By Fons Schaefers

Introduction

In the 1970s, civil transport aircraft spotting was quite different from what it is today. Airport security was much more relaxed. Although airport ramps were off limits, at many airports it was easy to find vantage photography spots near runways. Even hangars were not always off-limits. The jet age was less than two decades old. First-generation jets ¹ were still being produced and flew in increasing numbers, all but up for phasing out. There was one exception, though: the Convair jets.

In the U.S., American Airlines had disposed of its Convair 990 fleet after only five years of operation. Most went to Europe and the Middle East. Delta had disposed of its fleet of 880s in 1973/74. TWA laid up its fleet of 25 880s around the same time, triggered by soaring jet fuel prices following the 1973 Arab-Israel war. The 880 consumed more fuel than its peers, such as the 707, so it was the first to go. All 25 were parked in one place. In those days, a congregation of so many identical airplanes was extremely rare.

U.S. Visit

Having been a civil aircraft spotter since 1973 and having visited the more exciting airports of Europe, in 1977 I decided to explore another spotters’ heaven: the U.S. Once the hurdle of obtaining a visa was taken (still an issue in those days; ESTA would be invented much later), I could plan my visit. My plan was to cross the entire U.S. in 30 days by Greyhound bus. High on the list were the military storage facility at Davis-Monthan AFB, Tucson, AZ (with a bus tour every second Saturday of the month), some major airports, the Grand Canyon (hoping for a scenic flight by Ford Trimotor, but alas…), Detroit Willow Run (for the Zantop prop fleet), Niagara Falls and Miami (for its corrosion corner). Also on the list was Kansas City.

TWA Convair 880s

Why Kansas City? JP Airline-Fleets, the contemporary spotter’s bible, in its 1976 edition, listed TWA’s congregation of 25 Convair 880s was right there:

In November 1976, the monthly spotter’s magazine Aviation Letter in # 120 reported:

In February 1977, the news was:

So, with some luck, the 880s were waiting to be logged and photographed when I would pass Kansas City on my way from New York to Tucson.

MCI, May 12, 1977

I left New York on Tuesday, May 10, at 7:00 pm, allowing me a brief, sunset visit to STL the next day. Another night on the bus, and I was in Kansas City. A short ride on the KCI Airport Express brought me to the new Mid-Continent International Airport (MCI) with its three circular terminals: A, B and C.

Looking east from the terminal area, I could see the Convairs. Through my binoculars, I identified the four nearest by registration number. But how nice would it be to have a closer look and take pictures? In terminal B, TWA had an information booth. I boldly stepped up and asked them if it would be possible to visit the Convairs. Quite to my surprise, the lady made one telephone call and then announced it was sorted. She handed me a TWA message note and said, “Take a taxi to the maintenance area and ask there for Larry Andrews.” (or words to that effect).

And so I did. Larry was waiting for me and handed me a visitor pass. Together we walked to the Convairs on the ramp east of the new hangar with its outstanding architecture. The sun was shining, casting sharp shadows. I noted the 880s were roughly parked in three rows. We started walking along the front row, with N808TW being the first, and I started taking pictures.

My tactic was not to take a picture of each airplane from the same angle, but rather a mix so that each airplane, including its registration mark on the tail or fleet number on the nose, would later be traceable. Conscious of time and intending not to ask too much of Larry, I went at quite a pace. At the end of the front row, there were some ships parked at an angle to that row. There we moved to the furthest ship and then returned between the middle and the back, constantly taking pictures.

Halfway, I changed the film from black and white to color slides. Larry shadowed me and offered to take a picture of me in front of one of the 880s.

When we were back to the point where we started, I spotted a set of maintenance steps and asked Larry if I could climb those to take some overview pictures. He agreed.

In all, I took about 35 pictures in what I estimate lasted about 20 minutes. Larry was so kind as to drive me back to the terminal area. I thanked him profusely. From a spot close to terminal C I took one final slide of the Convairs from a distance against a backdrop of the characteristic water tower and the KCAC building (which, as I learned much later, housed TWA administration) before continuing my trip through the United States.

