I went searching through old newspaper archives online, looking for something quite different than what I found. I wanted to find travel ads from the 1960’s or 1970’s to see how far the industry has come.
What I found was a pretty cool advertisement in the Winnipeg Tribune from November 1, 1939 that was sort of indirectly related to travel. The Tribune is a defunct paper from the Manitoba capital that has just 1939 to 1945 online.
What’s even more amazing is the power of the internet. This picture literally tells a story of history that could easily approach the 1,000 words each picture is said to be worth. Simply by plugging in the registration number on the airplane in the advertisement, with Google and the rest of the internet, there is so much information to be found.
First off, Trans-Canada Airways (aka Trans-Canada Airlines, aka TCA) had it’s first flight on September 1, 1937 from Vancouver, British Columbia to Seattle, Washington. The airline was the first national carrier in Canada and the Canadian National Railroad was the major backer. TCA was the precursor to the modern day Air Canada with the name officially changing in 1965.
CF-TCK
The plane in the image has the registration number CF-TCK attached to it. It is a Lockheed Super Electra 14H2 14-08, or simply known as the Lockheed 14. The propeller plane could handle 12 passengers and two crew (pilot and co-pilot). There were no flight attendants and on-board entertainment on these flights.
The Lockheed 14 was 44 long and had a wingspan of 65.5 feet. The maximum speed reached was 250 mph (402 km/h). The flight range was 2,135 miles (3,420 km). In comparison, the next generation Boeing 737, the most common passenger liner in the air today, is nearly 140 feet long with a wingspan of almost 120 feet. The max speed of the 737 is 511 mph (823 km/h) and the flight range can be up to 6,340 miles (10,200 km).
354 Lockheed Super Electra 14’s were built and the plane was first introduced in October, 1937. The plane depicted in the advertisement was written off less than a decade after it appeared in the Winnipeg Tribune. On March 22, 1949, the plane crashed after it swung out during takeoff from Kingston-Palisadoes International Airport (KIN) in Jamaica. There were no fatalities and the plane was operated by Kenting Atlas Aviation a the time.
For those who are afraid of flying today, be glad you weren’t travelling by air in the 1930’s and 1940’s. TCA alone crashed two Lockheed 14’s in the first four years of the airlines existence and four between 1938 and 1947.
As for Kleenex, they’re still around and doing pretty much exactly the same thing. Although, I’m not sure if Air Canada provides the product on their flights today. Kleenex is a product of Kimberley-Clark and in 1914 developed cellucotton – the feature in the advertisement that makes the Kleenex so soft and absorbing. It was developed as a cotton substitute by the U.S. Army as surgical cotton during WWI.
So, there’s your history lesson for the day…
