While doing some research for an upcoming SAHSA-Honduras 'Propliner' "LS", found this interesting TAN 737 illustration. It's interesting on two fronts; it completed the PLUNA 737 saga and it is the only inflight image of the original long-serving Transportes Aereos Nacionales SA 737.
It took a while to put together the original PLUNA 737-2A3 "LS", as it was odd that no mention was ever made of it in the 'official' PLUNA history! Turned out that the -2A3 was repossessed in 1974 by Boeing as the Uruguayan government began an austerity program in the early 1970's and stopped making payments on the 737.
TAN was ready and willing to take over the payments for CX-BHM and in May 1974 the PLUNA 737 became HR-TNR. Their fellow Honduran airline SAHSA had placed an order in late '73 for (1) 737-2K6, so TAN's 2nd-hand 737 would be the 1st to enter service, 5-months ahead of SAHSA's!
Being that TAN's was not a factory delivered A/C, there would be no pre-delivery inflight and apparently they preferred to save several thousands of dollars by not paying for an inflight photo session, instead having the illustration created in place of of the real thing. The 'fake' reg HR-TAN was used in the painting. In 1977, the actual Honduras Flag replaced the original 5-star tail logo on Timetable A/C sideviews but not on the actual 737 and that was also the year that the TAN-SAHSA timetables began to be issued leading to the eventual 1991 merger and 1993 demise.
The TAN employees were no doubt very happy with this 'surprise' 737. Though the 'mini-skirt had disappeared by 1974 in the U.S., it was still going strong with TAN.
Though this was TAN's 1st Jet of their own, they had an earlier jet service beginning in 1967, when they began a shared service to Miami with LANICA-Nicaragua, using LANICA's One-Eleven 400. Each airline was responsible for selling 50% of the capacity. This continued until TAN bought out Pan American's 38% of SAHSA in 1970. Both TAN's and SAHSA's single 737's would be their only jets until the late 1980's, when both added 2nd-hand 727's. It seems that when the former dictator of Honduras, Oswaldo Lopez Arellano, took over the ownership of TAN in the later 1970's, that began the downward spiral for TAN.......John

It appears that the embarrassment of having their 1st 737 repossessed has caused it to be 'deleted' from most PLUNA history sites, including the 'official' website! They had much better success with the 737 the 2nd time, as well as 707's and 727's. Would have loved to have seen the original in person!


John

Sadly, Pluna is now a thing of the past:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/06/uruguay-pluna-idUSL2E8I5FM620120706

Laurent