Koko - Civil Aviation (AU) - Page 9

Gotta love a DH prop. Nice colour scheme, too

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Hey, it's gotta be 5 o'clock somewhere...

Currently working on:
The October War, 27-10-1962 (apparently forever);
"Saxonverse" alt-UK;
Federation of the Channel Islands AU;
Republic of Yopur & Andaman;
some sort of overarching AU;
Regaining my sanity.

Convair CV-240:

Workhorse of the fleet up to the late 60's the airline eight CV-240s came from both Hoshiguma Air System -six airframes- and Kimmei Koku -two-. They served Koko Airways busiest routes before beign superseeded by the Namc YS-11 and DC-9-30s, then they were progressively moved to secondary ones and to infra-island routes douring their late years. Well regarded by the airline pilots for their reliability, the 240s were the last piston-engined aircrafts to be retired by Koko Airways, flying until 1973.
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Convair CV-880:

First jetliner to enter service with Koko Airways, the CV-880 was purchased by the airline thanks to a bargain deal with Convair, which was desperately looking to sell a few more jets in a market cannibalized by Douglas and Boeing. The two planes granted with the order were delivered in December 1962 and January 1963 and they introduced the new green tail livery -at this point actualy a variant of the original with only the rudder painted- with the KA initials and the stylized bird/plane amidst them. The 880s were placed on the Hoshiguma-Kumoi and Hoshiguma-Toumachi routes were they competed with Koutei's Dc-8-10s. A third 880 was briefly leased from TWA in 1964-65 to adress some peak capacity issues while Koko airways was waiting for the first Namc YS-11 deliveries. Even after delivery of the first DC-9s the CV-880s remained Koko Airways 'flagships' and kept operating their routes until 1974, when they were replaced by the DC-10-10s. They were withdrawn from service by the end of that year and leased to Cathay Pacific, although they served just two more years before beign stored for good.
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Keep up the good work!

NAMC YS-11:

In a certain sense, Koko Airways also meant Namc YS-11. for 41 of its 46-year existence, the airline operated up to 36 of this Japanese-built turboprop. The fleet split between ten YS-11-100, fifteen YS-11-200 and eleven YS-11-500 models. The airline ordered 25 airframes in 1963 to replace the ragtag fleet of propliners inherted during the mergers. Deliveries started during the second-half of 1965 and lasted until 1972, after a second batch of eleven further planes was ordered in 1968. Koko Airways operated the second largest fleet of YS-11s worldwide after the Japanese airline TOA domestic (later known as Japan Air System) which had 40 in its inventory. They covered thinner domestic routes and all infra-island connections in the airline network without a single accident of any sort, and eventually only their age and Koko Airways financial turmoils got over them. The -100 series were retired between 1993 and 1997 and replaced by the KHS-80. The other YS were to be replaced by further KHS-80 batches, but KOA financial turmoils put an end to this plan. The YS-200s were retired in two stints, in 1998-99 and 2001-2002, both as cost-cutting measures to stop the airline finances from bleeding out. The -500 variant airframes reached over 35 years of age before beign finally withdrawn by late 2006, months before KOA's collapse.
Worth of mention is that, exluding the 1961-62 paintjob, the YS-11s were the only aircrafts that sported all Koko Airways liveries.
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Excellent work, the Koko Airways livery is certainly eyecatching and despite being bright green it looks pretty good.

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Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

The CV-880 engines are amazing!

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"knowledge is like jam, the less you have the more you spread it"

Douglas DC-9:

