"Allegheny 444" (a DC-9) was portrayed in the opening sequence of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" as a radar contact at "Indianapolis Center", which was actually filmed at the Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center (LA ARTCC) at Palmdale, CA.
MY GOD!!!! REAL FOOD!!!! THEY SERVED REAL FOOD!!!!!! I flew as a f/a from 1974-2005, and let me tell you,,,,back then we served hot towels before meal service!! Chateau Briand, Chicken kiev, oh those were the good old days!!!!
Great Allegheny Airlines memories! I use to watch their Convair 580s and DC-9 30's arrive and depart our Dress Memorial Airport, now Evansville Regional Airport, in the 60's and early 70s. I took my first Allegheny Airlines flight in August of 1974 from EVV to IND on a DC-9-30. The registration number was N94OVJ and I still remember the flight number, 920. The fare was only $25.00. I remember the front row seats of the "9" having seats that faced backwards at the bulkhead. Great for business passengers to do their work enroute to their destinations. What a thrill to experience airline travel back then! Those were the days when you would walk out on to the ramp and up the air stairs. I flew AL many more times, also flying on their BAC 111s. Awh the memories!! Thanks for posting this.
My favorite 'bird' was the Allegheny CV580. The most memorable flight I had, was a short hop PHL to ILG in the early 70's. The Stewardess let me go into the flight deck so I could chat with the pilots. The First Officer let me start the starboard Allison turboprop. What a thrill. Once I got to Greater New Castle Airport, my Maternal Grandfather drove me to Maryland for the weekend.
I remember when they owned the Pittsburgh Market. They had a difficult market to fly in and out of. Weather was tough and the forecasting was a problem. Thanks for sharing!
My Husband as a kid flew from Chicago too Pittsburgh sitting next to him was Bill Masrosky of the Pittsburgh Pirates.He used to have a signed ball from him.
That would have been Mohawk. AL did have piston Convairs, but never the 240, and never operated piston Convairs in ALB, only 580s and Douglas DC-9s. Can't remember right off if they kept flying ALB-JFK after the merge with Mohawk, but the piston Convairs were long gone by then.
the suckiest service back then was probably way better than the service u get today but then again not only has the airline industry changed so have the passengers
THEN "Attendant's here are some make up tips and regulations on how to look "appropriately".. NOW "Attendants, here is how you subdue an unruly freaked out passenger and how you deal with a man having a heart attack while in flight and how you get the passengers off the plane fast if we crasH
When American and US Airways joined forces, the combined company inherited an Airbus A319 painted in a retro livery saluting Allegheny. I think the livery dates back to when this film was made. Also, according to my calculations, American will soon add at least two more aircraft to the heritage fleet, one saluting TWA, the other US Airways. I'm hoping they also add two more, one saluting AirCal, the other Reno Air.
+John Eddy One year later and both are out. A/A rolled out the Air Cal jet November of this year. Not sure about when the Reno Air retrojet was painted.
Agony Air really had a terrible reputation, I never met anyone who had good things to say about Agony Air. I worked for Merck outside Philly and our corporate travel people would not schedule you on the carrier if there was a choice. Piedmont had high marks, I could never figure out what the deal was. People I know who worked for Rosenbaum Travel who booked flights for Wyeth-Ayerst had the same attitude, must be something about the airline and corporate accounts, later US Air had the same problem.
Agony to watch. Compare with the really nice 1972 North Central production (Go Herman!) So insulting to their own stewardesses -- no attention whatsoever paid in this production to the real reason why stewardesses are on board at all, but everything to distract from that. It was because of this kind of insulting, slanted garbage that we ended up with the backlash phenomenon of the embittered "Flight Attendant". You'd end up bitter too if you were depicted as being nothing but a live dummy for "professional" make-up application. They might as well have shown the pilot trainees doing nothing but standing in the mirror, shaving or preening with Brylcreem. What an embarrassment -- one of the worst of this era.
Took Allegheny from Norfolk to Boston and back in 1970, what a nice ride.
Thank you for sharing this old airlines.. So nice...
"Allegheny 444" (a DC-9) was portrayed in the opening sequence of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" as a radar contact at "Indianapolis Center", which was actually filmed at the Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center (LA ARTCC) at Palmdale, CA.
MY GOD!!!! REAL FOOD!!!! THEY SERVED REAL FOOD!!!!!! I flew as a f/a from 1974-2005, and let me tell you,,,,back then we served hot towels before meal service!! Chateau Briand, Chicken kiev, oh those were the good old days!!!!
