Historic timetable

[ApacheHunter 4]

Hopefully one of you can help me with something I don't understand!

 

In anticipation of the upcoming A2A Simulations Lockheed Constellation, I pulled their Boeing 377 Stratocruiser out of its virtual hangar. I haven't done a lot with it in the past, so I decided to try and fly some historic flights with it, using a Pan Am timetable I found over at http://timetableimages.com. Below is a section of this timetable, the flight New York - Bermuda. As you can see, it says the flight time is about 5 hours and 5 minutes (from 10:00h until 15:05h GMT).

 

 

According to my calculations the flight time should be 2 hours and 34 minutes (without wind correction) and after flying the actual flight time turned out to be 02:25h. Can anybody explain to me why it says so much longer in the timetable? Did I misinterpret something?

 

The complete timetable can be found at http://timetableimages.com/ttimages/pa/pa50/pa50.pdf.

 

Who can explain this to me?  :wink:

[qqwertz 781]

Just speculating, but it looks like the NY dpearture time is in Eastern Standard Time EST. At least during the last 30 years, arrival times were usually given in local time, and Bermuda is 1 hour ahead today (AST, not sure if that was the case in 1950). Adding to that a stop in Boston of 45 minutes may explain the difference.

 

Peter

[voske 36]

According to the legend, flights PA130 and PA131 were flown with the Lockheed Constellation and the others with the DC-4. Also, the times are local times according to page 17 and 18 of the timetable. Time in New York is GMT-5 and time in Bermuda is GMT-4. Keeping that in mind, you get the following result.

 

Planned duration of the direct flight from New York to Bermuda

DC-4: 4h05m

Constellation: 3h15m

 

Planned duration of the direct flight from Bermuda to New York

DC-4: 4h35m

Constellation: 3h50m

[WarpD 824]

Adding to the discussion... distance from NY to Bermuda is 674 NM... given a travel time of 3h 15m that allows a ground speed of ~207 KT.

 

Is this an unrealistic travel speed for the aircraft at that time?

[voske 36]

The normal cruising speed of the Constellation was about 280 knots, according to what I can find. Also, the planned duration includes taxi times.

[ApacheHunter 4]

So, all times are local times? From the following text from page 17 I understood that all times are in GMT, but I can be mistaken, as English is not my native language:

 

 

TIME ZONES - Arrival and Departure Times - times shown in these tables are Meridian Times, in degrees west or east of Greenwichl; 15° difference in longitude equals one hour change in time. The meridian time applicable to each station is shown opposite the station name.

 

If the times are local times and taxi time etc. is included, it comes a lot closer to what I found in the sim. Thanks a lot!

[KevinAu 441]

So, all times are local times? From the following text from page 17 I understood that all times are in GMT, but I can be mistaken, as English is not my native language:

 

 

 

If the times are local times and taxi time etc. is included, it comes a lot closer to what I found in the sim. Thanks a lot!

You completely misunderstood page 17. It says nothing about using greenwhich mean time, but rather meridian time. Meridian time is an equivalent of local time and that page explains how it is calculated, ie 1 hour difference from gmt per 15 degrees of meridian and also that it is stated on the table, ie EST and 60 west.

[qqwertz 781]

Hi Kevin,

Arrival and Departure Times - times shown in these tables are Meridian Times,

What they say is that they use local time by simply adding/subtracting one hour for every 15 degrees difference in longitude. For example if it is 5pm in Greenwich, then it would be 5pm - 60/15 = 1pm at 60 degrees West (roughly Nova Scotia). That's how our time zones originally started, but it doesn't take into account national borders.

 

Peter

[ApacheHunter 4]

Thanks all of you! It makes a lot more sense now.