Aviation – Aircraft – Flying

Two forgotten brands, though both pioneers of their industry.

Swissair, a famous brand with a great reputation for service, safety and reliability. But some of these aspects, those of the adherence to procedures, aided the downfall of this great airline with the crash of a DC 10-30 near Halifax, New Foundland.

I have enjoyed Swissair on many trips between Stuttgart and Zurich, mainly on DC-9, and beyond on Concair 990 Coronado and DC-10 to Barcelona, Madrid, Brasil, Spain, Bangkok, Hong Kong before the airline had to be re-born as Swiss and as a private carrier. Though I have to say that all my experiences on the new Swiss have been a pleasure and the airline name associated with Switzerland has not lost its luster.

What the aircraft is concerned, I never had a chance to fly the Convair 340/440 Metropolitan. This aircraft revitalised the inner German services of Lufthansa, post WW2, and provided similar services at Swissair and other airlines for its European routes.

The last Convair prop flights by Chatham Airlines have now also ceased, as I believe. With this great airliner now only to be seen in aviation museums. HARS the aviation history museum, south of Sydney has a great example of an ex TAA Convair.