I had no idea how much influence the British had on what went on down here. TEAL was interested in the Comet 4, but told no...but you can have some second hand DC-6's.
They also expressed an interest in the Convair 880.....but again, the answer was no. At that time TEAL was 50% Australian owned
There certainly was a "BUY BRITISH" mentality at that time (which was by default orchestrated in favor of UK built aircraft etc) .... but which also began to wane by the late 1960's and as became evident when NZNAC favored the B737-200.
The outcome of what NZ/TEAL wanted to do was essentially dictated by what those with the greater shareholding in it allowed it to achieve .... although from 1959 QANTAS tried to encourage TEAL to invest in jets/the B707 (likely the -138 which was the same reduced fuselage length B707-120 it operated). TEAL essentially couldn't afford to invest in the the B707 and its period traffic loadings, over the routes it flew at that time, certainly didn't justify B707 capacity.
From the late 1950's/early 1960's GENERAL DYNAMIC's/CONVAIR tried to interest TEAL in the CV880 (likely the -22M) .... but .... when the types performance disadvantages (different from the later and more severe CV990's performance disadvantages too) became apparent the airline quickly lost interest in the type .... as did many of the worlds other major operators too.
The COMET IV became of interest to TEAL from around 1962 .... given BOAC was at this time commencing retirement of the type from its service (in favor of the B707-420 .... and projected VC10) and early delivery of COMET's was to TEAL was therefore more-or-less "assured". This "cheaper" arrangement also satisfied the NZ government of the day as well as pleasing the UK government too, but, TEAL's forward planning (based on projected future traffic growth and route intentions) quickly resolved that the COMET IV was "too small" capacity-wise .... and also lacked desirable range anyway. At best .... the COMET IV could only ever be an initial type/step up to jet equipment prior to acquiring something better still.
AIR NZ therefore selected the DC-8-52 (the TEAL name was commercially dropped prior delivery of these aircraft, but, for continued local and overseas awareness as to what/who AIR NZ actually were its first 3 DC-8's .... all delivered during 1965 .... supported dual "AIR NZ/TEAL" titles throughout their first year of DC-8 operations .... as did the airlines ELECTRA L-188C's too and during the same 1965/66 period) since development/testing and service entry of the VC10 (an aircraft AIR NZ "might otherwise have ended up with") was running so far behind SKED that the airline simply couldn't wait ....
And in selecting the DC-8-52 AIR NZ never looked back .... with the type remaining in SKED PAX service (out of WEL at least) until 1981 .... although one of its fleet was converted to DC-8-54F configuration for pure freight operations and remained in service with the airline until SEPT 1986 ....
AIR NZ DC-8 HISTORYhttps://tonymadgehjg.proboards.com/thre ... dc8-digestI think the long list of aircraft types (civil and military), and their liveries too (and variations thereof), that've served NZ operators since the earliest days of aviation in this country, is as impressive as the equally long list of operators that are now defunct.
That's all "HISTORY" .... as it's unfolded
Mark C
AKL/NZ