Collecting model airliners can give you a window into other cultures, which can sometimes seem bizarre by Western standards. Chinese airlines have a wide variety of interesting special schemes, often based upon the destinations they come from or serve. Air Travel is one of China's smaller airlines but has painted one of its new A320neos in a firey scheme, paying homage to its home province of Hunan and the women that reside there. Air Travel Airbus A321neo B-30EH 'Spicy Girls of Hunan' by NG Models 1:400 scale What is nowadays known as Air Travel (or Hunan Airlines in China) started operati ..read more

If the Convair 240 ensured TAA was able to survive its formative years the Vickers Viscount proved more than capable of finally allowing it to consistently return a profit and outcompete its longtime opponent ANA. Indeed ANA's failure to also buy Viscounts would prove to be terminal and lead indirectly to TAA facing a stronger competitive force in that of Reginald Ansett's Ansett Airways. ​For part 1 of this story see: TAA's Prop-jet Dominance Pt1: Viscounts vs DC-6s During the early 1950s a third player (Ansett) was entering the scene working around the regulations with multi-stop air coac ..read more

Trans Australia Airlines (TAA) had from its creation been the trendsetter in the Australian market, introducing Convair 240s which enabled it to survive its formative rocky years. It was no surprise then that it took an early interest in turboprops and in particular the new Vickers Viscount. In 1949 TAA personnel had visited the annual display and exhibition of the Society of British Aircraft Constructors and identified the Viscount as 'considerably superior to anything else in its class'. TAA Viscount 756Ds VH-TVL & VH-TVM TAA's competitor the private Australian National Airways ..read more

Following the breakup of the USSR various Aeroflot directorates gained their independence and spawned a wide variety of successor airlines, both inside Russia and within the newly independent republics. Kaliningrad found itself in an in-between space whereby it no longer bordered Russia but was still part of it. This enabled opportunity but also risk, which eventually didn't pay off for the Oblast's airline KD Avia. Kaliningrad Avia Tupolev Tu-134A RA-65090 by DT Customs & KD Avia Boeing 737-300 EI-DJR by Herpa The Kaliningrad Oblast is nowadays a weird territorial peculiarity - an outc ..read more

Nowadays Virgin Atlantic seems like part of the aviation establishment, having cemented its place at Heathrow, become part-owned by Delta and joined the Skyteam alliance. That wasn't always the case and given the anti-competitive nature of flying across the pond in the 1980s it is a massive achievement that it survived into the 90s at all. Above: The model depicted in this post is an old Gemini Jets release made for Virgin for inflight sales on their 25th anniversary in 2009. It comes with a metal stand and card, this being number 249 of 2,500 made. The origins of Virgin Atlantic goes back f ..read more

Managing the seasonal nature of the charter airline business has historically led to several airlines switching capacity across the Atlantic in the Winter with lease agreements whereby their aircraft get a winter in North America and a summer back in the UK. Air Europe had such an agreement with Air Florida between 1980/81 and 1982/83 but the failure of the American airline led to a more unusual arrangement with the British flag carrier that not only saw Air Europe swap aircraft but also acquire its first 757s from British Airways order backlog. Air Europe 757s by NG Models - 1:400 Scale Br ..read more

Following Canadian's takeover of Wardair in 1989 Canada 3000 would quickly grow to become Canada's largest charter airline and one that was consistently profitable too. At the turn of the century the massive changes wrought by the takeover of Canadian Airlines by Air Canada appeared to open up a space for C3 to become Canada's no 2 airline and part of that strategy involved acquisitions. However, C3 would soon live to regret its purchases and desperately try to offload them as it hit the turbulence of 2001. I have discussed Canada 300 here at the blog previously charting its rise and fall wi ..read more

Compass Airlines was the first attempt to compete against the duopoly of Ansett and Australian Airlines when market deregulation finally came about in November 1990. It was doomed to fail, but did become the only airline operator of VH registered A300-600s - and oddly a single Airbus A310 too. I have written about Compass previously so for the airline's full story please see my blogpost from 2018: Stretching Australia's Wings: Compass Mk1 Starting operations in December 1990 Compass was 'forced' to use large Airbus A300s due to the cosy cartel that controlled the majority of gate space at A ..read more

By the mid-1980s the good times for Venezuela were well and truly over. The currency had been devalued in 1983 unleashing an economic crisis, the nation was deep in debt and corruption was on the rise. The national airlines, VIASA and Aeropostal, were struggling but AVENSA, under the leadership of Henry Lord Boulton, used the situation to unleash his own brand of 'savage capitalism' which would enable AVENSA to thrive, at least for a short time. This post is dedicated to Jorge Zaijia of YankeeVictor400.com who gifted me this delightful AVENSA custom model he made. AVENSA Boeing 737-3Y0 YV-99 ..read more

Buchannan Models has been producing more exclusive smaller runs of models using the NG Models Tristar and 757 moulds for a while now. They have enjoyed creating often obscure hybrids and their most recent release is an Air Canada Tristar wearing in effect the full initial silver 'New Mark' Eastern Air Lines livery. This aircraft, along with one other, served regularly in the Tristar fleets of both Air Canada and Eastern due to an unusual arrangement with the Haas-Turner finance lease organisation. Air Canada Lockheed L-1011 Tristar 1 C-FTNA by Buchannan Models in 1:400 Scale Eastern and Air ..read more