Contrail Trijets: Continental's Saul Bass Meatball 727s

[RStretton]

I've got 6 threads written and waiting for posting plus several others in the pipeline but in the meantime I'll strike whilst the iron is hot with a short thread on one of the wonderful recent batch of Aeroclassics just released.

Following on from my friend Republic DC-9's thread recently I too just received the Continental 727-200 which has been a major hole in my 1:400 collection up till now.

I've previously looked at the 727 moulds in detail so I'm not going to comment on the AC mould except to say I don't really have major issues with it. It also appears that Aeroclassics have reduced the size of the no 2 engine exhaust slightly which was one of the major criticisms.

Onto the model and here she is:

Continental Airlines Boeing 727-200 Saul Bass / Black Contrails by rstretton, on Flickr

Continental Airlines Boeing 727-200 Saul Bass / Black Contrails by rstretton, on Flickr

Continental Airlines Boeing 727-200 Saul Bass / Black Contrails by rstretton, on Flickr

Continental Airlines Boeing 727-200 Saul Bass / Black Contrails by rstretton, on Flickr

Continental Airlines Boeing 727-200 Saul Bass / Black Contrails by rstretton, on Flickr

Continental Airlines Boeing 727-200 Saul Bass / Black Contrails by rstretton, on Flickr

Continental Airlines Boeing 727-200 Saul Bass / Black Contrails by rstretton, on Flickr

Continental replaced their already nice Golden Jet scheme in 1967 with the classic Saul Bass colours. Commonly called the meatball its real name is 'Contrails'. The black version lasted until 1984 when the livery was modified with a red ball and enlarged titles.

I have both the CO 727-200 releases showing both sets of colours. Continental’s fleet was defined by two types in the 1970s – the DC-10 and the 727-200. 19 of the latter (N88701-15, N32716-19) had been delivered between May 1968 and 1970. Three aircraft (N32721-23) built for THY were delivered in 1972 when deliveries switched to the upgraded Advanced model. 11 Advanced examples were added between 1973 and 1980 (N32724-25, N66726, 31-34, N69735-36, 39-40) with new aircraft deliveries continuing into late 1981 (N69741-42, N79743-46, 48-50) by which time 22 Advanced 727-200s had arrived from Boeing. In 1987 the 727 fleet was expanded by the merger of PeoplExpress which itself had well over 30 727s – mostly ex-Braniff and Alitalia frames. N88708 served her entire career with CO until retirement and breaking up in 1993. N88710 also stayed with Continental its entire career and was retired after 26 years of service. It was broken up at Tucson in July 1996. Continental retired its last 727 in November 1999.

Continental Airlines Boeing 727-200s by rstretton, on Flickr

Continental Airlines Boeing 727-200s by rstretton, on Flickr

Continental Airlines Boeing 727-200s by rstretton, on Flickr

Continental Airlines Boeing 727-200s by rstretton, on Flickr

[DeltaFlyte]

Thank you for using the correct term of "contrail" in lieu of that ridiculous nickname, "meatball" given to Continental's vintage logo, the "Contrail". I personally only collect the Continental Fleet adorned in the Black Contrail livery in 1:200 & 1:400 scales...back when the Employee's were happy and Customer Service was at it's optimum. The "Red Contrail" logo became known as the "Angry Red Eye of Frank Lorenzo", the CEO whom stripped mined Eastern Airlines for it's A300 fleet, Newark Hub, and did some serious Union Busting, Wage Reduction, and literally destroyed all morale amongst employee's. Continental's all around service to it's customers suffered greatly in those days. Once the DOT and DOJ forced Lorenzo to resign, and forbade him to ever have anything to do with Commercial Aviation ever again, Continental revamped their image, changed their livery to the Gold Globe on the Blue Tail, their overall service, attitude, and morale more than came back ... they became a world class airline once again...at least until the United Merger. Now they have several quirks to work out even to this day. Even though they wear the name United, they seriously need to refine their service that was customarily known as Continental's.