United DC-6 – The Adventure of “Getting There”!

Posted on August 27, 2013 by Todd

United_CA-610Nowadays, whenever you board an aircraft as an “economy” passenger, usually the most prevalent thoughts on your mind are, “How long is this flight?” and “I wish I was there now!”  Perhaps as a business class traveller, and certainly as a first class traveller, these thoughts are not as prevalent.  But at the end of the day, the United_CA-610_0001modern day traveller mostly just wants to “get there”.

But…it was not always this way, was it?  As illustrated by this classic one cent (pre-1952) card from United Airlines, there used to be more of a romance about “getting there”.  I suppose you could say the same for many things today…we are always on the go, wanting to get to where we are headed, not really appreciating the journey.  And that’s why I love this card.  It’s not about the destination.  It’s all about the journey.  A beautiful silhouette of this DC-6 against the setting sun…a calm smooth journey through the painted sky…and only 9 1/2 hours coast to coast!  A United marketing  masterpiece to be sure!

Until next time…

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The Douglas DC-7 – First East-to-West Coast Service Non-Stop

Posted on August 24, 2013 by Todd

This is another post moved over from my original Sundry Collectibles blog.  I have some new material that I want to post coming soon.  I am especially excited by a post card I found this past week showing an airship from 1910 in France.  More on that later!

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United_DC7It’s been a while since I have posted any aviation postcards here, so today we are going to look at this Douglas DC-7.  This aircraft was, as the card states, the world’s fastest airliner for a time in the 1950’s.   Built from 1953 to 1958, it was the last of the big turbo-charged propeller driven aircraft built by Douglas.  You may recall that the DC-8 was a jet aircraft that Douglas United_DC7_0001came out with starting in 1958 (oh the good old days…when you could develop new passenger aircraft in a few years!)

Anyway…when this plane was put into service in 1953, it offered the first non-stop airliner service from east coast to west coast.  It was eight hours, nominally, not the ~five and a half hour trip it is today.  (Note…if you have ever travelled east to west on a day when the gulf stream is really blowing…then you know that even in a modern jet, the trip can take up to 7 hours or more.)

According to the 1000 aircraft photos site (which has this exact postcard photo on its site) this particular aircraft served United Airlines until it was sold in 1964.  Eventually it was destroyed in a fire at a facility where it was being scrapped.  Not a very glorious finish for this plane I am afraid.

Until next time…

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Welcome to Vintage Aviation Paper!

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Todd

Hi folks…I am still working out the formatting on this blog…but wanted to get the content started here.  For the first post on this blog I am going to copy over something I wrote last year on my original Sundry Collectibles blog.  Have no fear though…I have plenty of original material that I will be presenting in the weeks to come!

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Clipper_0001I recently picked up this card of a Pan American World Airways Clipper flying above the San Francisco Bay.  It is not, perhaps, one of the most attractive aircraft ever built, but a little research has revealed that this was a rather capable aircraft in its day.

The Boeing 377 was based on the C-97 Clippermilitary freighter, which had it’s heritage from the B-29 Superfortress.  It was a double deck aircraft and could seat up to 100 people depending on the layout (some had sleeper berths in them with a lounge on the lower deck).  It was actively used from 1947 through 1963 when the jet age basically replaced planes like this one.

With the help of a magnifying glass, I was able to determine that this card is of N1025V, an aircraft that started life named as the Clipper  Celestial, was later changed to Clipper Rainbow, and finally Clipper America.  For more details, check out this video on the Pan Am operated Boeing 377.  The third part of this video is especially interesting.  It gives a contemporary perspective on the then giant aircraft and the amenities it offered.

Until next time…

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