Reeve Aleutian ceased operations on December 5, 2000, and about 250 people were declared redundant. Reasons given for the situation included increased competition and high fuel prices. At the end, only one Lockheed Electra propjet and one Boeing 727 jetliner were in service.
|
|
Loftleiðir was the only passenger operator of the CL-44J, variant of CL-44D4 stretched on request by Canadair. It was the largest passenger aircraft flying over the Atlantic Ocean at that time. Loftleiðir marketed the CL-44J under the name "Rolls-Royce 400 PropJet".
|
|
Its primary destinations were Palm Springs, San Diego, Los Angeles, Borrego Springs, Phoenix, Yuma, Santa Barbara and Santa Maria. By 1984, the airline was operating a dozen Metro II propjet aircraft. Sun Aire's independent existence ended that year after the company was purchased by SkyWest Airlines. The airline operated its final service on September 28, 1984.
|
|
Colgan Air formerly offered nonstop flights from Lebanon to New York LaGuardia Airport operating as US Airways Express via a code sharing agreement with US Airways. The airline first operated the flights with the Beechcraft 1900 commuter propjet and later with the Saab 340 regional turboprop before service ended in November 2008. On November 2, 2008, Cape Air began offering service to Boston.
|
|
Lancair 235 Lancair 360 Lancair IV-P Lancair Legacy Lancair Propjet Lancair Evolution Lancair International, Inc. (pronounced "lance-air") is a U.S. manufacturer of general aviation aircraft kits. They are well known for their series of high-performance single-engine aircraft that offer cruise speeds that surpass many twin-engine turboprop designs. Along with the Glasair series, the early Lancair designs were among the first kitplanes to bring modern molded composites construction to light aircraft.
|
|
Loftleiðir was the only passenger operator of the turboprop, which was used as a cargo plane by other airlines. It was the largest passenger aircraft flying over the Atlantic Ocean at that time, carrying up to 189 passengers. Loftleiðir marketed the CL-44J under the name "Rolls-Royce 400 PropJet". This led to the confusion that the CL-44J is sometimes referred to as the Canadair-400. At that time, the company had 1,000 employees.
|
|
West Coast then merged with Bonanza Air Lines and Pacific Air Lines to form Air West, which was subsequently renamed Hughes Airwest. Both Air West and Hughes Airwest continued to serve Walla Walla with Fairchild F-27 propjet flights, although by 1975 Hughes Airwest had turned over all of its service to Cascade Airways. Currently, Horizon Air operates Bombardier Q400 propjets into Walla Walla on behalf of Alaska Airlines. The Q400 is the latest, largest, and fastest member of the Dash 8 family of turboprop aircraft.
|
|
In December 2012, it was announced that Empire would begin operating three ATR 42-500 series propjet aircraft acquired by Hawaiian Airlines on routes within the state of Hawaii. The name and branding Empire Airlines will be flying for Hawaiian under contract is "'Ohana by Hawaiian". 'Ohana by Hawaiian launched initial service to Molokai Airport (MKK) on March 11, 2014, and the Lana'i Airport on March 18, 2014. 'Ohana by Hawaiian currently operates daily scheduled flights between Honolulu (HNL), Molokai (MKK), Lanai (LNY), Kahului (OGG), Kona (KOA), and Hilo (ITO).
|
|
Swift Aire was also responsible for significantly improving air service into San Luis Obispo as well as other cities served by the carrier when it introduced new Fokker F.27-600 turboprop aircraft into its fleet. Swift Aire purchased these 48-seat twin turboprops from the manufacturer. The primary runway at the San Luis Obispo Airport had been lengthened thus facilitating expanded service provided by larger aircraft. The Fokker F.27 propjet was the largest aircraft to operate into San Luis Obispo Airport at the time and greatly enhanced passenger comfort for Swift Aire's customers.
|
|
Flight 55 was served by a Fairchild F-27B, a twin-engine propjet aircraft that had been in service since 1959. The aircraft was piloted by Captain David Stanley, who had been a pilot for Northern Consolidated Airlines for seven years before that airline was merged into Wien Consolidated Airlines. Prior to that, he had been a flight instructor in Anchorage, and was described as an excellent pilot. Flight 55 departed Anchorage International Airport on Monday, 2 December, at 8:46 am AKST, and proceeded southwest to Iliamna without reported difficulties.
