Continental Airlines  McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32    N521TX    (c/n  47521)

                                 

                                     When Frank Lorenzo's re-started Continental was born in 1982 out of the merger with the smaller
                                     Texas International Airlines, the latter carrier had a swag of DC-9-32s which then assumed Cont-
                                     inental liveries.  (See my note at the foot of the DC-10 entry regarding The First Bankruptcy).
                                     N521TX was one of them . This machine was originally delivered new in 1971 to Austrian Airlines
                                     as OE-LDA.   Ellis M. Chernoff caught it in this typical pose at at Jacksonville International Airport
                                     in May of 1983.   Continental went on to purchase more of this "second generation" DC-9 model
                                     from other sources, notably New York Air in the later 1980s.   By this time the airline's main oper-
                                     ating base had been moved to Houston (TIA's old center).