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Post by billsamuels on Dec 11, 2023 22:20:59 GMT
I was lucky to have served a lot of my career with Northwest Orient Airlines. When my time reached its conclusion I’d spent a lot of time with a lot of American’s many of whom served a lot longer than myself. However, over the years I heard about various things that NWA were involved with. For example following World War 2 the USA lead the way to rebuild both Germany and Japan. In 1946 Northwest Airlines was requested by the US Government to both support and assist with the construction of a Japanese civilian airline, which we did and this became known as Japan Airlines. From that time Northwest became fairly well respected within Japan and as a consequence was granted many traffic rights to fly to and from both to the United States and to other destination within Asia. I was always very proud to have been part of the modern day Northwest team and also liked to hear the stories about the old days. Anyway, to get to the point I came across some old photos of servicemen returning from service in Vietnam. These took place in the mid to late 60’s and I’m lead to believe they arrived on the West Coast. You’ll see many personnel who are not the subject matter, but the planes are…     This particular aircraft was N371US Boeing 707-351C c/n 19411. Sadly I never saw it in NW service but I’m sure many of you, like me, saw it whilst flying for JAT Yugoslav Airline YU-AGJ at LHR and as 5X-JET with DAS Air Cargo at LGW. It’s been gone a few years now but it also served with Florida West Airlines, Million Air, Cargo Plus Aviation and finally Hewa Bora Airways. I have no idea how many trips, like this, N371US made but I do know that NW flew many, many thousands of troops around the World during the company’s existence, quite a lot of which I witnessed during Gulf War 1. To conclude the story of Northwest and Vietnam, I was told that when the American involvement in the Country came to an end, our staff who manned the offices in Saigon were instructed to bury all remaining documents and ticket stocks under the City Ticket Office as there was no where else to leave them. No one knows what ever happened to those tickets so somewhere there are probably thousands of them under the ground…. Bill |
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Post by davebasing on Dec 12, 2023 14:40:15 GMT
As Bill says, Northwest 707 N371US was a common sight in the UK in its latter days with JAT and DAS but it also served Heathrow back in the early 70s while still with Northwest. At the time (rather like Pan Am with the Delta DC8s on Heathrow services) Northwest was contracted by Pan Am for certain of the latter's services from the eastern USA to Heathrow and beyond to Schipol. Recollection is that Pan Am crews took over the Northwest 707s in Detroit after Northwest crews had flown them on the domestic sector from Minneapolis to Detroit and the aircraft continued to Heathrow with a Pan Am flight number. That was back in the days when US rules (prior to the sunset of the highly restrictive US Civil Aeronautics Board) prohibited trans Atlantic scheduled passenger services other then by Pan Am and TWA. A number of different Northwest 707s turned up at LHR on such services and N371US was used at least on 31 March 1971 according to a quick look at my logs of those days. First one I saw there was N351US on 30 January 1971 and the last I saw was N353US on 7 February 1972 but not sure how long the interchange arrangement actually lasted.
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Post by howardlgw on Dec 13, 2023 12:08:49 GMT
Checking an old LAAS Mag Feb 1971, provides details for the NW/PA service to LHR. The flight number was PA54 arr LHR from Boston at 8.15 dep to AMS 9.45, Then PA55 back from AMS at 13.30 dep to Boston 14.45. As a school boy at the time I well remember seeing these Red tailed 707's coming and going into LHR, with the help of Touchdown reports in LAAS , I made quite a few.
