Continental
Airlines Boeing 727-024C N2475
(c/n 19528)
Continental's first Boeing 727s
appeared in 1968, a year after its first DC-9s went into service. They
only ever
operated about 25 of them all told, opting for the more popular series
200 aircraft as their
chief medium range jet in the 1970s. This particular
machine was the one with which Air Micronesia
began operations in 1967 . This
airline, whilst not truly a Continental subsidiary (CO only held 31%
of the shares, vs 20% for Aloha
Airlines and 49% for the majority holder United Micronesian Devel-
opment Association) was operated by Continental aircraft and crews, and
initially in the early days
of
the
line the livery was pure Continental. Later on it was
overprinted, as a philatelist would say, with
Air
Micronesia titles..
The nice shot above came, in fact, from Air Micronesia. The
first five aircraft
(N2471 to N2475) were originally
dressed in Golden Jet scheme, as seen in the rare shot below by
Mike Sparkman.