|
|
Further expansion added another gate, baggage carousel, and office space for customs use. The airport is served by regional air carriers Air Canada Express and WestJet Encore each with propjet flights to Edmonton and Calgary (with Calgary slowly becoming the more dominant hub), along with charter traffic, and traffic caused by the high density oil and gas industry in the area. Currently the airport is served by a Flight Service Station, and is a Class "E" airspace. The airport also serves the Royal Canadian Air Cadets Peace Region Gliding Program, who fly the Schweizer 2-33A glider off a winch launch set up.
|
|
During the mid-1950s, Southwest Airways moved its passenger service for all of San Luis Obispo County to the Paso Robles Airport which is located approximately 25 miles north of the city of San Luis Obispo. Southwest Airways subsequently changed its name to Pacific Air Lines which in turn introduced new Fairchild F-27 turboprops into its fleet. Pacific operated F-27 propjet service from Paso Robles to Los Angeles, San Francisco and other California cities. Pacific Air Lines then merged with Bonanza Air Lines and West Coast Airlines to form Air West which continued to serve Paso Robles.
|
|
By the 1980s, Frontier was continuing to operate Boeing 737-200s with Kalispell-Billings-Denver flights. Cascade Airways operated Fairchild Swearingen Metroliners (Metro III model) into FCA until it folded in 1986. In the 1990s, Horizon Air, a subsidiary of Alaska Airlines, flew Fokker F28 jets to Spokane and Seattle in addition to operating propjet service with de Havilland Canada DHC-8 Dash 8s, Dornier 328s and Fairchild Swearingen Metroliners. Current Alaska Airlines service into the airport is operated by Horizon Air with Bombardier Q400 propjets which is the largest and fastest member of the Dash 8 family of regional turboprop aircraft.
|
|
Royale operated scheduled passenger flights in Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee and Florida from 1962 to 1989. It flew mainly turboprop aircraft such as the Embraer EMB-110 Bandeirante, Beechcraft Model 99, Short 330 and Grumman Gulfstream G-I with the latter being a regional airliner version of Grumman's successful propjet business aircraft. Royale also flew two Douglas DC-9-14 jetliners on services from Houston primarily to Brownsville, Texas (BRO) on behalf of Continental Airlines. For a short period between 1985 and 1986 Royale operated de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft acquired from Metro Airlines which had moved its operations to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex in Texas and also to Atlanta, Georgia.
|
|
The most powerful is the Lancair Propjet, a four-place kit with cabin pressurization and a turboprop engine, cruising at and 370 knots (425 mph, 685 km/h). Although aircraft such as this are considered "home-built" for legal reasons, they are typically built in the factory with the assistance of the buyer. This allows the company which sells the kit to avoid the long and expensive process of certification, because they remain owner-built according to the regulations. One of the terms applied to this concept is commonly referred to as "The 51% Rule", which requires that builders perform the majority of the fabrication and assembly to be issued a Certificate of Airworthiness as an Amateur Built aircraft.
|
|
Dornheim, Michael A., "Hidden Fatigue Cracks Suspected in C-130 Crash", Aviation Week & Space Technology, archived at International Aviation Safety Association A subsequent independent investigation in 1997 led by Douglas Herlihy, a former NTSB investigator, reexamined the site and the wreckage, and found no evidence of an explosion, but rather found evidence of structural failure due to fatigue stress."Competing Conclusions Surround Earlier Firefighting Propjet Crash", Air Safety Week, June 24, 2002, retrieved from FindArticles.com on September 8, 2007 The NTSB subsequently reexamined its findings, and found evidence of fatigue cracking "consistent with overstress separation", and ultimately revised its findings."NTSB Recommends Rigorous Maintenance Programs for Firefighting Aircraft", NTSB news release, April 23, 2004, retrieved September 8, 2007 The initial eyewitness reports of an explosion are not inconsistent with a fatigue-caused wing separation.
|
|
Continental briefly had 1 mainline MD-80 jet to Newark in 1991-1992 to complement their propjet Continental Express service to Newark and Presque Isle. In 1977, Erwin Kreuz, a 50-year-old West German brewery worker on his way to San Francisco, stepped off a refueling charter flight in the mistaken belief that he had reached his destination. Speaking no English, he spent four frustrating days in Bangor looking for San Francisco landmarks before realizing he was not in California. When his story made local and then national news, Bangorians were so delighted with his error that he received the key to the city, met the Governor of Maine, was made an honorary member of the Penobscot Indian tribe, received a marriage proposal, and was even given a gift of local land.
