During the regulated era of US aviation the realm of long-haul international flights was primarily the domain of Pan Am and TWA. Braniff had a strong South American operation and Northwest reached across into the Pacific but for flights to Europe and beyond to Asia and Africa it was PA or TW all the way, until that is out of nowhere National won the route award for Miami to London Heathrow.
National was always one of the smaller trunks operating mainly from bases at Miami and New Orleans up the East Coast and increasingly along the Southern coast East-West. Traditionally they had been a super thrifty airline but the takeover of the company by Bud Maytag made them into a more professional outfit.
Nonetheless as per usual the application for the Miami to London route was quite optimistic for an airline that hadn’t operated internationally since its flights to Cuba had ceased in 1961 and only operated a relatively small fleet of DC-8s and 727s. That they won the route must have been something of a surprise and an unwelcome one for Pan Am who had also applied for the route with on the face of it a much more likely chance of success.
You can’t help but feel that the CAB were still less than happy with the bullying ways of Juan Trippe who for years had fought successfully for his airline as the ‘the chosen instrument’ but at the same time had alienated many in the business and government.
Operating the route initially proved something of an issue for National as it didn’t have any aircraft that were well suited to the service. It operated mainly older DC-8s and a pair of stretch DC-8-61s, none of which were very well suited to the long route. It had a pair of Boeing 747s on order but the first would not arrive until September 1970 leaving a significant gap. Regardless the 747s were purchased as much for the main trunk routes between Miami and New York as for international services. Pride and ‘keeping up with the Jones’ was also a likely factor in their purchase.
To fill the hole National looked to the leasing market and acquired a pair of longer-range DC-8-54CFs which could be operated in either passenger or freighter configuration and had a large cargo door on the forward port side. These two aircraft were leased from the supplemental carrier Airlift International. Airlift had formerly been known as Riddle Airlines whence both the DC-8s had registrations that ended in RD. N108RD joined in July 1969 and was followed by sistership N109RD in November.
The pair of DC-8s enabled the inauguration of National’s new premier route on June 16. The 747s initially were used on the Miami-New York route (from October 1) and then Miami-Los Angeles (October 25) but also saw service on the London route alongside the pair of DC-8s. By 1973 the pair of 747s were regularly on the daily transatlantic service however capacity restrictions enforced by the Cab meant they couldn’t replace the DC-8s fully.
The reallocation of the 747s to overwater flights was possibly as National was taking DC-10-10s in increasing numbers, however the period when the 747 reigned supreme was short. National took its first pair of DC-10-30s in June 1973 and the type was far better suited to the airline’s requirements than the much larger 747s. The first pair replaced the leased DC-8s which were returned to Airlift in July 1973 and April 1974.
A further pair of series 30s arrived in June 1975 and signaled the winding down of the 747’s usage. The second aircraft, N77773 (by then renamed from Elizabeth to Linda) went first. She joined Northwest as N621US on May 1, 1976. The first frame, N77772 (Patricia and later Jacquelyn) joined Northwest only 23 days later as N620US. Both aircraft served with Northwest into the second half of the 1990s.
National would take its international route network forward with an additional route to Paris in 1977 and then Frankfurt and Amsterdam in 1978. Ultimately however Pan Am would get its Miami-London service when it acquired National Airlines in a deal that would prove to be a poisoned chalice in 1980.
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