Western Airlines  Douglas DC-6B  N91307         (c/n  44429)

                                 

                                     Western Air Lines' DC-6Bs were delivered at the end of 1952, replacing the DC-4s.  Eventually
                                     a fleet of thirty-three of these superb airliners was in operation by the carrier on its routes extending
                                     from Los Angeles to Denver, Salt lake City, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle.
                                     The Bill Larkins photograph above, taken at Oakland in 1955 illustrates the original livery. My own
                                     shot (below) was taken at WAL's LAX base in the late 1950s and illustrates the "Indian Head" motif.
                                     In the mid 1950s Western promoted its DC-6B flights as "Champagne Flights" and this beverage was
                                     freely distributed to all on board, irrespective of class of travel!  1958 saw an intensive television advert-
                                     ising campaign depicting an animated bird (actually an owl) sitting astride the tail of a DC-6B proclaiming
                                     "....Western Air Lines.....the only way to fly!".   Appended below the photo of N91323 (an aircraft in
                                     which I have many hours) are graphic profiles done by Tim Bradley showing the three livery schemes
                                     used by WAL on its DC-6Bs.     The approximate dates of these scxheme were:     upper 1952-1956
                                     middle 1956-1958     lower 1958 on.....

                                        Douglas DC-6B  N91323      (c/n  45178)