Sepia Saturday - There's Xmas in the air

The prompt of this week shows Santa Claus in a Stockholm tram. Living in a country where Saint Nicholas believers still form a large majority, you'll have a hard time catching Santa in a tram. So there is no need to pull out my shoe boxes to look for such a picture. However, stretching the prompt just a little, brings me to people in a vehicle. And thus manipulated, this week's theme offers possibilities.

Readers of this blog may know I spent the best part of my working life in KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. For those readers it will not come as a surprise that my interpretation of the word 'vehicle' turns out to be an aircraft. The first one is the picture of the Boeing 737-800 interior of the aircraft that carried our son's wedding party from Amsterdam to Sicily in 2008. 

Interior of Transavia Boeing 737-800 from Amsterdam to Palermo (Sicily)

That trip took place in September so there is no connection with Christmas here. However, come to think of it, the upholstery of the chairs is (also) Christmas tree green. So mission accomplished. 
During most of my stay with KLM I was involved in the transportation of cargo. So showing you a couple of cargo aircraft is unavoidable. In 1983 I was involved in the organization of an international air cargo exhibition at Schiphol Amsterdam Airport. Via a relation we managed to convince the US Military Air Command to put one of their Galaxy's on display in Amsterdam. At the time, and possibly still, this is one of the worlds largest freighter aircraft with a payload of approx 120 metric tonnes.

A USAF Lockheed 5A Galaxy at Amsterdam Airport in 1983

The nose of the aircraft can be lifted (top right). This allows large loads and vehicles to be driven into the aircraft. They can leave the aircraft through the rear exit (bottom). I remember walking on that huge main deck inside the aircraft, that I was very impressed with its dimensions. It is like walking in a city hall. The connection with Christmas? Well, you know that all USAF aircraft display a white star? (Here it is almost hidden behind the starboard wing tip.) And I remember that one of the loadmasters was named Rudolph. What more do you need...

Christmas decorations in a KLM aircraft during the 50's

I can't say I recollect having seen these decorations in real life. But I can imagine it is no longer allowed today because they may be a safety hazard. In any case, it looks nice in this arcraft, probably a Douglas DC-6. (In case you want to know how this picture came to me, please see this earlier post.)
Well folks, this is it for 2012. I am glad I joined Sepia Saturday earlier this year because a) it is good fun, b) it is a nice group of people and c) I learn something every week. Therefore, I like to thank those responsible for keeping me off the street: Kat, Marilyn and Alan. I wish the three of you, and all other Sepians of course as well, a happy Christmas and a good and healthy New Year. And... may you all enjoy your turkey!
For more holiday contributions, please switch to the mother of all Sepia Saturday Sites.

Saved from the dustbin (14)

In the first post of this series I described how two of my former colleagues, Aris Zwart en Bert Besseling, saved many old KLM Royal Dutch Airlines pictures from being trashed. In that post and the next 12 with the same title, I have shown the most remarkable images. In this 14th post I'll display some pictures showing aircraft that may have disappeared from your mind. Still they are part of a development that started with flying crates such as the one below.

Aircraft type of unknown manufacture 

Obviously fuel capacity of pre-WW2 planes was limited. Apparently strategists determined that in times of war it was important to be as close as possible to the battle field. Therefore, Anthony Fokker came up with this design of an easily transportable aircraft. Fokker produced aircraft in Germany during WW1. This fact combined with the Daimler "undercarriage" and the German (?) license plates suggest that the German military had a certain interest in this development.

A Fokker design of a transportable aircraft

Being on the subject of warplanes, here is an aircraft designed by or for the Danish Air Force.  The picture itself was marked "Top Secret".

A Danish warplane with a remarkable decoration

Prior to 1928 the registration of Dutch aircraft consisted of five letters e.g. H-NABC. Effective 1928 Dutch civil aircraft obtained a call sign starting with PH. This was a consequence of the Washington Telecommunications Treaty of 1927.

One of the first Dutch aircraft with PH-registration in 1928,
a Fokker FVIIb possibly the PH-AEN.
Update Feb. 20, 2017 Most likely the above text is incorrect.
This is probably the PH-AFL Leeuwerik sometime after
Dec. 23, 1930 and before Apr. 6, 1935 when it crashed.

In the picture below, taken shortly after WW2, the apron at Schiphol Airport is still being repaired. The aircraft is a De Havilland D.H.89A Dominie. It was used by KLM to operate domestic services within The Netherlands.

