ZK-TEA  Lockheed L-188C Electra                           (c/n  2005)

                                  

                                       In December 1959 Tasman Empire Airlines purchased three L-188s from Lockheed.  The NZ
                                       component of the BOAC/Qantas/TEAL consortium did not particularly want the aircraft, but,
                                       in terms of standardization with Qantas, (who owned 50% of the New Zealand airline) they were
                                       more or less thrust upon them.  Possibly as a result of this action, the Qantas stake was bought
                                       out by the New Zealand government which later renamed the carrier Air New Zealand.   Another
                                       result of this parting of the ways was, of course, competition on the Auckland-Sydney route, which
                                       hitherto had rather been a pooling of resources.  ZK-TEA was the first of TEAL's Electras, named
                                       'Aotearoa IV'. and delivered in October of 1959.  It is seen here in two shots by Greg Banfield,
                                       both taken at Mascot.       Above, it is seen in September 1962 in full TEAL livery and below, in
                                       1965 now repainted as Air New Zealand, although still with TEAL on the tail.  When sold in 1972
                                       c/n 2005 spent a short spell in the US as N31231 and then went to Fred Olsen Air Transport as
                                       LN-FOI.  It was withdrawn from use at Baginton, Coventry, UK Airport in August 1997 and
                                       stored.  In 2006 the nose section was shipped back to New Zealand ostensibly to be used as an
                                       exhibit in the Ferrymead Museum.  I am not sure where it wound up.

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