Piedmont Airlines.....Part 2

[ApplePie]

Continued from Part 1.

In 1967, Piedmont entered the jet age when it received its first 727-200 and 737-200 aircraft. Interestingly, one 727 that Piedmont purchased from Northwest Orient Airlines and placed into service was the aircraft that had been involved in the famous D.B. Cooper hijacking in the Pacific Northwest.





Following airline route deregulation in the late 1970s, the airline grew rapidly and began to a develop hub and spoke system with a hub at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina. Later hubs included Baltimore/Washington International Airport outside of Baltimore, Maryland; James M. Cox Dayton International Airport in Dayton, Ohio; and Syracuse Hancock International Airport in Syracuse, New York. The extent of Piedmont's route map grew as well, with nonstop flights to the west coast beginning from the Charlotte and Dayton hubs during the early 1980s. At that time, the airline introduced first class service for the first time on its long-haul Boeing 727-200 jets. Eventually, Piedmont began nonstop service from Charlotte to London Gatwick Airport in the United Kingdom utilizing newly acquired Boeing 767s.






Piedmont's expanding route system, its loyal passenger following, and its profitability caused it to gain notice among other airlines for a potential buyout. In August 1989, Piedmont Airlines was absorbed by USAir (formerly Allegheny Airlines....now US Airways), which had previously focused its route network around the northeastern states. The combined carrier became one of the East Coast's largest airlines.

In honor of Piedmont, US Airways renamed one of its regional airlines Piedmont. There is also a US Airways-Piedmont Retrojet:




A 1942-built Douglas C-47 was purchased by Piedmont Airlines in October 1986 and was painted in the airline's colors to represent the 22 DC-3s operated by the airline between 1948 and 1963. The aircraft (N44V) was restored and flown for many years by Piedmont, and then by US Air until 1996. Since then the aircraft has been owned and operated by the Carolinas Aviation Museum.
http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/DSCF_3005.JPG




FSX
HDE 2.0
ENBseries bloom
Eric Cantu's 727-200 & 737-200
Project Opensky's 767-200ER


Thanks for looking.


-Christian

[Daube]

Beautifull series of shots !!
Have you been playing with the ENB module to get those "black and white" pictures ?

[ShaneG_old]

The angle on the first is top stuff!  8-)

Is that the Tinmouse 732 in the second?  One of the best out there I think. 

This was one of the most enjoyable set of posts I've seen in quite a while. 

[ApplePie]

Beautifull series of shots !!
Have you been playing with the ENB module to get those "black and white" pictures ?

Yep, I've learned that you can use negative values for the [COLORCORRECTION] section:


DarkeningAmountDay=8
DarkeningAmountNight=1
GammaCurveDay=8
GammaCurveNight=-2
ColorSaturationDay=-5
ColorSaturationNight=-5
ScreenLevelNight=2
UsePaletteTexture=0

[ApplePie]

[quote]The angle on the first is top stuff!

[olderndirt]

A fascinating slice of airline history.  After leaving Charlie West and returning to Alaska, Piedmont went to the back of the back burner for me.  To paraphrase Paul Harvey, it's good to hear 'the rest of the story'.

[B_7772]

Great set of shots and angles.

[ApplePie]

Thanks for the comments.

[FuturePilot]

Cool shots!!