The PH-RAC, a De Havilland aircraft, is being repaired.
Please note the running starboard engine.

The type number of the Fokker F-XXII referred to its seating capacity: 22. In total four of these aircraft have been built, three for KLM and the SE-ABA 'Lappland' for AB Aerotransport (ABA). Please note the giant nose light.

The Fokker F-XXII operated by ABA, a Swedish carrier and co-founder
of Scandinavian SAS.

The first (and only) Fokker F-XXXVI was handed over to KLM on July 12, 1934 approx. It could carry 32 passengers and 4 crew. Although KLM promised to buy six of these aircraft, eventually Plesman preferred the Douglas DC-2. This Fokker ended its life as a flying classroom for Royal Air Force navigators.

Arrival of the Fokker F-XXXVI, the PH-AJA 'Arend' 

Most aircraft facts in this post have been obtained from the comprehensive site of Herman Dekker.

Update Nov. 8, 2012: received information from Jan Willem de Wijn that the first picture shows a French Voisin. It was built in 1907. Please see this site for details.

Sepia Saturday - The man behind the window

The theme for this week is a picture (see below) showing four men involved in what I would call mysterious dealings. We see two policemen and two civilians or maybe even plain clothes men. And then there is a person looking through a window. He seems to be in uniform. So is this a police station? If this is so, does that make the bicycles official vehicles of  the long arm of the law? Is the man on the left handing over a gun or is he receiving one? Is it a gun or maybe a summons? The two gentlemen on the right radiate this "I-am-to-be-here-for-ceremonial-reasons" attitude. To cut a long presumption short, I don't know what we are looking at. But I have to make a choice so I will elaborate on the man behind the window.

Those of you visiting my blog now and then may know that I publish old airline pictures, in particular pictures concerning KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, my former employer. Those posts are titled "Saved from the dustbin". Knowing this, my former neighbor and former KLM captain Michael D. send me a few pictures. They came from a shoe box he inherited from his mother. The first one shows a man and a woman descending from an aircraft stairway. The man is Charles Christian "Chuck" Harman, a Canadian captain with KLM. The lady is Mrs. D., the mother of my neighbor. 

KLM Capt. Chuck Harman and Mrs. D.

The aircraft is the KLM Lockheed 1049C Super Constellation 'Nucleon' with registration PH-TFX. The picture can be dated between August 5, 1953 and February 25, 1954. 

The photograph below shows a man waving from a cockpit window. He may not be as clearly visible as the man in the police station but still, it is a man behind a window! (Pffft, mission completed.) According to my source this is the same Chuck Harman but now seated in the Douglas DC-6B 'Willem Bontekoe', the PH-DFO. This shot was taken between March 6 and August 23, 1954.

Capt. Chuck Harman waving from the cockpit.

There is some unexpected drama in this picture. It so happened that this aircraft, the 'Willem Bontekoe', crashed in the North Sea, some 10 miles off the Dutch coast. The accident took place on August 23, 1954. The official accident investigation was unable to uncover the cause of the crash. It is still the most mysterious casualty that ever took place in the history of Dutch aviation.

Location where the 'Willem Bontekoe' crashed on August 23, 1954.
Map ex aviacrash.nl.

The accident caused the death of all 12 passengers and 9 crew. The captain of this fatal flight from New York to Amsterdam was Charles Christian Harman...

For more drama, suspense and entertainment, please see the Sepia Saturday site.

To write this post I made use of internet information viz. the comprehensive site of Herman Dekker and Aviacrash. And of course I am grateful to Michael D. for sending me the photographs and for telling me about the late Capt. Harman!

Saved from the dustbin (13)

Last week it was World Animal Day. Hence a number of old KLM pictures featuring animals.
One of the first animals KLM ever carried was the famous Nico the Bull. The bull doesn't look like a very mature one but still. If I remember well the story was that it had to go to Paris. But some disease in Belgium (foot and mouth?) made it impossible to use surface transport. So it was flown on the H-NABR, a Fokker F.III. The empty weight of this aircraft was 1,200 kgs. With a maximum take off weight of 1,905 kilos, a little over 700 kilos was left for fuel, the pilot and Nico. A one year old bull weighs approx 400 kilos. I still wonder how they kept the animal quiet. Calculating all the weights there was hardly any payload left for a passenger. And I don't suppose the pilot, who was seated next to the engine, had an opportunity to act as an animal attendant. But they arrived in Paris safely.

