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Post by Deleted on Jul 9, 2020 8:50:27 GMT -5
In 1925 Walter T. Varney got the first private contract to fly U. S. mail in the Pacific Northwest on a line which he later developed into the Salt Lake-Seattle system and sold to United Air Lines six years later. Walter Varney next turned his attention southwards. In March 1934 a Lockheed Orion of his new Lineas Aereas Occidentals arrived in Los Angeles, completing its first 1,700-mile trip from Mexico City in 10 hours. Lineas Aereas Occidentales operated three planes a week over the route with five other Orions used on Varney Speed Lines services from Los Angeles Grand Central Air Terminal to San Francisco Bay Airdrome, now kown as Alameda NAS. Some of the aircraft were marked as Varney Speed Lanes others Lineas Aereas Occidentales. In 1937 Varney was renamed as Continental, and has managed to carry on to this day surviving two bankruptcies on the way.  BTW, in 1932 this Sikorsky S-39 was used by Varney Speed Lines in San Francisco as an air taxi for two years.  Bernard |
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Post by Tom/CalClassic on Jul 9, 2020 11:37:00 GMT -5
Hi,
Nice. BTW, Continental was merged into United Airlines not that long ago.
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Post by dave mcqueen on Jul 10, 2020 3:55:12 GMT -5
Hi, Nice. BTW, Continental was merged into United Airlines not that long ago. Off topic but so be it. The 4 airway track system between the West Coast and Hawaii was established in the late 60s to handle increased jet traffic. Continental had a habit of filing off track flight plans that criss-crossed through the 4 published tracks ( The tracks were named: Northern Boundary, Alfa route, Bravo route, and Southern Boundary. Each were separated from the adjacent track by at least 100 miles laterally-the ICAO standard in the Pacific. ) The traffic on the 4 published routes usually flew between FL260 and FL410. This was at a time when operating above FL290 vertical separation increased from 1000 to 2000 feet due to the assumed inaccuracy of altimeters above FL290. Traffic was normally too heavy to accommodate cross track flights but Continental nonetheless continued to file cross track routes and requesting altitudes that routinely conflicted with traffic on the published route system. So most of the time their B707s had to fly between LAX and PHNL at flight level 240 or even lower, a huge expense in terms of fuel consumption. They were essentially the only airline to act in this way. By the mid 70s Continental gave in and conformed with all the other carriers. |
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Post by Tom/CalClassic on Jul 10, 2020 9:11:13 GMT -5
I guess that the expected time savings was supposed to make up for the added fuel expense?
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Post by dave mcqueen on Jul 11, 2020 5:10:30 GMT -5
I guess that the expected time savings was supposed to make up for the added fuel expense? Yes, but they always filed for something like FL310 or FL350, which they never got on account of traffic. It just took them a long time to figure it out. I half expected them to turn around and go back to LAX because of exorbitant fuel consumption. They always seemed to make it though. I recall once when working the OCR radar sector a Modern Air Convair 990 coming from Oakland to Honolulu climbing to cruise altitude and encountering severe headwinds. They requested to return to Oakland saying that if the winds continued to be a factor they would run out of fuel before reaching the islands. |
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Post by Tom/CalClassic on Jul 11, 2020 8:42:14 GMT -5
Surprising how long it took them. A 990 could definitely be marginal on that long a flight.
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