Hello All,
I don’t know if this is the correct forum, but it’s definitely aviation, and definitely historical (if wrong, then can the Mods pse move it to the right one).
1. I am trying to find out how one would fly – either (a) as commercial fare-paying pax, or (b) on some non-scheduled flight – from Israel (probably Tel Aviv) to Chicago O’Hare in 1954/55. I’m not well up in the a/c available but I remember Electra, DC6, Comet, 707, etc as being around at that time.
2. Would Chicago O’Hare keep a list of immigrant pax arriving from o’seas? If so, where is it kept, and can it be accessed?
Incidentally I tried to email El Al for starters, but their email drop-down boxes won’t recognise me as being in the UK. Every time I type ‘UK’ it keeps telling me I’m in the Ukraine!!! Confidence in that organisation is, therefore, a bit on the low side.
TIA
Resmoroh
By: longshot - 10th June 2018 at 21:58
I wonder if there were any direct flights from Chicago to Europe in the mid-fifties? O’Hare didn’t open till 1955 it seems and was underused initially. I knew that Pan Am had no domestic coverage until they started very limited through-plane services with Delta and Northwest around 1970. And although Pan Am listed Jerusalem(Jordan) in 1953 I see the flight number was ME… so Middle East Airlines?, and anyway I imagine not an option from Israel. KLM served Tel-Aviv -Yafo via Rome so they or possibly other European airlines could have connected to New York.
By: J Boyle - 10th June 2018 at 18:18
Longshot: To the best of my knowledge, Pan Am did not serve Chicago. And it may surprise many that it did not do internal U.S. routes.
By: Resmoroh - 10th June 2018 at 16:32
Thanks for all the info, hints and tips. We are trying to tie down the time/date of arrival in the USA of the NoK of one of the casualties on our Met Office RoH. It’s all bits of a jig-saw. We have the bits of the jig-saw (hopefully only one jig-saw!). We have the box lid – with the picture on. We are not certain that jig-saw bits belong to the same picture!! That is where your expertise helps! It’s only by including/excluding some possibilities by the jig-saw bits that we can progress. Add to this the byzantine USA system of issuing SSN numbers, and the problem complexicates!
Keeps us off the streets!!!!
Tks again
Resmoroh
By: longshot - 10th June 2018 at 14:43
I wondered if Pan Am or TWA offered any advantage from Israel to Chicago. Pan Am didn’t list Tel Aviv but Jerusalem then in Jordan was served. TWA listed Tel Aviv-Yafo but only as a connection on another carrier. So El Al to New York sounds most likely
By: longshot - 9th June 2018 at 14:21
The Timetable Images site is your friend…they list Israel amongst the Asian airlines and have the full contents of the 1953 and 1956 timetables online …as I suspected you’d have to fly on an L-049 Constellation via London to New York and change to a US domestic for onwards to Chicago (was O’Hare open then?)
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By: J Boyle - 9th June 2018 at 13:54
If their computer thinks you’re in the Ukraine when you type UK, did you try typing Great Britain?
Some computer programs are set up that way.
Also, the 707 was not available in 1955/56. It did not enter service until late 1958. Likewise, strike the Electra from your list, it did not enter service until 1959 and was a short range type,not one regularly used for trans-Atlantic work.
However, El Al did have Constellations, one was shot down around that period, IIRC, by an Egyptian MiG.
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June 9, 2018 at 9:43 am