Bull Nico

Although KLM operated a lot of cattle charters, many of those from Billund (Denmark) to North African destinations, the picture below most likely shows something else.

The PH-DSK 'Middellandse Zee', a Douglas DC-7C.

This DC-7C was not a freighter but a regular passenger aircraft. But even if this was a freighter, loading of cows is not supposed to take place by marching them onto the apron and "walking" them on board. This picture gives the impression that these cows escaped their attendants. And that can be quite annoying for incoming aircraft. 

The Schiphol apron is being repaired just after WW2

Both the Germans and the Allies bombed Schiphol Airport during WW2. (Less than two months ago yet another 500 lbs bomb was discovered.) Also other destructive activities took place during the war. Immediately thereafter repairs started. Obviously the availability of vans was limited, if any. So horses had to be used for the transportation of materials.
The aircraft in the background is the NL-208, a Douglas C-47A. It was operated by KLM but officially part of the N.G.A.T., the Netherlands Government Air Transport. This set up was necessary because immediately after the war civil air carriers were not yet allowed to use (military) airports. Later this aircraft flew as PH-TCA until the end of 1946.

The Danish King on horseback in Copenhagen in 1939

Today one can hardly imagine that royalty moves around like this King does in Copenhagen. I mean, without being surrounded by armored cars and bald men with hearing aids :-). Would be fun to see body guards trying to keep pace with a horseman.
In earlier posts I did explain that all these pictures have been saved by two colleagues. All photos came from a Copenhagen KLM office. So it is not a coincidence that both the picture above and the shot below have a Danish component.

One of the first horse powered aeroplanes.

The above photo is said to have been taken in the seaside resort of Farod* in 1921. With flying being the risky affair it was in those days, apparently it was regarded safer to offer a circular flight in this way. But in all earnest, this looks more like a fairground attraction.
With no more animal pictures being available, this post is concluded with the remark that all aircraft information is obtained from the site of Herman Dekker.
* I have been unable to trace the exact location of Farod but in view of the name of the hotel it can hardly be anywhere else but in Denmark.

Update: Pia (KLM Copenhagen) discovered that that the hotel was situated in Fanø which is on an island off the coast near Esbjerg. Please see her comments.

Saved from the dustbin (11)

When KLM Royal Dutch Airlines decided to fly to Tokyo via the North Pole, it must have been considered as quite an adventure. For the passengers that is, and possibly also for the crew. I mean, the prospect of an emergency landing may have been nice for members of the KLM Ski club, the average business passenger possibly had to convince his wife and children that flying via the Pole was so much quicker than the traditional route via the south. So on November 1, 1958 the PH-DSC "Yellow Sea" left for Tokyo via Anchorage. The aircraft was the reliable Douglas DC7C capable of carrying some 100 passengers. A crew of ten took care of their well being.

Left to right: Capt. Snitslaar, Rijpstra, Bik, Groothoff, Welscher, Germann, Ten Hoopen, Galama, Buren and Jansen.

It was obvious that KLM had to take certain precautionary measures adapted to flying over hitherto unknown, uninhabited, snow covered and deep frozen territory.  So in the unlikely event of an emergency landing there was a survival kit containing among others a gas burner, cups and straws, sunglasses against snow blindness, an ice saw, a shovel, an ax, rubber gloves, kleenex, rope, candles, a box with the text  'emergency ...' on it and a hunting knife. The picture also shows a couple of articles I do not recognize. For the long polar nights there was this booklet with the promising title "Life in the arctic". And then, last but not least, a rifle! 

On Polar flights KLM carried this survival kit. Some of the items on this table I do not recognize. And where is the ammo?

The picture below suggests that stewardesses were trained in the use of this weapon. However, pulling the trigger with those gloves does not look easy. But on the other hand, everything becomes possible when a polar bear comes charging at you!

Polar bears may be a serious risk there, the chance that you meet one is limited. But the extreme low temperatures and freezing winds create a greater hazard for stranded passengers and crew. So KLM experts must have thought "if you can't heat them, join them!" and invented the 4-person sleeping bag demonstrated below. I don't think this very social piece of camping gear has ever been used in practice but I bet that reading a user report would have made my day!

Sleeping bag for four persons.

Being on the subject of auxiliary equipment, on certain routes KLM frequently carried missionaries. To enable these clergymen to celebrate mass during stopovers, there was a small suitcase with all requisites.

