establish domestic air links in Ecuador. When Viscounts and Caravelles where acquired their days were numbered. HC-AVQ was sold to Air Sunshine in February 1977. In the late nineties the old Dakota was again flying in the Caribbean, operated by Four Star Aviation and Virgin Islands International Airways. By 1989 her luck run out and she was hit by a hurricane while parked at St.Thomas. 2 years later the oldtimer was scrapped.

Southwest Air Lines YS-11 JA8787

Japan, December 1985 (Propfreak Collection)

Southwest Air Lines was founded by Japan Air Lines (JAL) in 1967 to operate routes to Okinawa. 8 YS-11s were used on domestic services. JA8787 "Sotetsu" was delivered in 1974 and served the airline till 1997 when she migrated to the Philippines to soldier on for Asian Spirit who had her still in service in 2007.

TACA BAC 1-11 YS-17C

Miami, June 1987 (Propfreak Collection)

TACA El Salvador ordered 2 new BAC 1-11-400s and YS-17C was the first example delivered in 1966. Appropriately named "El Centroamericano" she served the Central American carrier until 1990 when she was sold to Winchester Aircraft Financing who sold the "pocket rocket" further on to Nigerian Kabo Air. 2 years later she was scrapped after the Nigerian CAA grounded all BAC 1-11s.

Viasa Douglas DC-8-53 PH-DCM

Zurich, July 1969 (Propfreak Collection)

PH-DCM was delivered new to KLM in June 1961 and named "Henry Dunant", after the founder of the Red Cross and first winner of the Peace Nobel Prize. Cooperation with Viasa Venezuela was tight and KLM DC-8s were used on the European network. KLM finally sold PH-DCM to the Venezuelan carrier in 1974. The DC-8 was broken up at Opa-Locka, Florida, in 1985.

Monarch Bristol Britannia 312 G-AOVT

Basle, October 1973 (Propfreak Collection)

Luton based Monarch Airlines operated 8 Series 300 Bristol Britannia aircraft on charter flights, mainly throughout Europe. G-AOVT was acquired from British Eagle in 1968 and flew with the British carrier until 1974 when she was sold to Invicta International. G-AOVT is a proud exhibit at Duxford museum, again in the eyecatching yellow Monarch scheme.

Air New Zealand Fokker F-27-500F ZK-NFJ

Auckland, March 1986 (Propfreak)

Newly built for Air New Zealand and delivered only in October 1981, ZK-NFJ joined her 9 sisterships as last of the -500 series (a tenth example was lost in 1979 at Auckland) . The Fokker F-27 was operated in great numbers (another 12 - 100 series and a sole -200) and was the backbone of the domestic fleet before being replaced by the ATR-72. ZK-NFJ was sold in 1991 to Merpati Nusantara Airlines of Indonesia and served as PK-MFN before being retired and stored at Surabaya, Western Java, where she was seen last in 2006 in basic MNA colors.

Royal Air Lao Caravelle III XW-PNH

Vientiane, October 1975 (Propfreak Collection - taken by P.A. Petit)

Caravelle III with c/n 83 was built in 1961 and delivered to Air France christened "Bourbonnaie". Already in the same year she was leased to Air Liban for 6 months before returning to Air France as F-BGKZ newly named "Comte de Foix". In 1974 she was leased to Royal Air Lao to operate flights within Southeast Asia but was also used for the UN Hight Commissioner for Refugees (during this time the picture was taken, right after a torrential rainshower seems to have past the field minutes ago). Returned to Air France by the end of 1975 she plied again the Asian skies but on August 28th, 1976 she was damaged beyond repair in a bomb explosion at Saigon, Vietnam.

Surinam Airways DC-8-62 N1809E

Miami, June 1986 (Propfreak Collection)

N1809E came off the production line as 498th DC-8 and was delivered to Braniff in October 1969 in a orange color scheme. Later chocolate brown was used. In December 1983 she was leased by Arrow Air and two weeks later sub-leased to Surinam Airways and painted into one of the most beautiful schemes ever worn on a DC-8, at least in my opinion. Finally bought in 1986 by Surinam she was christened "Fajalobi", name of a bright red flower which translates into "passionate love". After a short lease to Tropical Airways she returned to Suriname and again plied the route to/from Amsterdam. Renamed to "Anthony Nesty" , a Surinamese swimmer and the 2nd black athlete to win an olympic medal (1988 at the summer olympics at Seoul). On June 7th, 1989 flight PY764 was approaching Paramaribo-Zanderij airport inbound from Amsterdam. The Captain attempted to capture the unreliable ILS-glide slope signal , even the flight was cleared for an VOR/DME approach by Zanderij tower. The DC-8 flew into the ground 3km before the runway and went up in flames - only 11 passengers survived of the 187 people on board.

