With the Lion of Judah emblem prominently displayed on the forward fuselage, DC-6B ET-AAY (formerly ET-T-26) is refuelled at Gatwick in September 1965 in company with a rampful of treasure in the background, including several other Douglas propliners (and a Canadair C-4 Argonaut), an Ilyushin Il-18 and a Bristol Britannia.

In November 1962 EAL entered the jet age with its acquisition of a pair of Boeing 720Bs. The first, ET-AAG, seen here, made its initial flight on October 4 that year, and, named Blue Nile, was delivered to EAL two months later on November 2. It was destroyed by fire after a landing accident at Beirut while operating with Middle East Airlines in January 1968.

Douglas C-47A ET-T-15 (c/n 13483) originally served with the RAF as KG666, and was delivered to EAL in June 1947. In August 1951 it was leased by Swissair and operated as HB-IRH, after which it was put back into EAL colours at Zurich-Kloten, where it is seen here after repainting, and was returned to EAL service in September 1952.

Seen here in a later iteration of the EAL colour scheme, with a white upper cabin but still carrying the airline’s colourful tail markings and Lion of Judah emblem, ET-T-15 went on to be re-registered ET-AAT during the reorganisation of Ethiopia’s civil register in 1962. It was written off in a take-off accident at Lideta in November 1963.

Highlighting EAL’s extremely attractive colour scheme incorporating the symbolic green, gold and red colours of the national flag, DC-6B ET-T-26 (c/n 45524) is seen here undergoing maintenance at Frankfurt in July 1959. Re-registered as ET-AAY in 1962, this aircraft was burnt out after running off the runway on landing at Asmara on March 12, 1970.

Seen here at Frankfurt in July 1958, Douglas DC-6B ET-T-25 was delivered to EAL on April 30 that year. Services to Frankfurt via Cairo and Athens began in June 1958, offering an important interchange with TWA services on to other points in Europe and the USA. Re-registered ET-AAX in 1962, this aircraft soldiered on with EAL until March 1977 when it was sold to Alyemda (Yemen Airlines).

The sole Lockheed 749A Constellation used - briefly - by EAL was former C-121A ET-T-35 (c/n 2608), which was delivered via Heathrow, where it is seen here, on June 2, 1957. It entered EAL service eight days later on the twice-weekly schedule from Addis Ababa to Athens via Khartoum or Asmara and Cairo. After only a month’s service it was lost following a forced landing in the desert on July 10.

One of Ethiopian Air Lines’s three twin-engined Convair 240s being loaded at Dire Dawa with khat, a herbal stimulant popular in north-east Africa, before a flight to Djibouti circa 1960. The first two EAL Convairs were acquired direct from the manufacturer in December 1950; the other came from Sabena in 1956.

Convair 240-19 ET-T-20 (c/n 168) was one of three examples of the type operated by EAL, and was the second to be delivered, on December 28, 1950; its stablemate, ET-T-21, was delivered on the 8th of the same month. The Convairs were given names by EAL, ET-T-20 becoming Eagle of Ethiopia and ET-T-21 Eagle Haile Selassie I. The third Convair, ET-T-22, which arrived in July 1956, was named The Spiritual Power.