Mike777

Came across this awesome pic on A.net...



La Guardia in 1982... and all of those 727s! I count 8 727s in the frame, in some of the greatest airliner liveries of all time: Northwest Orient, CO blackball, AA, TWA twin-stripe (x2), Delta widget, United Saul Bass, and Eastern. Also got the EA A300 and I believe New York Air DC-9 in the mix. Although this pic was taken six years before I was born, I would argue that the 70s and 80s were two of the greatest decades for airliner enthusiasts. Jet travel was still relatively new and exciting (though less so than the '50s and '60s), airlines were for the most part profitable, and some of the most beautiful airliner designs were in the prime of their lives: 727, 737 classics, 747 classics, DC-9, DC-10, L-1011, etc. Airline liveries were less dull and airport aprons were full of variety, as this pic shows. Now, an afternoon of spotting yields nothing but RJs and narrowbody twins, with maybe a widebody or two if you're lucky.

Anyway, enough of that.. just enjoy the pic! Feel free to contribute some of your favorite shots from this era of aviation.

fazeman

A beautiful mix of liveries. Can't get enough of that scene.

From my slide collection, Continental N40482, summer of '81.

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Steve

CitationDrvr

Beautiful pic..I love looking at the pics on Airliners.net! As I was looking at the pic, my mind wandered back to JFK in 1983. I took a small commuter flight aboard an Allegheny Air Dash-8. That was the first time I had ever seen a Shorts 330! Somebody in the terminal quipped "It looks like the box that the airplane came in!"

Here's food for thought. Imagine what your favorite airport will look like in 25 years! Someone will call these the "good old days!"

Mike777

Beautiful picture fazeman! Where was it taken? The 727 is possibly the greatest airliner design to date, aesthetically speaking. And I just can't get enough of that meatball scheme.

BTW, is that a model or an actual 727 in your avatar, fazeman? If it's the former, looks like a superb model and I'd love to see more pics.

Very true. It's funny how nostalgia works. We'll all be saying, "Dang, I miss those 757 and 777s!"

N. Eberhard

Wow...I graduated in '82. I remember that nearly all of my flights before 1982 were in the smoky tri-jets with United and Continental.

D-AIHC

Thanks for sharing and that's a great pic, although I'm not much of a B727 fan.

Don't forget A330/A340 and B767 too!

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B773ER

Makes two of us. Would love to see it produced in 200 scale, along with the NWO 727, too. And of course, Piedmont!

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Mike777

IF gave us the CO new colors 722, now they need to do a meatball -100.

BTW, have you seen this model by Brad Shinn?

B773ER

WOW!! That is fantastic!!! I'll take two! One with red meatball and the other with black.

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MarinerOne

You're a wise "lad" Mike777 ... I grew up in the decade of the 70s and 80s and can attest that it was indeed a very bountiful era for airliners!

BTW, that Shinn 'creation' of the CO 722 is just 'sick' ... sick good mind you!

B773ER

I think I would prefer the model without the weathering, but it certainly is awesome.

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fazeman

I don't know where the Continental picture was taken. I can't even remember whether I bought it at an airline show or won it online. Just liked the picture so much, I had to get it.

The avatar is real.

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Steve

fazeman

Makes three of us. I'm waiting for an IF Continental 727-100 in 200 scale. I would definitely create a diorama of Ju-Ju N2475 heading down Truk's runway.

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fazeman

What a beautiful creation.

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Steve

Mike777

And yeah, that model is sick!

What an awesome Air Mike pic!

fazeman

It's the most unique Continental postcard I've ever seen. I won it on Ebay a few years back.

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SouthwestAirlines103

I flew on a 727 a couple of times. My first flights in the mid 90's. DELTA widget colors.

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gospodin

The Brad Shinn model blows me away! All that's missing is the sound of the engines spooling up for takeoff ('course, he needs to get his flaps in position!). The weathering is what really makes that model special. Excellent work. Funny thing, I never flew on a 727, even though it's one of my favorite planes. I've flown on almost everything else, but never that type. Great nostalgic moment there, Mike. I loved seeing those planes again.

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Steve


"Leave the gun. Take the cannoli."

Mike777

And the flaps!

Here's an interesting CO meatball 721. Check out the cheatline near the nose:



BTW, Frank C. Duarte Jr. (who took this shot) is responsible for more than half of all the CO 727 meatball shots in the Airliners.net database. Props to him!

D-AIHC

Why is the cheatline different at the nose? Was there an era when CO had this on their aircraft or is this just a one-off special cheatline on that particular aircraft? Thanks!

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Mike777

Here's a -200 with the same cheatline:

According the the photo caption, it was an experimental cheatline. Glad it wasn't adapted, as I think it looks strange.

The CO meatball scheme was very interesting and diverse, with many small variations and one-offs existing over the years, and of course, a ton of hybrid schemes from all the acquisitions and mergers during the Lorenzo days.

The original "meatball" scheme (formally known as the "Contrails" livery) had a black tail logo, small fuselage titles, flag and a red meatball surrounding the titles, wide cheatline, reg. in white inside the bottom cheatline stripe, black anti-glare paint beneath the front cockpit windows, and no bare-metal belly.


Shortly thereafter, the black paint beneath the cockpit windows was done away with and a bare-metal underside became standard.


The livery was revised in the mid '80s when Frank Lorenzo took over. Changes include: red meatball, larger titles with no surrounding flag or meatball, narrower top (gold) and bottom (orange) cheatline stripes, reg. in red bellow cheatline.


However, often an aircraft was left in the 'old' livery (small titles with meatball and flag, wide cheatline, etc.) and just had it's tail logo painted red.


Then there were the hybrids...

Frontier:


Texas International:


PEOPLExpress:



PSA:


CO had a very interesting fleet back then!

EDIT: Note the revised narrower cheatline of the red-logo scheme is only applicable for narrowbodies.

B773ER

I had forgotten about Peeps Express. Interesting bit of history, thanks, Mike. Now, let's get a few 1/200 scale CO Meatball 727s in the works.

I came close to buying the IF200 CO DC-9 until I read a thread recently that it's a bad mould for some reason, but the mould was later corrected.

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Mike777

I've yet to get a meatball DC-9 from IF, but from pics, the mould doesn't look that bad. I'll be getting at least the blackball no matter what though.