Frequent readers know where all these old KLM pictures come from. For those who don't, they have been saved by Aris Zwart from a former KLM office in Copenhagen. Colleague Bert Besseling† sorted all these pictures and made them accessible for us.
Aircraft data have been obtained from the impressive site of Herman Dekker.

Update Sept. 26, 2012: For further information about the ammo and comments about this blog, please see www.ar15.com. It's fun to see that one of my posts attracts so much attention!
Update Oct. 15, 2012: I discovered a KLM letter providing a little more information about the AR-10 rifles. It was addressed to a collector of these rifles in Normal, IL.

KLM letter dated January 9, 1984
Please click to enlarge.

Our aircraft (11)

I have this urge to record all kinds of information. Whether this is a useful habit remains to be seen but sometimes it comes in handy. In this post, and the previous ones with the same title, I make use of a list keeping track of all the aircraft types my wife and I ever flew in. Hence the plural title of these posts: our aircraft. During my professional life I also recorded the number of miles we/I flew. The first nine posts in this series are in Dutch but I am sure you'll understand the pictures. I am now coming close to the end of this series. This one and the next and that's it.


In 1995 I was still very much involved in attracting customers to KLM's Cargo Service Center. And keeping them of course. If my memory serves me right, I went to Minneapolis on my way to a Canadian manufacturer of aircraft engines in Winnipeg. (I should have kept track of the purpose of my trips as well!)

June 6, 1995, McDonnell Douglas MD11, KL, SPL/MSP, 4,155/406,515 miles
Photo ex fascination-aviation

Those were not holiday trips. The next day after the meeting I left Winnipeg for Montreal and then onwards to Amsterdam making this a trip of approx. 48 hours in total.

June 7, 1995, Airbus A320, AC, YWG/YUL, 1,120/408,029 miles
Photo ex thestar

The marketing guys of McDonnell Douglas operate just like those working for car manufacturers. They start out with a small (and cheapish?) aircraft such as the DC9-10 (length 32 metres, approx. 90 passengers). And over the years the models are growing and growing until you end up with the MD-90 below (length 46 metres, approx. 150 passengers).

Sept. 8, 1995, McDonnell Douglas MD-90, AA, CHI/YUL, 737/416,298 miles
Photo ex markabbottphotos

The last product developed by no longer existing Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker, is the F70. It is capable of carrying some 80 passengers and KLM Cityhopper is the main operator of this type.

Feb. 22, 1997, Fokker F70, KLC, SPL/HAM, 236/430,898 miles
Photo ex KLM

CHI = Chicago
HAM = Hamburg
MSP = Minneapolis
SPL = Schiphol
YUL = Montreal
YWG = Winnipeg


The captions mention the date of my/our first flight with that particular aircraft type, the aircraft type, the airline prefix, the route and the distance and the total number of miles u/i this flight. Unless otherwise mentioned, the picture shows an aircraft of the carrier with which we/I travelled.
To be continued.

Saved from the dustbin (8)

Today's aircraft are loaded with computer systems doing all kinds of tasks previously done by the crew. If you see a picture like the one below, you realize the evolution that has taken place in the cockpit. Apart from four cabin staff, there are six (!) cockpit crew members. It is very well possible that the character of this flight, it was the first KLM flight from Amsterdam to Tokyo via the polar route, was the reason to have a couple of extra crew members on board. But on this DC7C-flight you see the captain, the co-pilot, two navigators and two flight engineers. If you compare this number with the current flight deck crew of two, you'll appreciate the changes that have taken place there.

First flight from Schiphol to Tokyo via the north pole on Nov. 1, 1958
with captain A.D. Snitslaar left (names of other crew known as well).

To celebrate a first flight KLM, and other airlines as well, issued first flight envelopes. Although I have a lot of those myself, the one below does not belong to my collection. It was carried on the return flight from Tokyo to Amsterdam on Nov. 4, 1958.

KLM first flight envelope.

Shortly after WW2 KLM started a training for radio telegraph operators. Their first call sign was PI1KLM. And still today there are some devoted KLM amateur radio enthousiasts who go on the air every Sunday on frequency 3785 khz. Their call sign is PI9KLM and they have their own website.

A radio operator* in his Douglas DC6 "office" probably
close to the end of the fourties .

