Memories of AL

When I was about 13 years old, my father was employed by a British based airline called Cunard Eagle Airways. The parent company for Cunard Eagle was the venerable old steam ship line, Cunard. It was Cunard who owned and operated such great Ocean going vessels as the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth. Although I am not certain of it, I think the Titanic was also a Cunard owned vessel. With the rise of air travel Cunard had become involved in owning and operating airlines. British Overseas Airways Corp. better known as B.O.AC was actually B.O.A.C. / Cunard.

The Comet

B.O.A.C. is probably best remembered for their introduction of the first jet aircraft used by the airlines, called the "Comet". It seems a strange irony that a company like Cunard who introduced Ocean going travel to the public, a fairly slow method of travel, would now lead the way in the fastest motive travel known to man, jet aircraft. At that time the norm for the airlines were turbo prop driven aircraft. After B. O. A. C. introduced the comet, it became apparent that jets were the way of the future for commercial aviation. For the airlines survival in the competitive marketplace meant upgrading to the new faster more efficient jets. It would be only a matter of time before the old prop driven aircraft would become relics of the past, just like the steamships of Cunard.        Turbo driven Viscount

The travel industry was booming in Europe and Cunard, in order to meet the demands of this new tourism created a charter airline called Cunard Eagle Airways. There were many small charter airlines at the time, although today most have vanished. A large organization of holiday goers could take advantage of special flights and prices through the smaller charter airlines. Cunard Eagle flew mainly short hops around the European Continent. They would hit the main vacation spots, as well as serving the British Isles in general.

My father was employed because Cunard wanted to initiate flights to New York from London. Like all of the long hauls flown by Cunard, a four-engine turboprop driven aircraft called The Britannia served this Trans Atlantic flight. I seem to recall the voyage from New York to London took about seven hours. Sometimes this included stopovers for fuel in Gander, Newfoundland, or Bangor, Maine. Each location served by Cunard had a station manager. Dad served as station manager at Idyllwild airport in New York, now JFK, for Cunard's operations there. He made frequent voyages back to the home base in London and his frequent and lengthy stays there were always a sore spot with my mother, who seemed to wilt with his absence. However his return was always marked by a great celebration and anticipation by the whole family. Dad would pick up several cases of duty free Johnny Walker Scotch and cigarettes for our neighbors and they would close off our small street at both ends with a couple of station wagons, let down the tail ends which served as a bar and have themselves a block party.

On the day of his arrival, my mother and the four kids would pile into the station wagon and take the 1 hour long trip out to Idyllwild to pick up dad. My father was well known at the airport and this afforded his family all sorts of special treatment and perks when we went to meet him. One of these I recall was being allowed out onto the enormous open parking area where the aircraft would finally come to rest. Today this would be unheard of, allowing anyone except authorized personnel out onto the parking area of the aircraft. But in those days, before the invention of the word "lawsuits" things were a little looser and I was afforded the awesome spectacle of watching my father arrive in a huge screaming four engine turbo aircraft that would generate a full-blown hurricane on its way in coming straight for us. For a 13 year old with a wild imagination anyway, I saw it as a full-blown, fire-breathing dragon approaching. The deafening high pitched screaming engines were music to my ears. I was very impressed. As the huge spinning blades came to stop one by one and the stairways were rolled up to the side of the aircraft I felt a great anticipation. This was arrival in high style! What a pageant! Finally the doors would open and usually dad would step out first, pause a moment on the platform and seeing the five of us waiting there, smile broadly and wave. It was like watching the arrival of the king of England. The arrival was always a spectacular display of power.

The Britannia

After the emotional reunion dad would go through customs. However while all of the other arriving passengers had to endure huge lines while custom officials processed their papers and examined their luggage, the officials who knew and liked him well would whisk dad through with a wave of their hand. Like an arriving dignitary smiling broadly and waiting to everybody, I would hear a chorus of welcome home Al's as we made our way out to the big red station wagon with the Cunard Eagle emblem emblazoned on the side doors.

Although dad seldom would speak of his experiences on these overseas jaunts, there was one occasion when he revealed to us the reason for his long absence. Over dinner one night he announced that he was involved in acquiring the first jet aircraft for Cunard Eagle Airways. The aircraft, the Boeing 707 would prove to be one of the most popular commercial aircraft in aviation history. It had become apparent to Cunard that without the 707 on their Trans Atlantic route they would lose out to the other airlines like TWA, Pan American, Air France and a host of others who were quickly equipping their fleet with the fast and cost efficient 707.

