I spent 44 years in the air cargo industry, and found this article to be interesting. Good to see that Hawaiian is returning to freighter ops. In the late 1970's they operated a small fleet of L-188 Electras which I recall was used on a LogAir contract for USAF. They were sold to Zantop International Airlines around 1980. For a period Zantop operated 25 L-188's and maintained them at a Macon, Georgia facility, which was also purchased from Hawaiian. Zantop flew LogAir contracts as well as charters and common carriage after deregulation in 1978. Changing times in the air cargo industry and family owned Zantop could not keep pace with the financial requirements of modernizing their fleet of L-188, CV-640, DC-6, and DC-8 freighters. For a few short years they were moving millions of pounds of cargo nightly through their Hub in Ypsilanti, Mi.

(Written on 01/25/2023)(Permalink)

0141 here Remington Raider Class of 1966

(Written on 05/08/2020)(Permalink)

This article and others plainly state that he worked for Alaska and American Airlines simultaneously. Neither airline had rules forbidding this. American would be unaware of the Alaska termination if he is already an American employ and have no reason to do another background check. Also background checks as a rule do not usually uncover a direct reason for termination. Employers fear legal repercussions if they disclose specific information, so if asked the question whether they would rehire, you usually get a yes or no answer only.

(Written on 09/10/2019)(Permalink)

Wikipedia article on Skylease says that as of December 2017 this A/C was leased from Aercap and the only B747 operated by Skylease. Aircraft can be replaced -- just glad no one was seriously injured.

(Written on 11/08/2018)(Permalink)

In 1981, 4 years before the DL Flt 191 accident, I was sitting in the very same Zantop DFW cargo office and noticed large dark clouds to the east and south. Thinking that they would probably bring rain, I started walking the 50 yards out of the warehouse to roll up the windows on my old pickup truck in the parking lot. Just before I got to the truck, I saw huge clouds of dust a quarter mile or so across Hwy 114 headed my way. I ran the last 50 feet to my truck, rolled up the windows, and headed at a trot back toward the warehouse. The wind suddenly hit me in the back and almost blew me down. 50 feet from the warehouse I could see through the building truck side doors to the ramp side. To my surprise I saw a Beech 18 moving rapidly north tail first toward the ramp perimeter fence. As I got closer, another Beech 18, did the same thing. Just as I got into the warehouse, I saw a DC-3 moving tail first toward the fence. I thought what the heck -- and then thought "Oh s____!". We (Z

(Written on 08/06/2018)(Permalink)

Such a tragedy. The aircraft came to rest a few hundred yards from the east cargo building just off Hwy 114. Zantop International Airlines cargo facility in that building was used as a temporary morgue in the aftermath. The station manager of Zantop told me that the initial rescue / recovery after the crash was sheer bedlam due the torrential rain. News reporters were lined up in Zantop's office to use the phone to call in their stories (pre cell phone days). The station manager noticed one gentleman - muddy & soaking wet, patiently standing in line. Turns out he was one of the few survivors, who, dazed & confused had wandered around in the field and finally made his way to the warehouse a few hundred yards away. He was waiting to call his wife to tell her he was all right. The Zantop A/C maintenance team were assisting with the search for human remains the next day and manually opened the rear bin. Inside they discovered a live dog in a kennel that had survived.

(Written on 08/06/2018)(Permalink)

Boeing did the original B777 folding wing engineering concept back in the 1990's and offered it to its airline customers, but had no takers. The hardware had been designed and tested and was finally used in 2006 -07 on the B747 Dreamlifter to lock/unlock the swingtail. It is a robust ring and lug design and the lock train for the swingtail consists of 21 sets of these locks around the perimeter of the aft fuselage where the tail swings. I had a small part in the operations demos during the FAA certification process in Everett, WA. The 4 Dreamlifters have been working hard ferrying B787 components since 2007 with no problems.

(Written on 02/21/2018)(Permalink)

SuperTanker Version 3.0 -- Evergreen did the original slurry drop testing in Marana, Arizona 10 years ago. I was part of the ground crew and the testing for the US Forestry Service only went so so. Later drop tests were more successful. The pressurized tankage system has been redesigned a couple of times and installed in both a 100 and 200 series Evergreen B747. Now the concept has been updated for the Global 400 series aircraft. Don't know the current operating plan, but the plan then was to establish several operating bases (USFS already has several throughout the West with slurry tanks in place). The ground crew would set up with a humongous air compressor and the SuperTanker could be replenished in less than an hour. This concept was tested and successfully completed multiple times in 2006, 2007, and 2008. The big issue has always been $$$$ -- the Forestry Service's budget has been reduced throughout the recession, so they tried to get the most bang for their bucks. The VLT

(Written on 08/15/2016)(Permalink)

It took 20 years to get the 5th runway built, so if they want to build #6 by 2031 the city better start cracking. Clayton County has vowed not to give up any more land for the airport -- but with enough $$$$ anything is possible. South Cargo still has land for a 100,000 + square cargo building that was never built, but the cargo expansion planned for the old Southern Airways/Northwest Hangar land is a no brainer as it is currently used just for employee parking with the hangar sitting empty for the past 10 years. New parking decks make sense since the rental car facility moved north of I-85 vacating many acres of prime close to the terminal land.

(Written on 09/01/2014)(Permalink)

Really hope Boeing gets this fixed quickly. The 787 is a great engineering feat, but their execution in putting together the total package has been marred by management miscalculations, possible engineering overreach, mixed with bad luck. Even with all the outsourcing, their engineering talent was stretched very thin. I was involved in the B747 Large Cargo Freighter (DreamLifter) program from 2005-2008 and there was tremendous pressure to get that bird certified in order to start moving 787 components from worldwide suppliers to Everett, Charleston, Wichita. The first fuselage sections moved from Nagoya to Charleston in January of 2007. Due management timeline pressures the sections were shipped incomplete and large teams of Japanese technicians were sent from NGO to CHS to complete the work (at considerable cost). They spent months finishing the 1st section and subsequent sections. This was my first inkling that something was not quite right. It's been a long bumpy road a

(Written on 01/31/2013)(Permalink)