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Post by billsamuels on Dec 16, 2023 21:23:51 GMT
Just to finish this item off, I only ever saw one Northwest Orient B707 at LAP. N364US 27 March 1971. I did see one other company 707 on my first visit to LAX on 4 March 1976, N377US. The following 707 photo was taken at LAP, no date unfortunately, but I suspect it was one of the first visits. These photos were in the NW photo index which I kept when we shut the operation down in 1998… It’s still gathering dust in my office at home.      And just to prove the point that NW sub-contracted the aircraft to Pan American, here’s a photo of some of the crew deplaning…  Having dug out these from the files, here’s one taken at Gatwick, not sure where we were taking these Formula 1 cars but I suspect it would have had to be across the North Atlantic as traffic right restrictions would have precluded us from any other destinations. In my very early days with Northwest there was a secretive flight undertaken with some Hunter’s being airlifted from the UK to a certain South American country which were allegedly given in exchange for some equally secret landing rights for UK military aircraft during the war in the South Atlantic. Anyway, I was lead to believe that Northwest was involved with a B747F in that mission somewhere along the line.  To finish off on the subject of Vietnam, there were of course other US airlines involved. Here’s another couple of photos (both B707’s) of some good old carriers neither of whom are still around. They did their bit to bring the troops home…   Thanks for looking guys. Bill |
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Post by graham on Dec 17, 2023 10:49:27 GMT
What great history, narrative and photos Bill, very interesting indeed. The Braniffs were certainly "once seen, never forgotten"with their liveries and I distinctly remember seeing a few, both 707s and 727s at Dulles way back in 1972
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Post by davebasing on Dec 24, 2023 9:41:33 GMT
The “certain South American country” mentioned by Bill as receiving Hunters during the Falklands conflict was of course Chile. The first 4 Hunters were delivered by Flying Tiger 747 from the UK on 23 April 1982 and were XE546, XE582, XF442 and XJ686 all formerly at Brawdy with 1TWU. They were followed on 22 May 1982 by XF376, XJ688, XK137and XK138 again ex Brawdy and air freighted by Flying Tiger. A further 4 were delivered in January 1983 as spares - XF445, XG291 XJ687 and XK141 (again all ex Brawdy) but I can’t recall who carried them there, perhaps the Northwest 747 mentioned by Bill. My copy of the BARG opus on the air war is somewhere in the loft and I’ll dust it down over Christmas as this might reveal the answer. In 1982 Chile also received a pair of two seat Hunters from the Kuwait Air Force but again I can’t recall how they got there but one of these (J742 ex Kuwait 218) was short lived being written off on 20 May 1982. One of the ex RAF machines (XF376 which became J747) was exchanged for an Israeli Mystere and is preserved in the Hatzerim Museum. While the former XE546 (Chile AF 744) and XK138 (750) are held in the AF Museum in Santiago, together with pre 1982 deliveries WV326 (735); XF317 (734) and XG199 (724) and two seater 718 which was the former company demonstrator G-APUX which was at the 1959-62 Farnborough shows. Just next door to the museum another Hunter WT801(731) is preserved at the Air Force HQ together with other aircraft while T37 J396 hangs from the ceiling of the nearby Metro station. Chile was very helpful to the UK during the Falklands war allowing (amongst other types), a number of 39 Sq RAF photo recon RAF Canberra PR9s to be based down there in 1982, three of which were donated to Chile (departing Wyton on 15 October 1982 in Chilean markings) and remained there. Two of these (ex XH166 Chilean 341 & XH173 Chilean 343) are now in the Chilean AF Museum while the third (ex XH167) was written off in 1983. A further ‘thank you’ was the gift of Harrier XZ970 for the AF Museum. A few relevant pics I took when in Santiago in 2019.  IMG_5488 by dave tompkins, on Flickr  IMG_5527 by dave tompkins, on Flickr  IMG_5445 by dave tompkins, on Flickr  IMG_5421 by dave tompkins, on Flickr  IMG_5513 by dave tompkins, on Flickr  IMG_5531 by dave tompkins, on Flickr Happy Christmas to all |
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Post by graham on Dec 25, 2023 10:33:43 GMT
I believe Thatcher and Pinochet had soft spots for each other although he was renown as a murderous military dictator during his reign following his seizing of power in Chile in 1974(?). Not a very nice man....
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