Eastern Air Lines Douglas DC-7B N802D
(c/n 44853)
To
augment its Super Connies on its long haul routes Eastern also placed
an order with Douglas
in 1955 for 50
Douglas DC-7Bs. These large prop-liners flew the first
class routes until replaced
with prop-jet Electras,
after which they were relegated to Coach services. N802D was
delivered
in July of that 1955 and flew with the airline for a decade. It
was then sold to California Airmotive
and broken up in
1970. Following an interim 'falcon' livery in the early
1960s, the DC-7Bs, along
with the rest of
the fleet, were repainted into the ultimate 'hockey stick' livery in
the mid 1960s as
evidenced by the
small print of N824D seen at the foot of the page from the Mike Sparkman
collection.
Footnote to the Douglas DCs:
In 1967 Eastern purchased Mackey Airlines, a
small airline which flew
intra-Florida schedules and
also had routes
to the Bahamas, among other places. With the purchase came a
fleet of 5 DC-6s.
These were only
operated for about eleven months and then disposed of.
Incidentally Mackey
resurrected
itself later in 1967 as Mackey International Airlines soon after the
sale of the original
line to
Eastern. Eastern also leased a half dozen
Douglas DC-6B's at the end of the 1950s from
non-scheduled carrier
Trans American Airlines. They
were used on Coach/Shuttle services until
1962.
