I was a loadmaster on Airborne Express YS-11s in the fall of 1979. Flew on Convair 600s prior to the YSs. Charlie Eckstrom, Roger Moose, were two pilots I flew with. Larry Neltnor was my boss.
Erbie James, e-mail, 19.04.2021 06:24
I was a loadmaster on Airborne Express YS-11s in the fall of 1979. Flew on Convair 600s prior to the YSs. Charlie Eckstrom, Roger Moose, were two pilots I flew with. Larry Neltnor was my boss.
Pat Rogoski, e-mail, 19.05.2013 07:02
So similar to the HS748.
gooda, 18.06.2011 07:09
I may be wrong as it was a long time ago but I can dig it up if needed, This is a great website, keep up the good work, Thanks
Ivan Beach, e-mail, 05.03.2011 22:19
I flew the YS-11 for Pinehurst Airlines from roughly Spring 1979 until the company filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Mar/Apr 1982. I believe the engines were the Mark 542-10J&K. They had 3000 SHP and the aircraft GTOW is 55,111. It was water methanol injected and fairly underpowered. We operated the first of these that we obtained from Piedmont Airlines as freighters. At that time, we had a contract with Airborne Express out of Wilmington, OH. Midwest Express operated an interesting fleet of aircraft for ABX to include the Caravelle and Honsa jets. Pinehurst later bought one or two YS-11's from TransAir in Canada. I was on one of the ferry flights from Winnipeg to Greeneville,SC-nonstop with aux tanks in the back. It was the first large turboprop aircraft I had flown and I was amazed by the Sperry Z-14 dual cue flight director. My only other large prop time was in Pinehurst's DC-3's which I flew for about 1200 hours as F/O. I have fond memories of the "YS" and my almost four years at Pinehurst. The airline was owned by the Burwell family of Southern Pines. Squeak Burwell, the patriarch had flown with Chennault over the hump. We had a lot of former Air America pilots and everyone thought we were connected to the CIA. There's still some ABX YS-11's basking in the sun at the Ft. Lauderdale airport waiting to be made into beer cans. I probably flew most of them.
Hiroyuki Takeuchi, e-mail, 30.01.2009 06:14
This plane was the first major aviation project in Japan after the ban on aviation activities placed after WW2 was lifted in 1957.
The plane's basic design was made by an all-star team made up of famous designers such as Jiro Horikoshi (Zero), Shizuo Kikuhara (Emily and George), Takeo Doi (Tony, Nick) and Hidemasa Kimura (Kokenki long-range world record plane).
The actual design work was undertaken by a team of engineers lead by Mitsubishi engineer Teruo Tojo, who worked on the A6M Zero design team under Horikoshi. Tojo's father is the former Prime Minister Hideki Tojo.
Being the first Japanese design after a long blank period, the designers put an excessive safety margin into the design, making the aircraft heavy and underpowered but very rugged and durable.
Changes in Japanese regulations requiring TCAS equipment on airliners forced the YS-11 into retirement from airline services in 2006, but they continue to serve with overseas airlines and Japanese armed forces and coast guard.
Some of these planes had their engines changed to Allison T64 engines.
An example serves with the Greek Air Force after retiring from Olympic Airlines.
Raymond Parkinson, e-mail, 12.11.2008 08:44
Hi, I flew this aircraft with Air Caribbean Ltd in Trinidad, some of this numbers appear to be different, Max TO weight I remember it 60.000 Lbs, Engine is the RR DART MK542, pasenger capacity was 64 Pax, Service ceiling was 20.000 Feet. I may be wrong as it was a long time ago but I can dig it up if needed, This is a great website, keep up the good work, Thanks