To expand capacity Koko Airways ordered eight DC-9-30 in 1965. With Convair out of the picture the airline chose the new Douglas short-haul twinjet. This decision was also influenced by rival Kutei Koku choice for the Boeing 727, and KOA's CEO knew that the Manufacturer would have been well pleased to sell its planes to another Kokoan airline after having lost a possible deal with Koutei.
Five DC-9-30s were delivered between 1967 and 1970 -the last three orders converted to the larger -40 model-. One airframe was written off in 1973 during a red-eye flight, the pilot mistakenly flew below the glideslope while landing at Moriya Airport and hit the approach lights short of the runway. The impact tore off the aircraft landing gear and the twinjet landed hard on its belly short of the runway losing its tail section in the process. 16 of the 57 on board suffered significant injures but there were no fatalities. The other four DC-9-30s remained in service until 1981 and were replaced by the MD-81.
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In 1971-72 the airline received three DC-9-40 converted from the original order for the -30 series. To address increasing traffic demands and to open new routes the airline ordered and received three more airframes in 1974 and another eight in 1976-79, for a total of fourteen machines. The stretched -40s did their hard work for two decades before the older units got phased out. Ten of the fourteen planes were retired between 1992 and 1995 in favour of the MD-87s. The four youngest were to serve at least until 1999, but KOAs financial troubles generated by the Asian economic crisis led to their early retirement in 1997-98 as a cost cutting measure.
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McDonnell-Douglas DC-10:

The most represented widebody type in Koko Airways fleet was the DC-10. Between 1973 and its final days the airline operated 23 of them: 13 of the domestic -10series and 5 each of the long-range -30 and -40series.

When traffic figures grew well over what the DC-9 could handle in the early 70s KOA became the second Kokoan airline to order a widebody jet with a deal for nine aircraft signed with Douglas. The large trijets were delivered between 1973 and 1976 to serve routes between the cities of Toumachi, Hoshiguma, Kumoi, Taniguchi and Minatogawa and featured the new 'all green' livery of the airline. A Tenth airframe was delivered in 1978 to increase capacity on the Hoshiguma-Toumachi route. Four more followed in 1980-81 for a total of thirteen. KOAs DC-10-10s remained the backbone of the high-density domestic fleet until the late '90s. Three were retired in 1998-99, replaced by Boeing 777-200s, the other ten were axed between 2001 and 2003 as a cost-cutting measure.
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In addition to the domestic -10series, Koko airways also ordered the long range DC-10-40 to open its first international routes, becoming the only airline other than Northwest, PanAm and JAL to operate that model. In 1976 the first two aircrafts started to fly daily between Hoshiguma and Tokyo, a thid aircraft was delivered in 1977 to operate seasonal routes to Okinawa and Honolulu. Two more were delivered in 1983 to fly to and from Osaka. KOAs DC-10-40s were moved to the US west-coast routes in the early 90s, serving Honolulu, San Francisco and Los Angeles, then they were shifted again to China (Shanghai and Hong Kong) late the same decade. One of them suffered the worst hull loss in the history of the airline on February 16th 2000. While taking off from Shanghai International Airport, bound for Hoshiguma, a DC-10-40 with 274 passengers and 14 crew suffered an engine failure jest after lifting off. In the confusion of the moment, the co-pilot istinctively reduced throttle while the captain pulled the yoke to contine climbing, which caused the aircraft to stall after it reached a little more than 60 feet of altitude. Once realizing the error of his crewmember, the pilot applied maximum thrust in an attempt to recover, but too late. The plane hit back the runway violently, causing the right main landing gear to fail and the right engine to hit the runway as well. As the wing itself failed, spilling fuel which ignited in a fireball the aircraft overshoot the runway and broke in two before being consumed by the post-crash fire. Astonishingly, despite 86 serious and 174 minor injures no-one was killed, in what has been known since then as the "Pudong miracle". The other four -40s were retired in 2004-2005.
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When Koko Airways decided to further expand its international routes during the second half of the 80's -adding San Francisco, Seoul and Hong Kong to its network- the DC-10-40 was no longer in production, so KOA had to adapt and order the GE powered -30series in order to maintain an homogeneous fleet of Douglas trijets. On the plus side, while its fleet was Pratt & Whitney-dominated, the DC-10-10s had GE engines as well. The fisrt of the -30series was delivered in 1986, followed by three more factory-built planes in 1988-89. A fifth, this time used, airframe was bought in 1990. During the decade, the -30s were moved from Chinese to Japanese routes to replace the -40s that had been in turn moved to the US-bound routes. This last DC-10 variant remained in service with the airline almost to its very end, as KOA started to withdraw them in 2006. The last beign stored just weeks before the airline final demise.
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Koko - Civil Aviation (AU)

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