One Month Later

Once back at home, with the pictures developed and returned to me (digital cameras were still futuristic), I could make a rough sketch of the parking pattern. For 23 ships, I positively fixed their location. For N828TW and N816TW, I was not so sure.

43 Years Later

Life went on, and occasionally, when seeing an article in a magazine about Convair 880s, I hoped there was an aerial picture so that I could validate my sketch. But it was in vain. Even Jon Proctor’s book on 880s and 990s did not have one, nor was he aware of any when I asked him at the WAHS convention in Portland, OR, in 2011. But in May 2020, I was lucky. Searching the internet, I found a picture on the website of the TWA Museum, 43 years after my visit. It had been posted in May 2018.

Now I could verify the actual pattern against my original sketch. Looking again at the overview slide, N828TW could be confirmed both by its location and number. But I had misplaced the location of N816TW. This was the only 880 that was not in any of my pictures. Or so I thought. It turned out that I did have a picture of it, taken straight from the rear, so that no registration marks were visible. By gauging the relative location of neighbor ships and by a process of elimination, it had to be #816. Puzzle solved.

Fate of the Convairs

Only twelve days after my visit, TWA sold the first of the 25 Convairs, and soon after, it was broken up on site: N811TW. Jon Proctor describes this as a tough job as its skin was much thicker than that of other airplane types, for which the demolition company was not prepared.

In 1978, N818TW was ferried to Van Nuys, CA, for conversion to a full freighter. Fifteen more Convairs were ferried to Harlingen, TX. Later, they were all ferried to the much drier climate of Mojave, CA. The eight ships remaining on the MCI ramp were broken up in 1979. Four of the Mojave ships were ferried to Atlantic City (3) or Laurinburg-Maxton (1) for use in FAA safety experiments. They were later destroyed, except for 803’s nose, which is kept in Teterboro, NJ. Of the remaining 12, the forward sections of two more ended up in museums: 871 in the Delta Flight Museum in Atlanta, and 817 in the Tillamook Museum in Oregon. Nine others were completely broken up around 2000. In 2024, only N828TW is still intact in Mojave, as N815AJ.

TWA Museum

When I contacted the TWA Museum in May 2020, I learned that Larry worked in material management at the time of my visit. He had retired since and sadly died. Reflecting on the warm welcome reception I received in 1977, I now surmise that perhaps TWA was so eager to sell the ships that anybody who asked to see them was considered a potential buyer and deserved to be shown around.

Last year, I visited the TWA Museum at the old Kansas City airport. On that occasion, I passed by the MCI maintenance area and saw a relic of the Convairs: Convair Drive. How apt.

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Footnote

1: As defined by Airbus, ref. Generations of Jet – accidentstats.airbus.com: Comet, Caravelle, BAC- 111, Trident, VC-10, 707, 720, DC-8, Convair 880/990.

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Sources

• Aviation Letter issue 120 (Nov. 1976), 123 (Feb. 1977) and 144 (Nov. 1978).
• Convair 880 & 990, Great Airliners Volume One, Jon Proctor, 1996.

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Fons Schaefers: [email protected], January 2025

By Tiemen Spits

The flag pins were a private issue and were allowed by the Airline’s corporate office to adorn the Pan Am uniform. No clear policy existed about the usage of the pins; the popularity of it was purely driven by the flight personnel. Research shows that the use was multi-purpose.

• As a destination pin: the flight attendant wore the flag of the country or state that was the final destination of the flight. For ease of use, we have divided the pins in three groups:
  • Country contains the pins from the different foreign countries,
  • USA State/Territory/Commonwealth contains the USA state and Commonwealth pins,
  • Special/other, for example Berlin and the Pan Am globe pins are found in this group.
• As an indication of the country/state of origin of the flight attendants: this was not the original intention of the pins, but developed over time and was widely embraced in support of national pride of the individuals.
• As an indication of the linguistic skills of the person wearing it: this is not to be confused with the language pin/badge.

