AMERICAN AIRLINES

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This company ordered fifteen Series 401AKs on 17 th July 1963. A further ten were ordered on 4 th February 1964 and finally another five on 1 st December 1964 making American Airlines the largest customer for newly built One-Elevens. They were initially delivered in a 63 seat mixed class configuration but were later operated in both 69 and 74 seat configuration. The entire fleet was delivered between December 1965 and December 1966. The company had earlier leased a Series 400AQ demonstrator from BAC for crew training from 5 th to 31 st December 1965. The type was introduced into service on 6 th March 1966 and was known as the Astrojet 400 within the company. Using the flight prefix ‘AA’ the fleet was on an extensive domestic network in the north and central USA and also to Toronto from New York until the fleet was finally withdrawn on 17 th January 1972. Disposal of the fleet had begun with the sale of two aircraft to Dan-Air Services Ltd in Mar 1969 and a third aircraft to a corporate operator the following month. Sixteen aircraft were sold to National Aircraft Leasing Inc between September 1970 and January 1972 for conversion to executive configuration and subsequent lease or sale to corporate customers. Four others were sold in the Bahamas Islands to Bahamasair and to Out Island Airways (two each), one to TAROM of Romania and another to Orientair Ltd in the United Kingdom. The remaining aircraft were all sold for corporate use in the USA. One of the aircraft was leased to Merpati Nusantara Airlines from August to November 1971 and to Lineas Aéreas de Nicaragua – LANICA from March 1972 until at least July 1972.

For American Airlines 1-11 images at airliners.net click here

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