Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

Early Trans-Canada Air Lines historical events.

North Stars in service three years.

Trans-Canada Air Lines have been flying converted Lancasters, with accommodation for ten passengers, across the North Atlantic but on April 16, 1947 the first North Star landed at Heathrow to start a regular service four times a week with this new aircraft type.

The company intends to run the service at this frequency with five aircraft, but as more join the fleet, the frequency will increase to one each day in each direction. North Stars will gradually be introduced on routes across Canada, the Pacific, and to America.

(Source: flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1947/1947 - 0636.html)

Note, as advised by Ken Pickford:

TCA did not operate North Stars on Pacific routes. CPA operated their 4 Canadair C-4's (CP didn't use the North Star name) on their early trans-Pacific services to Australia, Japan and Hong Kong that began in 1949.

CP sold 3 of the 4 aircraft to TCA in 1952 (one was written off in a landing overrun into the water at Tokyo in 1950 with no fatalities or serious injuries).

For people who work with airlines, they are often travelling around the world and working odd shifts, unable to spend special days or holidays with their families.

But for this year's Father's Day, British Airways made sure some of those families could be together.

The airline staffed a flight from London to San Diego on Saturday with father-son and father-daughter teams — who all work for British Airways.

The loved ones got to work alongside each other up in the air, within the terminal and on the tarmac. None of the pairs had ever worked together before.

(Source: Inside Edition)

New Hampshire has installed what appears to be the first historical highway marker honoring computer programming, according to the Concord Monitor.

The new sign honors BASIC, Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, a programming language that was invented at Dartmouth College in 1964.

(Source: The Verge)

A startup Canadian budget airline has decided to promote itself with a marketing slogan that might sum up the ultra low-cost carrier experience.

“Flying Sucks Less When You Pay Less” is how the self-described “rebellious” Canada Jetlines will try to lure customers away from the two already-established Canadian ULCCs (Swoop and Flair) and mainstream carriers WestJet and Air Canada. “Flying will still suck,” the airline said in a statement. “There’s not much anyone can do about man-spreading seatmates, or tiny toilet stalls. But it will suck less when you pay less.”

Jetlines said it wants to be “deliberately distinct” from mainstream carriers Air Canada and WestJet, but it’s adopting the same sort of Spirit Airlines business model that Swoop and Flair use, meaning the fare covers only the seat and seatbelt.

One major difference is that Jetlines will use A320 aircraft rather than the Boeing 737-800 and 900 series used by the others. The airline says it will start flying its first routes on Dec. 17.

(Source: avweb.com - June 23, 2019)