Piedmont Airlines    Boeing 737-401  N408US                  (c/n  23878)

                                    

                                        Piedmont began taking delivery of  what was to become a large fleet of Boeing 737-300s in 1985.
                                        This was followed up, in 1988 with a smaller order for the series 400, one of which is seen above
                                        in this Frank C. Duarte shot taken at Lindbergh Field, San Diego in September of 1989.  By that
                                        time the official merger with USAir was already accomplished but clearly all the aircraft could not
                                        be repainted overnight.  The later machines, such as N408US were, in fact, delivered to Piedmont
                                        with "pseudo" USAir markings (overall aluminum finish and registrations in the "US" series) and hence
                                        the merger was probably being worked on as much as a year before it actually happened.