*Update May 19, 2016: A year and a half ago I received an email from Mr. Joop Witbaard, 85 years old at the time and a former KLM radio operator. He had an idea about who the radio operator in the above picture might be. But since he wasn't certain he promised to let me know when he did. Yesterday he informed me he could tell with 90% certainty that this is Mr. C. Hoefnagel who started with KLM back in 1939. He died near Rhein Main airport in Germany on March 22, 1952 when his DC6 PH-TPJ was in the final approach and the aircraft flew into a forest. The cause of this crash was never found.
Joop also has a theory that this picture was taken in a Lockheed Constellation L-049. His idea is based on the picture below. It shows the lay out of the identical L-749. He feels the photo is taken from where the red square is drawn. From that angle you almost have to see the back of the flight engineer seat as it is also visible in the picture.

Cockpit lay out of the Lockheed Constellation L-749

I am grateful to Joop for uncovering the identity of the unknown radio operator!

Update Sept. 17, 2016: There is now definite confirmation that the radio operator shown above is Mr. Cornelis Hoefnagel. Today I received a comment from his son Kees. He said: "It was a nice surprise for me to find the photographs of the "unidentified" radio operator in "Saved from the dustbin (8)" and the recent update with information by Mr. Joop Witbaard, who is very right! I can tell you, now with 100% certainty, that the radio operator is my father, Cornelis Hoefnagel and that the photo was indeed taken in the cockpit of a Lockheed Constellation. The photograph was made for a KLM promotional campaign in the U.S.A. and has appeared in Time Magazine in the late forties and was also printed in the KLM Board Magazine Holland Herald of November 2013. 
The text of this advertishment read "His ear never leaves the ground". 

Subsequently Kees send me both publications. In his email he said: "As promised, I send you the relevant page from Time of 5 April 1948, as well as the reuse of the photograph in the Holland Herald of April 2014.

I remember that I was on my way from Amsterdam to Bucharest and leisurely scrolling through the KLM Board Magazine, when all at once I was confronted with this photograph of my father, 66 years after it was made.

As I was only 3 years old, when my father died in the crash of the DC-6 "Koningin Juliana" near Frankfurt, I am always looking at old aviation photographs and reports hoping to find something about him. This is how I came onto you blog and I very much appreciate what you did with everything you saved from the dustbin!

With thanks and best regards,

Kees Hoefnagel"

Radio operator Cornelis Hoefnagel in Time Magazine Apr. 5, 1948

... and Cornelis again in Holland Herald 4-2014

I like to make a remark about the published photo of Mr. Hoefnagel in the Holland Herald. When we had the terrible KLM/PAA crash in Tenerife on March 27, 1977 one of the many victims was KLM captain Mr. J. Veldhuyzen van Zanten. At the time he was involved in a KLM advertising campaign among others shown in the Holland Herald issue on board of the aircraft crashed in Tenerife... After this terrible incident it became policy not to show crew members in advertising campaigns any more. Apparently this policy was long forgotten when the picture of Mr. Hoefnagel was published in 2014. And I doubt whether the editor realized how he met his fate...

Captain Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten in the 1977 Holland Herald

[end of update]
________________
Airline people tend to regard everything that is taking place in the cockpit as the center of the world. However, also cockpit staff will have to admit that it is rather difficult to operate an airline without the benefit of passengers (and shippers for that matter) willing to foot the bill. So passengers have to be pampered. And that can be done in various ways.

Beauty sleep in a Douglas DC6. KLM started operating the DC6
in 1948. The word 'marketing' did not even exist then...

And do you still remember airline ads for first class service? Haute cuisine and superb wines at high altitudes. I have always wondered what the effect is on those superb wines when an aircraft races over a runway with a speed of say 200 miles/hour...

KLM Royal Class service in a Douglas DC8.

Speaking of ads, one of the earliest ads in colour was a picture postcard of this Super Constellation, to my mind still one of the most beautiful aircraft ever built. This one was registered in KLM's name on Dec. 22, 1955.

KLM Super Constellation PH-LKE "Pegasus".
Not surprising the Constellation was affectionately nicknamed "Connie".

A line up of unpainted Super Constellations, probably near the factory at Burbank, CA.

All of the above pictures have been saved from destruction by my colleagues Aris Zwart en Bert Besseling. Otherwise they - the pictures - would have met their final destiny at a Copenhagen incinerator. The site of Herman Dekker is the source for all details related to aircraft registrations.