Great Allegheny Airlines memories! I use to watch their Convair 580s and DC-9 30's arrive and depart our Dress Memorial Airport, now Evansville Regional Airport, in the 60's and early 70s. I took my first Allegheny Airlines flight in August of 1974 from EVV to IND on a DC-9-30. The registration number was N94OVJ and I still remember the flight number, 920. The fare was only $25.00. I remember the front row seats of the "9" having seats that faced backwards at the bulkhead. Great for business passengers to do their work enroute to their destinations. What a thrill to experience airline travel back then! Those were the days when you would walk out on to the ramp and up the air stairs. I flew AL many more times, also flying on their BAC 111s. Awh the memories!! Thanks for posting this.
My favorite 'bird' was the Allegheny CV580. The most memorable flight I had, was a short hop PHL to ILG in the early 70's. The Stewardess let me go into the flight deck so I could chat with the pilots. The First Officer let me start the starboard Allison turboprop. What a thrill. Once I got to Greater New Castle Airport, my Maternal Grandfather drove me to Maryland for the weekend.
"The Allegheny Air System....has a LOT MORE going for you"
I remember when they owned the Pittsburgh Market. They had a difficult market to fly in and out of. Weather was tough and the forecasting was a problem.
Thanks for sharing!
The many times I flew Allegheny Airlines, I always had a great experience!
My Husband as a kid flew from Chicago too Pittsburgh sitting next to him was Bill Masrosky of the Pittsburgh Pirates.He used to have a signed ball from him.
Film maker really got into his job on this one.
DC-9 "Vistajet" :-)
This was back when the Mile-High Club stood for something.
Only the greats know about this channel 😌
Thanks again Melissa. :-) I very often depend on proper info from you and others!
I started in 1978 in BUF just retired in LAS where I transferred to in 1996
Notice how the film makers couldn't wait for an Allegheny 727 to take off, so they simply filmed a UAL bird instead, LOL.
The Allegheny Air System has a lot more going for you.
They were big in Philadelphia.
Once flew on an Allegheny Convair 240 ( piston ) from Albany to JFK, NY. Also flew on many DC-9's of other airlines..
That would have been Mohawk. AL did have piston Convairs, but never the 240, and never operated piston Convairs in ALB, only 580s and Douglas DC-9s. Can't remember right off if they kept flying ALB-JFK after the merge with Mohawk, but the piston Convairs were long gone by then.
Failure to control costs on the DC-9 program single-handedly brought about the merger between McDonnell and Douglas.
Pretty sure the narrator is John Facenda of NFL Films fame...
Nope -- the credits at the end (14:28) say that it's Art Balinger (along with Mari Alden).
@@harvey364 Art Balinger was Friday and Gannon's boss on Dragnet.
the suckiest service back then was probably way better than the service u get today but then again not only has the airline industry changed so have the passengers
THEN "Attendant's here are some make up tips and regulations on how to look "appropriately".. NOW "Attendants, here is how you subdue an unruly freaked out passenger and how you deal with a man having a heart attack while in flight and how you get the passengers off the plane fast if we crasH
flew alegheny once about a year before they became usair
Kinda creepy when the head Stew says "Throat", as opposed to "Neck".
When American and US Airways joined forces, the combined company inherited an Airbus A319 painted in a retro livery saluting Allegheny. I think the livery dates back to when this film was made.
Also, according to my calculations, American will soon add at least two more aircraft to the heritage fleet, one saluting TWA, the other US Airways. I'm hoping they also add two more, one saluting AirCal, the other Reno Air.
+John Eddy
One year later and both are out. A/A rolled out the Air Cal jet November of this year. Not sure about when the Reno Air retrojet was painted.
PSA also:)
Muscle cars were everywhere back in the late 1960s- 1970....
What the hell does that have to do with this?
9:00 oh boy
Agony Air really had a terrible reputation, I never met anyone who had good things to say about Agony Air. I worked for Merck outside Philly and our corporate travel people would not schedule you on the carrier if there was a choice. Piedmont had high marks, I could never figure out what the deal was. People I know who worked for Rosenbaum Travel who booked flights for Wyeth-Ayerst had the same attitude, must be something about the airline and corporate accounts, later US Air had the same problem.
Agony Airlines, BAC dinky jets, the mess in Philly, terrible on-time record, HIGH fares. There was no way Agony could
Agony Airlines 🤣
Agony to watch. Compare with the really nice 1972 North Central production (Go Herman!)
So insulting to their own stewardesses -- no attention whatsoever paid in this production to the real reason why stewardesses are on board at all, but everything to distract from that.
It was because of this kind of insulting, slanted garbage that we ended up with the backlash phenomenon of the embittered "Flight Attendant".
You'd end up bitter too if you were depicted as being nothing but a live dummy for "professional" make-up application.
They might as well have shown the pilot trainees doing nothing but standing in the mirror, shaving or preening with Brylcreem.
What an embarrassment -- one of the worst of this era.
Those poor girls certainly weren't ever going to work for Pan Am.
Ironically though, they would still have a job long after Pan Am was gone!