|
|
In December 1982, Grumman announced that they will be selling Flxible for $40 million to the General Automotive Corporation of Ann Arbor. Grumman was responsible for a successful line of business aircraft including the Gulfstream I turboprop (Grumman model G-159) and Gulfstream II business jet (Grumman model G-1159) which were operated by a number of companies and private individuals as well as by government agencies including various military entities and NASA. In addition, the Gulfstream I propjet was operated by several commuters/regional airlines in scheduled passenger services and included a stretched version, being the Gulfstream I-C (Grumman model G-159C) which could transport 37 passengers. Gulfstream business jets continue to be currently manufactured by Gulfstream Aerospace, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics.
|
|
Air North was one of the very few airlines to ever operate the Gulfstream I-C propjet in scheduled passenger service. In April 1982 Air North acquired three Fokker F.27 airliners that had previously been operated in California by the defunct Swift Aire Lines which had acquired these turboprop aircraft new from the manufacturer. Air North adopted Swift Aire's green and white livery design and added the Fokkers' 48-seat capacity to the airline's expanding route network that by then included New York City, Philadelphia and Washington along with a connecting hub at Binghamton, NY. During 1984 the Brockway Glass Co. of Brockway, Pennsylvania expanded its aviation holdings and engineered a dual acquisition of Air North and Clinton Aero, a regional airline headquartered in Plattsburgh, New York. Clinton Aero had been formed to operate to several small cities in northern New York state, replacing service previously provided by Air North.
|
|
By 1963, British West Indian was operating daily Viscount propjet service into the airport with a round trip routing of Miami (MIA)-Grand Cayman (GCM)-Montego Bay (MBJ)-Kingston (KIN)-San Juan (SJU)-Antigua (ANU)-Barbados (BGI)-Port of Spain, Trinidad (POS). In 1964, LACSA was operating Douglas DC-6B propliner flights on a routing of San Jose, Costa Rica - Grand Cayman - Miami with round trip service twice weekly. The jet age arrived in Grand Cayman during the late 1960s when BWIA introduced Boeing 727-100 "Sunjet" service with a routing of Port of Spain, Trinidad - Barbados - Antigua - St. Lucia - San Juan, Puerto Rico - Kingston, Jamaica - Grand Cayman - Miami operated twice a week with a third weekly flight also being flown with the 727 nonstop between Grand Cayman and Miami. By 1970, LACSA had introduced jet service as well flying British Aircraft Corporation BAC One-Eleven twin jets nonstop to Miami eight times a week and also nonstop to San Jose, Costa Rica twice a week.
|
|
The Thunder Bay International Airport has a 2-storey terminal building. Thunder Bay's runways are primarily used by small or larger turboprop aircraft such as the Bombardier Q400 propjet; however, they are capable of accommodating narrow- body jetliners such as current generation Boeing 737 aircraft operated by (formerly) Air Transat, Sunwing Airlines and WestJet. As noted above, the airport routinely handled Boeing 727-200, Boeing 737-200 and McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 mainline jet aircraft as well as the smaller Fokker F28 Fellowship twin jet in the past. Other larger jet aircraft types have also landed at the airport in the past with examples including a Boeing 720 operated by American Airlines in 1962, Boeing 757-200 and wide body Airbus A310 aircraft operated by Royal Aviation subsidiary Royal Airlines in 1999 and 2000, and a wide body Boeing 747SP operated as the "Global Peace Ambassadors" aircraft for Christian preacher K.A. Paul in 2005.
|
|
Also during the early 1960s, National inaugurated new service with the Lockheed Electra propjet to Las Vegas and San Diego. Eastbound coast to coast routes flown with the Electra at this time included San Diego-Los Angeles-Houston-New Orleans-Miami and San Francisco-Las Vegas-Houston-New Orleans-Tampa-Orlando-Jacksonville. National was also operating other long, multistop routings with the Electra as this time such as Boston-New York City-Jacksonville-Orlando-Tampa-New Orleans- Houston-Las Vegas-San Francisco. National flight number 223 departed Boston at 7:30am and arrived in San Francisco at 8:42pm with this latter routing being flown on a daily basis. Total travel time for this flight was 16 hours and 12 minutes. In 1962 Louis Bergman "Bud" Maytag, Jr. (grandson of Maytag Corporation founder Frederick Louis Maytag I), who had previously led Frontier Airlines bought a majority share in National Airlines and replaced George T. Baker as CEO. In 1960, the airline modernized its fleet with new Douglas DC-8 jetliners which were then followed by ten new Boeing 727-100 trijets, the first of which was delivered in 1964. After the retirement of the Electras in 1968, National became an all-jet airline with the DC-8 and 727. The airline introduced the first jet service into Key West, FL in 1968 with the Boeing 727–100.
|
|