Floridasky@xxxxxxx wrote:
>I recently acquired a nice 8x10 black and white photograph taken
>of N725AL (sn.19665) with Airlift logo and titles and stripe on it.
>It also is painted in National titles the length of the fuselage
>like it did on National Airlines aircraft. It was taken at Sarasota.
>My references do not show a lease to National. Did Airlift provide
>sub service for National?
Mike,
This is actually more interesting than it appears at first sight.
The aircraft is a Quick-Change 727-100, and for the initial two
and a half years its use was shared by Airlift and National. National
flew it on passenger services during the day and returned it to
Airlift every evening (possibly weekdays only) for night cargo flights.
This lasted until April 1970. Sistership N726AL was similarly used.
The Quick Change concept was fairly popular at that time. It
involves seats mounted on pallets, so that the configuration can
be changed from pax to cargo and vv in under an hour. KLM and Lufthansa
did it in Europe with DC-9-30s and B-737-200s respectively. It can
increase aircraft utilization substantially.
But changing the configuration twice every day causes quite a
bit of wear and tear on the aircraft inerior and the concept lost
its appeal after a number of years. Sharing the use between two
airlines has the additional problem of strained relations when
the aircraft is returned late.
Kees de Lezenne Coulander
-- =
C.M. de Lezenne Coulander
Aircraft Development and Systems Engineering B.V.
Hoofddorp, The Netherlands
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