Western Air Lines  Convair 240-1  NC8409H          (c/n   58)

                                 

                                     Western were an early customer for the new Convair 240 "Convairliner".  Consolidated-Vultee's
                                     slogan of the day was "There's nothing finer than the Convairliner" and, indeed, that well could
                                     have been true in 1948 when the first of these machines was delivered to the airline.  Western
                                     operated their Convairs for a dozen years on the San Diego-Los Angeles-Las Vegas-Salt Lake
                                     route, only replacing them when the Lockheed L-188 Electras were acquired.   Most airlines of this
                                     era made subtle changes to their livery on an almost annual basis and Western were no exception.
                                     Bill Lrkins took a photo of this same aircraft at San Francsico in its original livery (immediately below)
                                     while under that are two more images illustrating just two variations of a theme.    The upper one is
                                     a slight variation of the original, used just before the "Indian Head" motif was adopted in the mid
                                     1950s (as seen in the lower shot).  Both  these photographs are mine and were taken at Western's
                                      base at LAX when I worked for the airline in the 1950s and 60s.

                                

                                      Convair 240-1  N8403H                (c/n     12)
                                       
                                  
                                                      
                                        Convair 240-1   N8410H         (c/n  70)