Although the job of acquiring new aircraft was outside the domain of the station manager, dad tackled the job of acquiring the aircraft with enthusiasm. He had a strong visionary and innovator streak in him and the entry into the jet age was something that he wanted to be a part of. He worked extra long hours and his absences sometimes would stretch to three or four months at a time. Sometimes he would come home only to be off again only two weeks later. He was meeting constantly with the Cunard brass based in London arranging the financial and operational aspects of the purchase. His British counterparts looked upon my father with a combination of terror and admiration. To some he was the image of the ugly American; brash, cocky, loud and overbearing. To others, he was an intelligent, hard driving, passionate, leader. To hear him tell it, the British business community had an entirely different work ethic than the Americans. They tended to be more conservative or some might say more cautious in business. He spent many weeks wrangling and arguing with the executives at Cunard about the details of the purchase and the operations. This often meant that dad was in a dark mood on his return from London and this left us all with the impression that though he had physically returned home, in some way he was still very far away.

He smoked incessantly, sometimes three packs a day and his return home from the office was often marked by a quick trip to the liquor cabinet for a Scotch on the rocks. He showed me the chemistry part of mixing the drink and soon it was my task to conjure it up for him when he came home. Tension was always in the air at our house.

One day about one year after the project had begun we were all seated around the dinner table. Dad was in an unusually happy mood and obviously had some surprise up his sleeve. There was an air of mischief about him. After the table was cleared and dessert was being served up by my mother, he asked us all" how would you all like to see $7 million dollars?" All for kids were wide eyed with amazement and let out whoop." Yeah!!" we all exclaimed in unison. We knew we were being baited but how? Was he going to produce $7 million before our very eyes at that moment? Even my younger sister only, five years old could understand $7 million dollars. We were all very curious to see what he would produce. He reached into his jacket pocket pulling out his passport wallet. Slowly he opened it. He obviously knew how to play an audience because we were very focused on what was going to come out of that wallet. He eventually removes an official looking document from the wallet and holds it up before us for our reaction. He asks," Do you know what this is?" It didn't look like 7 million of anything let alone $7 million dollars. It looked like one thing…a piece of rectangular paper. Indeed the document look quite intricate with many stamps and different color ink on it. He watched the look on our faces as we tried to comprehend what was before us. He smiled mischievously and seemed to enjoy watching us try to put the piece of paper before us together with the notion of $7 million dollars. Finally he said" it's a check for $7 million dollars". He ran his finger along a line printed in red embossed ink that said" $7 million dollars and the number 7 followed by 6 red zeros. I'm not sure my brother and sisters understood what a check for $7 million was, but even then, I understood the concept of a $7 million check. Dad went on to explain that the check was to pay for a Boeing 707B model aircraft, Cunard Eagle's first jet aircraft operating between London and New York.

I sensed that this check was the culmination of all of dad's struggles over the past year or so. It even looked somewhat like a diploma and I had the sense that it was one of his greatest triumphs, a feat definitely requiring a great self-control on his part in meeting his most formidable foes, his foot dragging, and shortsighted conservative British employers.

One day shortly thereafter, dad brought home a photograph of the Boeing 707 proudly attired in the paint scheme of Cunard Eagle Airways sporting the same Eagle emblem riding upon her grand tail as the one on the side of our station wagon. The check had been impressive but the photograph moved me and I felt a great surge of pride in my father gazing at it. I could not fully comprehend how he had achieved this creative miracle or what he had sacrificed to attain it but I knew I was looking at a monumental achievement and a great act of power. He had poured his life into it and now there it stood on the ramp of the world’s largest airport. I'm sure some of our family felt, my father included, that dad had short changed his family by putting so much into this work. I must admit to feeling, for a time, that I had been short changed. In his own way he taught me something quite important with that photograph. It symbolized to me the idea that one man, faced with even the most formidable circumstances could indeed achieve miracles. Dad would go on to achieve other miracles and in all of my own projects I would try to follow in his large creative footsteps.

My father's trophy was to be a short-lived one and I think would become one of his greatest disappointments, although he wasn’t a man who would dwell for too long on his past. Cunard Eagle executives experiencing a bout of buyers remorse only six months after the purchase of the 707, decided to lease the new aircraft to another airline and remain with their turbo prop fleet. It seemed that all dad had worked and fought for was being undone. I'm sure had not been for his family, dad probably would have walked out on them at that point. He must have felt the despair and frustration that comes with knowing that his hands were tied, and that meant having a caged Tiger around the house, not happy time. I fixed more Scotch on the rocks than usual.

Cunard Eagle was eventually purchased by the British executives of the airline and would become British Eagle. Dad stayed on but within two years British Eagle would call it quits as her fleet of turbo prop driven aircraft became outdated and revenues fell to her competitors. The shortsighted British had in traditional fashion held on to outdated technology and slowly succumbed to progress. This also was a good lesson for me and later I came to understand the necessity of keeping pace with technology as a means of survival.

My father's adventures would continue until the day he died in1971. Almost single-handedly he would start Air SIAM, Thailand’s national airline and later on, the first commuter airline serving California. As was typical for him, in both those cases he seemed to encounter almost impossible odds to achieve impossible dreams and somehow managed to succeed. He was a dream builder and an idealist whose primary challenge and frustration was always that he needed the support of others to create them.

The Writers Corner   Photography By Anthony