Southeast DC-9-32 N12532

Fort Lauderdale, January 2000 (Propfreak)

349th DC-9 built, HB-IFI, a DC-9-32, was delivered to Swissair on 21st October 1968, named "Zug". She flew with the Swiss national carrier till 1980 when she was sold to Texas International as N532TX. In 1982 Texas International merged with Continental. The DC-9 was bought by Polaris Aircraft Leasing in 1988 and leased back to Continental. For a year she flew with Eastern and in 1992 was reregistered as N12532. In July 1999 ownership was changed to Southeast Airlines, an airline based in Largo, Florida. Southeast operated charter flights in the US, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean. N12532 is stored in Saint-Petersburg, Clearwater-International, Florida.

Balkan Antonov AN-12 LZ-BAB

somewhere in Europe, October 1975 (Propfreak Collection)

LZ-BAB was built in Tashkent and delivered to newly founded Bulair in 1968. The Antonov freighter was taken over by Balkan in early 1972. Of the 5 An-12V operated by Balkan, 1 crashed in Egypt in 1975, another in Addis Abeba in 1984, 2 were sold to Heli Air Service respectively Bright Aviation, while LZ-BAB is preserved at Burgas in the airport museum.

Finnish Air Force DC-3 DO-11

Bern Belp, July 1971 (Propfreak Collection)

DC-3A-453 was destined for Pan American but not taken up. Instead she went to the USAF as a C-53C in December 1942. She was in store at Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, when the state of Finnland acquired her for service with Aero Oy. As OH-LCH she served the airline till 1960. She was dismantled for spare parts, but emerged again in 1963 converted to a freighter and registered again as OH-LCH to Finnair Oy (the descendant of Aero Oy). She was sold to the Air Force in March 1970 and served as DO-11 till 1985 when all DC-3s were retired from the Air Force. Airverteran Oy bought her and again she took to the air as OH-LCH. 65 years old and the old lady is still flown regularly on the European airshow circuit.

Hamburg Fuhlsbüttel, 16th September 2007 (Propfreak)

Ambassadair Boeing 720-048 N8790R

Amsterdam, August 1978 (Propfreak Collection)

From November 1978 till May 1982 Travelclub Ambassadair operated this former Aer Lingus Boeing 720-048. N8790R was owned by American Trans Air. The 1961 vintage jet had seen many different liveries, including Transpolar, Braniff, TEA, BWIA and EL AL. Registered as 9Q-CFT the aircraft overran the runway at Mbuji-Mayi airport, central Congo, in October 1990 while in service with Fontshi Aviation Services registered 9Q-CFT. Repaired again, the 720 flew for another year before finally retired in 1991.

Japan Air Lines Boeing 747-446D JA8083

Tokyo Haneda, December 2001 (Propfreak)

Boeing 747-400 series aircraft are used domestically in Japan. The only visible difference to the intercontinental version are the missing winglets. JA8083 was painted in the JAL Dream Express "Family" scheme to commemorate the company’s 50th anniversary and the 100th birthday of Walt Disney. Special JAL Dream Express planes painted with five different designs.

Nunasi Northland Curtiss C.46 C-GIBX

Northern Canada (Propfreak Collection - M. Siegrist, March 1990)

Curtiss C.46F-1-CU c/n 22472 was delivered to the USAF in July 1945 as 44-78650. After spending 3 years in military service she was leased to Pan American as N74171 for 5 years. In 1955 the freighter went to Transocean AL where she stayed till 1961. Ortner Air Service bought her and kept the Curtiss till 1975. Her Canadian career began in the late seventies when she was acquired by Northland Outdoors and she took the marks C-GIBX. Northland Air (Manitoba) took the old prop over around 1985. Nunasi Northland, with bases in Winnipeg, Thompson & Churchill leased the old lady in August 1988. She was sold to Air Manitoba in December 1990 and leased to Kenya's Relief Air Transport from August 1994 to March 1996 registered as 5Y-IBX. In November 1996 she was sold to Commando Air Transport, again as C-GIBX. As of April 2006, the Curtiss was operated by FNT Transport from Gimli Industrial Park, Gimli, Manitoba, to haul freight to northern communities.

Redcoat Cargo Bristol Britannia G-BRAC

USA, December 1979 (Propfreak Collection)

Redcoat Air Cargo started operations in 1976 with Bristol Britannia 9G-ACE on dry-lease from Geminair to operate cargo flights to West Africa. The contract lasted one year and their first own Britannia was acquired from IAS Cargo. In 1978, the 2nd aircraft was bought, a former Royal Air Force and Aer Turas aircraft, and G-BRAC became the flagship of the young cargo carrier. In 1979 RAC won the contract to fly supplies to Belize for the Ministry of Defence. On February 16th, 1980, on one of those Central America runs, G-BRAC was taking off from Boston in a snowstorm, fully loaded with computer parts destined for Ireland. The Brit crashed 8 minutes later due to accumulation of ice and snow on the fuselage, but also because the aircraft was flown into severe icing conditions following take-off. Of the 9 people aboard, only the flight engineer survived the disaster.