National ordered the two 747's on their own back in the 60's for delivery in the early 70's, long before the merger around 1980. National's beautiful hangar at MIA, designed by Francis Telesca, was built to accommodate 2 747's and one DC10 and have the doors close behind them. When National decided that the 747s were too much capacity and could be replaced by DC10-30's they were sold to Northwest. There was no Pan Am involvement in this to my knowledge. I think National #2 was the old Overseas National Airways (ONA) and the pic that you have. It didn't last very long. National #3 was the short-lived Private Jet Expeditions failure in the mid 90's. And we all know the National #4 since it was the most current. Pan Am may have bought National for a domestic network but they overpaid in the bidding war with Texas International and Eastern. Then they destroyed what was a great little airline with an excellent balance sheet by dropping routes all over the place, replacing National management with Pan Am management, and a host of other screwups. It took them forever to merge the flight crews and morale really sucked for quite a while. Jose Prize Fan of National, the Airline of the Stars Fan of flying National's 747 to LAX a couple of times In a message dated 7/16/2003 4:26:05 AM Eastern Daylight Time, Filmscape@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes: > Subj: Re: Airlift/National Question > Date: 7/16/2003 4:26:05 AM Eastern Daylight Time > From: <A HREF="mailto:Filmscape@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx";>Filmscape@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx</A> > To: <A HREF="mailto:AIRLINE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx";>AIRLINE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx</A> > Sent from the Internet > > National (#1 the one with the Sun King, Sunburst or sunface...take your > pick) was an easy pick-up for PAN AM to 'add water' (or cash) and > instantly have a domestic carrier system. Although PAN AM never really > had it's head in the domestic game, as they were kings of the Global > Trade. Back then there was no way or time to 'develope' a domestice > network. Every ship coming off the Boeing. Douglas lines were spoken for > (the graveyards only had Electra's Convair 880s and 990s. It would have > taken forever to get contemporary aircraft and set up a domestic > network. (FYI..National even got a hold of some PA 747s for MIA service > to JFK/LHR and a few other places. > > We all remember National #3...just recently out of LAS and outta biz. > > My question is, who the hell was National Airlines #2??? > I have a photograph I took at JFK in the mid 80's of 747-100, N385AS and > it wears National Airlines (giant light-blue titles) and all white > fuselage. Now this was after National #1...and before National #3. > > Anybody? > > greg > > PS. I did get a MAC ride on an Airlift International 727-100. As a kid I > can't say if the service was noteworthy or not. It was fun just going > for the ride! >