Nice to see someone remembered by old post.
Is it too much to ask that some established museum, somewhere, preserve one of these?
Not just DCs (jet and prop, and Boeings), but Convairs and Martins....plus on a smaller scale, some of the commuter types that emerged in the '70s-80s. Some are kept around as tramp freighters, but when was the last time you saw a Dash-7, Beech 99A/B, Saab, Shorts or EMB-110/120?
Airliner types are so ubiquitous that we assume they will always be there, then one day they are rare.*
That factor of being taken for granted, p!us the value of some of their components, mean they slip through the cracks and aren't saved.
A few old airliners are preserved, most notably at Pima, but I can't think of an airline configured 707 or even DC-8 in the U.S.
The two surplus VC-137Bs filled the 707 "slot" at Pima and Seattle. Fine, the 137s are historic airframes and should be saved, but they are hardly representative.I
Does the NASM have a complete Connie or DC-4,6, or 7 on display?
There are a few fire fighters out there (at Pima and Madras).
All the Stratocruisers are gone, most surviving Connies are military versions.
Even the few surviving SE airliners aren't well represented...The sole surviving Lockheed Orion is in Switzerland, the Northrop is still languishing in Kansas, the Hamilton is in a small museum (where at least if flies), likewise, the sole flying Boeing 40.
*We also see this with general aviation types and lesser warbirds...Beech 18s, C-46s, Lockheed PVs and various trainers.
I realize what I'm suggesting, airliners take up a lot of hangar space, if left outsude, they are difficult to maintain (look at the Airliner collection at Duxford), and the public doesn't think of them as interesting. Even "airplane guys" would rather see warbirds, even though most types aren't as rare as surviving airliners.