This photo surfaced on a certain Air California/AirCal social media page, with the original thought that it was an Air California Electra. However the door is wrong for the Electra and it appears the registration begins with L- (not correct for OC, which would have been N###. So now people are trying to figure out what the aircraft is Mamie Van Doren is stepping down from. Can anyone here help?

Another thing to note in this picture is the aircraft is pretty low to the ground maybe an F27 or Herald. Also the door she is exiting from appears to be almost directly under the tail.

From Viscount pictures, it appears there would be a window just forward of the door, which is not in this photo.

That is an Avro 748 Srs 1, LV-HGW and the airline is Aerolineas Argentinas. And the picture is from 1962-1964 as it has the registration right on the main passenger door. It was moved to the cheat line sometime later. Not sure if that is Mamie Van Doren or some Argentinean celebrity. I am certain no AR planes were in the OC ever.

This is how Aerolineas Avros looked like as they were delivered; this one carries the LV-PUM temporary registration before being assigned its definitive LV-HHF.

BA146?

I only recall them operating Electras, DC9s, 737s, and BA146's.

I recall as a kid flying on the Electras into SNA and a fellow passanger handed me an article about the Electras wings falling off or something similar. It started a fear of flying period for me.

1967 - Air California first two electra's had foreign registrations. Here is a link to an Air California Electra from Qantas with a VH registration. Note the difference in the tail.
https://airlinersgallery.smugmug.com/Lo ... -jcHdnkN/A

dcajet wrote:

That is an Avro 748

Looks like an HS-748 to me as well. The stairs threw me off, every HS-748 I've seen has airstairs at the passenger entry door, but after reading your post I scrolled up for a second look and it sure does look like a 748 door.

CanadianNorth wrote:

dcajet wrote:

That is an Avro 748

Looks like an HS-748 to me as well. The stairs threw me off, every HS-748 I've seen has airstairs at the passenger entry door, but after reading your post I scrolled up for a second look and it sure does look like a 748 door.

Oh... AR was the launch customer for the Avro 748, and the 12 it received were the Srs1. The HS748 came later. These early production models (1962-1963) either had no airstairs or AR did not specify them for its budgies.

Another give away to its AR pedigree is the "AA" logo right above the main entry door,

I'll go with dcajet. the "L" prefix is an Argentina registration number, although there are a couple of European airlines with the "L". But that babe looks like she's dressed for Buenos Aires!

dcajet wrote:

CanadianNorth wrote:

dcajet wrote:

That is an Avro 748

Looks like an HS-748 to me as well. The stairs threw me off, every HS-748 I've seen has airstairs at the passenger entry door, but after reading your post I scrolled up for a second look and it sure does look like a 748 door.

Oh... AR was the launch customer for the Avro 748, and the 12 it received were the Srs1. The HS748 came later. These early production models (1962-1963) either had no airstairs or AR did not specify them for its budgies.

Another give away to its AR pedigree is the "AA" logo right above the main entry door,

Ah, I thought it looked like an AA, but hadn't put it together with AR. Still, shouldn't there be a window forward of the door?

Anyway, it looks like we have a winner. So the Air California folks had a case of mistaken identity as one of their old birds, but clearly not. Too bad; it's a very active group looking for anything historic to the airline.

Thanks all.

Wingtips56 wrote:

dcajet wrote:

CanadianNorth wrote:

Looks like an HS-748 to me as well. The stairs threw me off, every HS-748 I've seen has airstairs at the passenger entry door, but after reading your post I scrolled up for a second look and it sure does look like a 748 door.

Oh... AR was the launch customer for the Avro 748, and the 12 it received were the Srs1. The HS748 came later. These early production models (1962-1963) either had no airstairs or AR did not specify them for its budgies.

Another give away to its AR pedigree is the "AA" logo right above the main entry door,

Ah, I thought it looked like an AA, but hadn't put it together with AR. Still, shouldn't there be a window forward of the door?

Thanks all.

The budgies only had 10 large windows on each side, one per row. The last window on the left side, forward of the main entry door, is not captured on this photo.

Glad to be able to help.

Per Wikipedia, that particular aircraft, LV-HGW , crashed as AR 707, 4 Feb 1970. Nasty. Loss of control in severe turbulence in cumulonimbus clouds. You never know what you'll learn through Airliners.net.

OK Mods; we can close this now. I got my answer.

One of the high rollers that partnered up to start Air California was C. Arnold Smith, big honcho of Westgate California. I'm wondering if this was his private aircraft, that he painted the livery of Air California on. He went onto to own the San Diego Padres both when they were members of the Pacific Coast League and the National League. Anyways his finanical dealings ended up getting him into serious problems and a stint in the US Bureau of Prisons.

dcajet wrote:

That is an Avro 748 Srs 1, LV-HGW and the airline is Aerolineas Argentinas. And the picture is from 1962-1964 as it has the registration right on the main passenger door. It was moved to the cheat line sometime later. Not sure if that is Mamie Van Doren or some Argentinean celebrity. I am certain no AR planes were in the OC ever.

This is how Aerolineas Avros looked like as they were delivered; this one carries the LV-PUM temporary registration before being assigned its definitive LV-HHF.

You are my new hero.

MrBretz wrote:

BA146?

I only recall them operating Electras, DC9s, 737s, and BA146's.

I recall as a kid flying on the Electras into SNA and a fellow passanger handed me an article about the Electras wings falling off or something similar. It started a fear of flying period for me.

Air California's Bae146s were in the later rebranded paint scheme. They wouldn't have looked like the scheme in the photo.

Off topic now, but Air California's first aircraft were the Electras, in the orange and black hood, joined later by some short-term DC-9 10-series and 737-200s in the same. Later, the 737s sported an orange and yellow, with much less black in two successive iterations. The Electras returned for a while (for Lake Tahoe/TVL service) in the final Air California livery. The 737-100/200 were rebranded in 1981 in the new, final AirCal livery. That is the only livery the DC-9-80, 737-300 and BAe-146 fleet ever carried; that and the AA merger hybrid for the 737-1/2/300 and BAe-146. (There is an artist conception out there of the DC-9-80 in the Air California SunJet livery, but they were never delivered in that.
There are models of the DC-9-80 in the AirCal/American Airlines hybrid livery out there, but that never existed; the Super 80's left the fleet well before AA came on the scene. )
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On topic, kudos to dcajet for answering this question, the AR Avro 748. Even AirCal's chief pilot gives it a thumbs-up in the certain social media page.

The cabin crew member in the background is wearing white gloves, wow, when did that end?