A Brief History of the Airlines and Air Cargo USA Part Five

As 1958 began, Pan American had begun trans-atlantic service with the Boeing 707. This airplane however, was
the "original" version of the jet airliner, designed for domestic service. This Boeing 707-120 "series" had a range of 3100 miles and was not capable of flying the lucrative North Atlantic route nonstop (neither was the British De Havilland DH-106 Comet 4). The 707-120 was the first of a trio of basic 707's suited to various initial needs.

In early 1959, American Airlines began service with the Lockheed L-188 Electra II, prop-jet, over the medium to
intermediate range routes. On January 27, 1959, another jet airliner appeared on the scene, the Convai 880. The work began at Convair, after the failed attempt to secure the production rights for the Avro Jetliner, as early as 1956.
Originally called the Convair 600 "Golden Arrow", the airplane had been originally concieved to have gold tinted
skin panels. Capable of operating from shorter runways, yet have comparable capacity to the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 rivals. The technology of the Convair 600 featured a thin wing in which had been proven on the numerous military fighters and bombers made for the USAF. Coupled with modified military turbo jet engines,
promised better performance than the rivals, and thus the fastest airliner in the world. By the time the airplane
flew for the first time, the name had changed to represent its speed. Expressed in feet per second, 600 became
880. However, due to excessive delays in development and production, the new 880 was smaller than promised and
as a result only a few airlines ordered it. In the US, only Delta, TWA amd Alaska Airlines would put the 880 in their
fleets. By this time Convair had begun work on an improved design called the 990, to be introduced within a few years.

In August 1959, American Airlines, inaugurated service with the new Boeing 707-320 "Intercontinental" Jetliner.
This new second model of the 707 series was 8 ft longer with an 11 ft increase in wing span. With up to 145 seats, and a range of over 4500 miles, the new 707-320 series was truly capable of non-stop cross country or trans oceanic services. Pan American would begin non-stop New York - London trips on October 10, 1959. Boeing also enabled the use of Rolls Royce Conway turbojet engines on the 707-320. This allowed more flexablility for customers, BOAC
operated the Rolls powered 707-420 series, among others. The DH-106 Comet 4 would be replaced by the 707-436
over the North Atlantic route the next year. Boeing also produced a "convertable" version of the big 707-320, capable
of transporting eiether passengers or all cargo or a mixture of both.

The first Douglas DC-8, the series 10, designed for domestic service was inaugurated on September 18, 1959 by both
United and Delta Airlines. Not unlike its Boeing competition, the DC-8 was powered by the Pratt & Whitney Turbo-Jets and was available in a number of models as well.

As these big jets were beginning service, they were restricted to serve cities that had improved runways or new larger airports. The smaller airports were still being served by the veteran piston powered airliners. The delays incurred from waiting to make connections between the slower piston flights and the jets, increased the turn around
times and subsequent operations costs.

With the problems and costs involved between the pistons and jets predicted, the airlines and aircraft producers had worked closely together to develop airplanes capable of operating from airports restricted to piston power. Although the smaller jet powered types would be several years off, the alternative was turbo-prop power. These aircraft were capable of near jet speeds of 350 to 400 mph with a range of up to 2500 miles. These would improve the delay problems, for the time being.

Two types of prop jet airliners would see scheduled service in the US. The British produced Vickers Viscount which
operated with Continental and Capital Airlines colors, and the popular Lockheed L-188 Electra II introduced the previous year and flying for, American, Eastern, National, Northwest, Braniff and many foreign airlines.

In May 1960, Delta began service with the Convair 880 Jet. A number of TWA's 880's were leased to Northeast Airlines, which up to this point was "jet-less", and brought the first jets into many New England cities for the first time.

It was United Airlines who would introduce on July 5, 1960, the last version of the 707 family. Originally named the
Boeing 707-020, this version took advantage of the delays of the Convair 880, and was developed to compete against it.This new Boeing although still essentially a 707 was 8 ft shorter, 25,000 lbs lighter and used more lightweight engines than the original 707-120 model. In addition, the 707-020 had a 38 degree wing sweep, yet retained the
same 707-120 wing. Its outstanding airfield performance was largely due to the high lift devices built into the wings to provide better lift at slower speeds. United Airlines, who had been pretty well committed to the Douglas DC-8 Jets,
had ordered the new version of the 707, but to avoid any confusion or critisism with the purchase of 707s and DC-8s.
United renamed the aircraft the "720". Boeing soon adopted the name as well, since it was in reality a radically different design than the original 707 models. The new 720 would see service with American, TWA, Northwest, Pan American, Eastern, Western, Continental and Braniff, along with several foreign operators.

