Can you identify this month’s aircraft? The winner will receive an honorable mention in next month’s issue. Contest Rules: Limit your entry to 100 words. Send your entry by emailing airprtpres@aol.com (preferred) or fax to 718-995-3432. Include your name, title and employer.

The winner of this month’s Name that Plane is John Michael Bratichak of John Bratichak, Architects who submitted the first correct entry. We have used the descriptive materials presented by Lt. Dan Carbonaro of the Port Authority Police at JFK Airport. This is Dan’s description: The Aircraft in this month’s Airport Press is the “Lockheed L 188A Electra”

Lockheed's Electra provided a number of airlines with their introduction to turbine-powered aircraft. Today it remains popular with freight operators. The Lockheed L-188 Electra was developed to meet a 1954 American Airlines requirement for a domestic short to medium range 75 to 100 seat airliner. In June 1955 American awarded Lockheed an order for 35 such aircraft. Lockheed's design, the L-188, was a low wing, four turboprop powered aircraft. Many other airlines shared American's interest in the L- 188, and by the time the first prototype flew on December 6 1957, the order book stood at 144. Service entry was with Eastern Airlines on January 12 1959. However, any optimism Lockheed felt about a strong sales future would have been short lived, as a number of crashes in 1959 and 1960 contributed to a number of order cancellations. As an interim measure following the crashes, speed restrictions were imposed on Electra’s. Investigations uncovered a design defect with the engine mountings where the wing would shake and eventually break up. Lockheed undertook a significant modification program where the nacelles, nacelle mountings and wing structure were strengthened, and the speed restrictions were eventually lifted in 1961. After that the Electra proved reliable and popular in service, but the damage had been done and production wound up in 1961 after 170 had been built. Lockheed built two basic versions of the Electra. The L-188A (Airport Press Photo) was the basic production aircraft, and accounted for most Electra sales. The L-188C entered service with KLM in 1959 and had greater fuel capacity and higher weights, and thus improved payload range performance. The Electra also forms the basis for the hugely successful P-3 Orion longrange maritime surveillance aircraft of which more than 600 have been built. Most Electra’s currently in service are configured as freighters. From 1967 Lockheed converted 41 Electra’s to freighters or convertible freighter/passenger aircraft, fitting a strengthened floor and a large cargo door forward of the wing on the left side. However, a small number remain in passenger service. "The aircraft in the Airport Press photo made its first flight on April 30, 1959 and was delivered to Western Airlines of Los Angeles, California, USA, on May 20, 1959 registered N7135C. The aircraft was withdrawn from use and stored at Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, in 1969 until purchased by Concare Aircraft Leasing Corporation of Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA, on November 27, 1970. It was again placed in storage in 1971 at Tucson, Arizona, USA, until sold to Trans Continental Airlines in 1973. The aircraft was sold to Zantop International Airlines of Detroit, Michigan, USA, on February 14, 1978; Zantop specialized in transporting automobile components between Detroit and automobile manufacturing plants throughout the USA. In August 1983, it was sold to Reeve Aleutian Airways of Anchorage, Alaska, USA; Reeve operated flights from Anchorage to points in the Aleutian Islands. By January 1986, the L188A was stored at Anchorage and used for spare parts until it was eventually scrapped."

Anyone who knows me also knows that I am not Mrs. Svelte. But when does the foolishness stop. If a guy weights more than 300 lbs, who wants to sit next to him? He should pay for two tickets. But not according to a French judge. A Frenchman who weighs over 380 pounds has won a court case against Air France after it made him buy a second seat on a flight from New Delhi to Paris. Jean-Jacques Jauffret, a 43-year-old screenwriter, said he was deeply humiliated when airline staff measured his girth with wrapping tape in front of other passengers at New Delhi airport. Air France was ordered to pay nearly $10,000 in damages and to reimburse the cost of his second seat, in a ruling delivered late last month. But what is the airline to do? My solution is to seat all those over 300 lbs in the same row and let them sort out the positioning.

During taxi, the crew of a US Air departure flight to Ft. Lauderdale made a wrong turn and came nose to nose with a United 727. The irate ground controller (a female) lashed out at the US Air crew screaming "US Air 2771, where are you going? I told you to turn right on 'Charlie' taxi way; you turned right on 'Delta'. Stop right there. I know it's difficult to tell the difference between C's and D's but get it right". Continuing her lashing to the embarrassed crew, she was now shouting hysterically, "You've screwed everything up; it'll take forever to sort this out. You stay right there and don't move until I tell you to. You can expect progressive taxi instructions in about a half hour and I want you to go exactly where I tell you, when I tell you, and how I tell you. You got that, US Air 2771??" Naturally, the 'ground control' frequency went terribly silent until an unknown male pilot broke the silence and asked, "Wasn't I married to you once?"