NATIONAL AIRLINES
(USA)

The third airline to recieve a DC-10, which was also the third costumer for the DC-10-10, was National Airlines an established airline from Miami which already operated the DC-8. The airline ordered eleven DC-10-10s on October 14th of 1969 for use on its main routes. On December 15th 1991, National inaugurated its DC-10 service with a flight from its home base in Miami to New York. The "Sun King" (as the airline was known because of their logo) was not only well-known on the East Coast runs, but also in London where National has been flying to since 1972. Later, also Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Paris and Zurich were added. The DC-10s on these routes were DC-10-30s, which were also used on transcontinental flights and joined the fleet in June 1973 and June 1975. The all-time fleet consisted of 16 aircraft, including one from Air New Zealand leased in 1979. The history of that airline came to an end on January 7th 1980, when Pan Am took over the airline to establish its position in Florida. All DC-10s were taken over by the western world's largest airline. On this date, also the girl names (which first appeared in a campaign from 1972 featuring wording as "I'm Barbara - Fly Me") given to National's DC-10s disappeared together with a part of US-airline history. An interesting fact about this costumer is that beside Laker, Continental and Aeromexico, this was the only airline to order two different DC-10 variants.



Photos:
Right: National Airlines DC-10, Miami, 1979 - BY Don Boyd (www.airliner-photos.com)
Left: National Airlines DC-10 being repainted in Pan Am colors, Miami, 1980 - BY Don Boyd (www.airliner-photos.com)


Following aircraft were operated by or for National Airlines:

RegistrationAircraftFleetnr./NameOperated from - toWhere is it now?
N60NA46700/ 1460, Barbara
60, Suzanne
01.11.1971 - 07.01.1980-stored-
N61NA46701/ 1661, Dorothy
61, Dinah
19.11.1971 - 07.01.1980SCRAPPED
N62NA46702/ 1862, Frances
62, Cecile
21.12.1971 - 07.01.1980SCRAPPED
N63NA46703/ 1963, Phyllis12.01.1972 - 07.01.1980-stored-
N64NA46706/ 3864, Geraldine
64, Jerry Lewis
10.05.1972 - 07.01.1980-stored-
N65NA46707/ 6165, Eileen13.10.1972 - 07.01.1980FedEx
N66NA46708/ 6266, Shirley19.10.1972 - 07.01.1980FedEx
N67NA46709/ 6867, Joyce30.11.1972 - 07.01.1980-stored-
N68NA46710/ 7068, Sylvia
68, Jane
12.12.1972 - 07.01.1980-stored-
N69NA46942/ 16269, Betty25.06.1975 - 07.01.198010 Tanker Air Carrier
N70NA46943/ 16370, Wisty23.06.1975 - 07.01.1980-stored-
N80NA46711/ 10580, Tammy
80, Bing Crosby
11.06.1973 - 07.01.1980WRITTEN OFF
N81NA46712/ 10681, Renee18.06.1973 - 07.01.1980-stored-
N82NA46713/ 16582, Mariene
82, Bob Hope
82, Sammy Davis Junior
20.06.1975 - 07.01.1980-stored-
N83NA46714/ 16783, Timmi16.06.1975 - 07.01.1980SCRAPPED
ZK-NZS46954/ 2278501.04.1979 - 29.10.1979-stored-


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