IN late 1960, Pratt and Whitney introduced a new "turbo-fan" jet engine, these engines would be retrofitted to the
707s and DC-8s in service and in production. The Douglas DC-8 became the DC-8-50 and after some wing modifications, the 707 jets would be the 707-120B, 707-320B amd 720B jets. These new engines increased both
performance and fuel economics for all these aircraft, in addition to eliminating much of the black smoke associated with the old turbo jet engines.

At the end of 1960, 106 million passengers had traveled by air, a 40% increase in the US.

As the Boeing 707-320C and DC-8-50 CF freighters were entering service, the original concept of bulk loading and tie down of cargo on the main deck, had been replaced in favor of the palletized cargo. The pallet being a more or less standard 126" X 88" flat aluminum sheet where up to 5000 lbs could be built on, tied, netted down and covered with plastic. These could be prepared prior to the aircraft arrival, and loaded quickly, thus cutting down on turn around time
for cargo planes

Specialized cargo planes began to appear as well. In May 1961, Flying Tiger Line began flying the unique Canadair CL-44D This aircraft, was a highly modified British Bristol Brittanica prop jet airliner, with both a side loading door, and a "swing tail" to allow straight in loading, this aircraft was also operated by Seaboard World and Slick Airways.
The Canadair Cl-44D had a 2875 mile range and a 63,000 lb payload.

By 1960, as the jets began to fly cargo on the major airlines routes. The former piston passenger aircraft had been converted for cargo, although there were some types such as the Douglas DC-6A and Lockheed L-1049H which were purchased new as freighter aircraft. The remaining piston powered types were eiether used for secondary routes, as freighters or sold to smaller airlines, many of which were operated by smaller countrys and eager buyers.

The intermediate and short range market was still dominated by the Martin 2-0-2/4-0-4 and the Convair 240/340
"Convairliners" with the latter being tested with various types of prop-jets engines to improve speed and extend their lives. This short range market was being addressed by the aircraft producers as well. Douglas had proposed a
new twin jet called the Project 2000 in 1959, but the airlines were still reeling from the tremendous costs of the all new big jets just then going on line.

The Boeing Airplane Co, began working on future concepts using the 707 as a starting point, and developed a "family"
of jets suited to the needs of the worlds airlines. By 1960, the layout had been made, and with close collaboration with bothe United and Eastern Airlines began to develop what would become the fastest selling airliner in history. The Boeing 727 tri-jet. As its development became known, the interest grew. The overall feeling was favorable to a
three engine jet as opposed to a twin, mainly due to initial skeptisism of the reliablility of the jet engine at the time.

In March 1960, the Lockheed Electra II prop-jet, was given speed restrictions, due to two serious accidents. It was
discovered that excessive vibration had broken the engine mounts, this causing an engine to oscillate with tragic results. Both to an Eastern in September 1959 and then to a Braniff Electra in March of 1960. As the necessary
modifications were being made, to both production and existing in service aircraft, the speeds were toned down.
These highly publicised accidents not only dealt a blow to the airlines operating the Electra II's, but to Lockheed as well. Even though the airplanes were repairedm and would continue in relative safety. The L-188, like the Comet jets
would carry a stigma that would follow them throughout their careers.

In an attempt to fulfill the immediate need to close the gap in the schedules between the slower piston planes and
the faster jets, and having a lower capacity to suit the needs to points where it was not practical to operate a big four engined jet, United Airlines, began operating the French made twin jet powered SE-210 Caravelle. The SE-210 was the first successful twin jet in operation, it also was the first to have rear mounted engines. The use of an engine that
was considered more than adequate to power the Caravelle, even with one engine out in flight.

During this time, even the major airports utilized portable boarding stairs to deplane passengers, as well as ground
supplied power units to provide electricity. air conditioning and adequate power to start the engines. These were called GPU's (Ground Power Units). Although the Caravelle required a GPU while on the ground, it had a rear mounted integral stairway mounted at the tail cone. Although not unique is was a nice touch.

Speaking of United Airlines, during 1962, they had bought the fleet and routes of Capital Airlines, who, unable to
secure financing to purchase jets, and thus compete, folded up. Providing United with a large number of Vickers
Viscount prop jets.

The major US airlines, by this time were operating eiether Boeing 707's or Douglas DC-8's in front line service, with
one exception, Pan American, who flew both. Although the airplanes looked similar (to an untrained eye) and were
equal in capacity, the difference was the 707 had better high speed high altitude flying characteristics, due to Boeings bomber backround. Although the DC-8, broke the sound barrier during an early test flight in August 1961
the Douglas jet, followed the traditions that their company had established with the DC-3.

The year 1962, also began the start-up of the first supersonic airliner. As a joint venture between British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) and the French SUD-Aviation, this partnership would begin a project that would evenually be
called Concorde.

As the struggle to replace the older airliners continued, and serve the cities where jet power had been forbidden,
the aircraft producers would begin to introduce a second generation of jet airliners. The most important of these
early types were the Boeing 727 and the Douglas DC-9. In part six, the journey will begin.