The pins are a simple but elegant form: two flags crossed at the pole with the Pan Am stylized globe underneath. The flag on the left is always the flag of the USA, while the flag on the right varies with the country of origin. The example below is the flag pin of Guatemala.

From ex-Pan Am employees we learned that the pins started to show up in the mid to late 1980s. However, the existence of the Cuba pin indicates that the earliest use must be before 1963 when the Cuba travel restrictions were put in place. These were not lifted until the year after Pan Am’s bankruptcy in 1991.

There are a few pins that do not adhere to the general format described above. These include the Joint Venture pins, the EU pin, and the Pan Am logo pin.

Joint Venture (JV) Pins

The Joint Venture (JV) pins were issued to show the commitment of Pan Am to partnerships with Russia and Hungary with respectively Aeroflot and Malev airlines. The Russia/Aeroflot partnership was signed in 1988 and operated flights between New York Kennedy Airport and Moscow International Airport. The flights used the Pan Am 747’s and the cockpit and cabin crews were Pan Am, while three of the flight attendants were Aeroflot. They would also act as interpreters. The Malev partnership was signed in 1989 and committed to non-stop flights between New York and Budapest. Both joint ventures lasted until Pan Am’s demise in 1991.

The Pan Am logo pin is distinguished from the others by the fact it does not sport the blue ball/globe.

The European Union Pin

The European Union pin depicts the European Union logo which was designed in the mid-1950s when the European Economic Community (EEC) was formed.

The Berlin Pin

The Berlin pin is a special issue to show that Pan Am was one of only three airlines to fly into West Berlin, Germany after Berlin was isolated at the end of World War II. Commercial flights into Berlin were limited during the Cold War. The only three airlines flying into Tegelhoff were British Airways, Air France, and Pan Am.

The Flying Flag Pin

Instead of a static flag, the flag is designed actively flying in the wind. The pin is thicker, the wells are deeper, and the cloisonné has been deposited thicker. In my years of collecting I have only found one pin in this style: Indonesia.

Variant Versions of the Same Country Pin

Finally, there are country pins that exist in multiple variant issues due to a change of the national flag while the pins were in use at Pan Am. These pins are

• Austria
  • Without any device in the horizontal white bar.
  • With the Austrian coat of arms in the horizontal white horizontal bar (variant version). Because the new Austrian coat of arms was officially approved/adopted in its current form in 1984, it is possible that this variant version started to appear in the same year.
• Romania
  • With the communist device in the yellow vertical bar. (30 Dec. 1947 – 27 Dec. 1989).
  • Without any device in the yellow vertical bar (from 27 Dec. 1989 – end of use).

How to Use This Guide

To find whether a pin was issued for the country/region of interest, use this alphabetical index.  For easy identification we have divided the pins into three main groups:

1. International destination pins
2. USA State/Territory/Commonwealth pins
3. Other pins

Within each group, the pins are listed in alphabetical order by their country/state/commonwealth’s name. Each pin’s image is accompanied by the country represented by the flag and a one-line note elaborating on the image when needed. The author is still looking for Honduras and Portugal and any other pin not shown in this collector’s guide.

International flag pins

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USA flag pins

In the USA these pins present the state of origin or destination. According to some sources, pins existed for all 50 states; however, I have found no evidence of this. Below are the currently known state pins.

Miscellaneous Flag Pins

There are two pins in this group that deviate from the “standard” issue, namely the Pan Am logo and the Indonesia pins. The Pan Am logo pin does not have the globe in the center below the flags and the Indonesia pin is made thicker than the “normal” pin and the cloisonné wells are deeper. Also, the flag is not draped but waving.

Each pin is approximately 1” wide by 1 ¼” high, except for the Aeroflot pin, which is approximately 1 ½ “high.

As of March 2018 – a total of 77 pins have been identified. If you have additional information about the pin usage, personal experience with them, or want to trade, please contact me at [email protected] or leave a comment below. Happy collecting!

This article and all images originally appeared on www.halpostcards.com (copyright 2017-2021) and are used here with the author’s permission.