A short while ago, I'd posted about MALÉV (Hungarian) Airlines and its Baby Boeing(s). I'd indicated how that eastern bloc airline operator had dared to break away from the tethers of Soviet era aircraft, such as the Ilyushins and the Tupolevs, that it had naturally inherited, and had opened the floodgate for itself and for its peers to western built aircraft (think BAC/BAE and Boeing/Airbus). However, MALÉV was not the first in this pack of Central European operators to introduce western aircraft into their fleet. That distinction goes to TAROM, the flag carrier of Romania, whose roots go back to 1920, just a year past KLM's origin in 2019, thus making TAROM one of the oldest airlines in Europe. TAROM started operating the BAC 1-11 in 1968, 20 years before MALÉV introduced its first western a/c, a B737-200, in 1988, and then came LOT (Polish Airlines), with a B767-300 in 1989. The current fleet of both TAROM and LOT are primarily comprised of Airbus and Boeing.

Those (few) of us around here that take interest in the (fascinating) likes of Ilyushin, Tupolev and Antonov jetliners, via our virtual world of aviation, would know TAROM well enough from the past SIMs. Here is an airline that was at one time simultaneously operating the Ilyushin 62s and Boeing 707s to North American destinations such as New York. It must have been interesting to see the copious (black) smoke contrails from the Soloviev D-30 and the Pratt & Whitney JT3D powerplants, trying to outdo each other...🙂... (I've had chance to see the (impressive) contrails from these 2 airplanes at some points of my life. With Il-62's 4 engines being rear-mounted vs. B707's 4 engines, wing mounted, these two a/c must have created their signature contrail patterns...).

TAROM's current fleet consists of Airbus, Boeing, and ATR a/c, including 4 A318-100s, one of which (YR-ASB) you see in my pictures below. TAROM used to operate this A318 between London Heathrow and Bucharest International Airport. However, for my post here, I've used a (personally) customized route across (and wholly within) UK, a route that I've been meaning to fly for some time...from the tip to the toe of the UK island...🙂...from John o' Groats at the northernmost tip of UK to Land's End at the southernmost toe of UK. So, for this flight, instead of the SimBrief Flight Plan of the EFB (see shot #3), I've defined an overland route of my own, starting from Wick Airport (EGPC) near John o' Groats, then south across UK overflying the cities of Inverness, Glasgow, and Manchester to my final destination, Newquay Airport (EGHQ) near (but not exactly at) Land's End  (see shot #2 for closeup shot of my FMC FPLN page; btw, which Pilot has done the sacrilege of spilling Coffee on the Pedestal...🙂...). 

TAROM has the tradition of paying tribute to the country's aviation heroes on its A318 Airframes. This Airbus A318 (YR-ASB) is named after Traian Vuia (see marking in front fuselage) who was an important Romanian (and French) inventor of the 1900s. 

I've landed on ILS Rwy 30 of Newquay (EGHQ) airport off the coastline of Celtic Sea. Hope you enjoy this collection of images of TAROM's Baby Bus A318 Traian Vuia. 

Thanks for viewing...!

Edited September 8, 20241 yr by P_7878

Fine set of shots! 😉 

Very nice set P-7878 !

I like the Baby Bus..

cheers 😉

Will, pmplayer, John:

Appreciated the comments and responses...! Glad you liked the Baby Bus pictures...🙂...

Always loved the short baby bus/Boeing, reminds me of the orig stub DC9-10, that things was a hot rod.

Edited September 8, 20241 yr by starstream707

Good looking shots and Babybus P_7878! 🙂

Very cool shots and this was my all-time favorite plane in P3D.  

On 9/10/2024 at 8:01 PM, Jack_Sawyer said:

Very cool shots and this was my all-time favorite plane in P3D.  

Thanks a lot, Jack, for the comment, and glad to know this baby bus is/was one of your favorites too...🙂...

[Hope you are making progress towards gradual wellness...All the best...]

On 9/8/2024 at 2:00 PM, starstream707 said:

Always loved the short baby bus/Boeing, reminds me of the orig stub DC9-10, that things was a hot rod.

….🙂…That DC-9 classic…miss those in MSFS. I forget, SkySim maybe…they had all the variants of the DC9 series that I was flying once a week…

 

On 9/9/2024 at 3:40 PM, andiflyit said:

Good looking shots and Babybus P_7878! 🙂

Andreas: Thanks. This one is cute…and likably a bit chubby…🙂…Cheers…!

Superb series of shots, great job! 

On 9/17/2024 at 10:30 AM, admbar said:

Superb series of shots, great job! 

Appreciated the kind words, Adam. Cheers...!