Post by Deleted on May 13, 2023 9:35:45 GMT -5
This is a Lockheed L-1694A Starliner of Linee Aree Italiane taking off at Burbanks in 1957.
Some might eventually already know the story of this aircraft.
Linee Aeree Italiane, at the end of 1956, placed an order for four Lockheed L-1649 Starliners for using them on Rome-New York route. All of the four planes had already been built and painted in LAI colours at the factory in Burbank. the first one, which had been registered I-ZAMA, and the second one had already begun the pre-delivery flight tests when, on September 1st 1957, LAI was merged into Alitalia. The new Alitalia-Linee Aeree Italiane cancelled the order and the aircraft also went to TWA.
Manuele Villa did a repaint of the aircraft, which in fact brought me to the story. He is undoubtedly known as a talented repainter. Unfortunately his texture isn't absolutely faithful, and he choose a wrong model (radar nose) compared to the orignal picture. Nevefthelss, it fits well with classic era.
BTW, it very strong reminds to an other, but almost similar story involving Swissair. In 1950, after lengthy studies, which mainly involved a comparison between the proven Lockheed Constellation L-049 and the DC-6 offered by Douglas, the Swissair management initially decided to take over two used Constellations from the Dutch KLM on a lease basis, with the intention of later placing its own order with Lockheed for two brand-new Constellation L-749s.
A cockpit crew was delegated to Amsterdam to take delivery of the rental aircraft and transfer them to Zurich. The two units were already wearing the Swissair colors; the designations HB-IBI and HB-IBJ had been chosen for their registration. Shortly before departure in the Netherlands, however, we received a request from Zurich to return home without any aircraft. The unexpected devaluation of the British pound had drastically worsened Swissair's economic situation. As a result, all plans for the procurement of a new long-haul fleet were suspended, and the planning studies had to be restarted.
Bernard