Saved from the dustbin (7)

The elder readers of this blog may remember Scottish skiffle singer Lonnie Donegan. In the very early sixties he had a hit with the prozaic title My Old Man's A Dustman. This intro serves to tell you that also in KLM Cargo we have our own dustmen viz. Aris Zwart and Bert Besseling. They were the guys who saved all pictures shown in this series from destruction by being too quick for the Danish colleagues of Lonnie's father. For more details please see Dustbin  (1).  In any case I'm glad they did because it gives me a chance to show you some of these pictures and write about them.
The first two shots give an impression of what travel was like in the thirties. At the time KLM operated a scheduled service to Batavia, currently known as Jakarta, Indonesia. There was an intermediate stop in Palembang on the southern part of Sumatra. Looking at the first picture the airstrip was located right in the middle of the jungle. Based on the fact that the aircraft does not show a name below the cockpit, I presume this is a DC2 and not a DC3. If that is correct, the picture can be dated around 1935.

Palembang airport around 1935 with the "terminal" in the background.

The picture below shows the terminal facilities of Palembang. Please note the purserlike person in the doorway. The scene radiates a very relaxing atmosphere.

Captain Scholte entertaining his passengers?

While being in the Far East, here's a picture from down yonder. Australian National Airways Pty Ltd, mentioned on this hangar at SYD-airport, later became part of Ansett ANA. The DC3 in the foreground, the VH-ABR, crashlanded in New South Wales in 1948 but it was rebuilt and still around five years ago!

A hangar at the airport of Sydney. It probably doesn't exist anymore.

Before the second world war it was necessary to make absolutely clear that your plane was a civil aircraft and not a military plane. Hence the abundant identification.

Dakota DC3 PH-ASM. It was a KLM-plane between July 1939 and  May 16, 1940
when it was confiscated by the Luftwaffe. The German Airforce employed this
aircraft at least until September 1944. Its final destiny is unknown.

As is demonstrated by the picture below, also after WW2 it was apparently necessary to clearly show ones identification.

Douglas DC4 PH-TAP. As its name 'Paramaribo' does not appear where
it should be (on the nose), this shot is probably taken prior to its baptism on
June 21, 1946 but after May 31 that year when it was registered in KLM's name.

Fuel consumption is one of the main cost factors for the airlines today. This in spite of the fact that fuel efficiency has greatly improved over the past decades. The Douglas DC7C, capable of carrying approx. 100 passengers, was able to tank some 34,800 liters. But looking at its empty weight (33,000 kgs) and its maximum take off weight (almost 65,000 kgs), filling the tanks to the brim hardly left any capacity for passengers... But then, I may be wrong here. But right or wrong, it is a very illustrative picture.

Douglas DC7C, PH-DSL 'Baltic Sea'. The picture is said to show
174 barrels of 200 liters each totalling 34,000 liters.
Picture made between 8 Apr.1957 and Oct. 13, 1964.

As usual all data related to these aircraft, come from the unsurpassed site of Herman Dekker.

Our aircraft (10)

When I was with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, I kept track of all the aircraft types my wife and I flew in. Hence the title of these posts: our aircraft. During that period I also recorded the number of miles we/I flew. The previous nine posts in this series are in Dutch but I am sure you'll understand the pictures.
To sell our distribution services I travelled a lot to the States in the early nineties. During that time I ran into the following new (to me) aircraft types.

May 15, 1992, McDonnell Douglas MD-88, DL1577, DFW/ATL, 939/378,568 miles
Picture ex Delta.

Sept. 16, 1992, Boeing B737-400, BA427, SPL/LHR, 230/383,191 miles
Picture ex Airlinergallery.

Sept. 16, 1993, Boeing B747-300, KL, SPL/HOU, 5,011/387,891 miles
Picture ex 2747.com

Around the time I made the trip mentioned above, I apparently lost interest in making notes of the line numbers. So from now on you'll have to do without those (L). On this (above) picture of a KLM B747-300 please note the image of a swan just behind the stretched upper deck. (Please click on the picture to enlarge it.)

Oct. 21, 1993, Lockheed Tristar L-1011, DL, ATL/SPL, 4,393/401,688 miles
Picture by E.M. Chernoff.

During the a.m. flight I passed the 400,000 miles mark.


ATL = Atlanta
BA = British Airways
DFW = Dallas/Fort Worth
DL = Delta
HOU = Houston
LHR = London Heathrow
SPL = Schiphol


The captions mention the date of the first flight with that particular aircraft type, the aircraft type, the airline prefix, the route and the distance and the total number of miles u/i this flight. Unless otherwise mentioned, the picture shows an aircraft of the carrier with which we/I travelled.
To be continued.