Parker Flighter Ballpoint Pen

[usk15]

Since I start collecting pens (my first pen was P25 BP), I have always kept stainless steel Parker ballpoint pens. Now I decide to complete a Flighter Ballpoint pen collection. So far I have, L-R:

 

Classic/75/180 - this came as well with corespondent fountain pen line

61/65

Jotter - mid 2000 line

15

Vector

25

IM

 

 

 

 

 

 

Obviously Flighter line start with the iconic Parker 51:

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a bit of history of Flighter pens and how is started: http://www.richardspens.com/ref/design/flighters.htm

 

 

To complete my collection I have identified the following models:

45/ 50 - Falcon/ 75 -cap action/ 95/ Arrow/ Inflection/ Insignia/ Sonnet. Also Stainless Steel Frontier, but this will be only half Flighter...

 

If I'm missing something, or is there any wrong info just let me know.

[IThinkIHaveAProblem]

nice

[Mercian]

Nice collection

 

I have Jotter, Vector, and (English) 45 ballpoints in all-stainless-steel with chrome clips.

I also have a 75 in 14k gold in ‘Tiffany Grid’. It doesn’t have a push-button, rather its cap actuates like those of the Vector & 25 bps.
So I don’t think that the first pen is a 75.

Looking at the ParkerPens.net page for the ‘Classic’ bp, it is one of those, and not a 75 or a 180.

[usk15]

Thank you!

 

Regarding Classic BP, I have seen some pen sets with 75 and 180 lines including this model. There is more obvious on P75 Sterling Silver if anybody search on Google Images.

But, I might be wrong. Any additional information is welcome!

[welch]

The stainless steel Frontier is a great ballpoint. It is the ballpoint I nearly always carry. Trying to like a Parker 51 ballpoint, which is really a Jotter. The Frontier is a better fit to my hand, though.

 

Did Parker make a stainless steel version of the P-75 ballpoint? Aha! Here is a stainless steel P-75 ballpoint, although with gold-plated clip.

[Mercian]

Thank you!

 

Regarding Classic BP, I have seen some pen sets with 75 and 180 lines including this model. There is more obvious on P75 Sterling Silver if anybody search on Google Images.

But, I might be wrong. Any additional information is welcome!

 

Your pen is the same as the pen in the fourth image down from the top of this page.

[usk15]

 

Your pen is the same as the pen in the fourth image down from the top of this page.

I understand, thank you!

More to read about Classic Line http://www.penhero.com/PenGallery/Parker/ParkerClassic.htm

Edited May 29, 2020 by usk15

[usk15]

I have found something interesting about Parker 75 Classic on these listings on EBay, please check before they will expire/gone:

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-PARKER-75-CLASSIC-STAINLESS-STEEL-BALLPOINT-PEN-ORIGINAL-BOX-USA/202816556976?hash=item2f38cf0fb0:g:lk4AAOSwH51dwxy7

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-PARKER-75-CLASSIC-STAINLESS-STEEL-BALLPOINT-PEN-ORIGINAL-BOX-USA/202962749905?hash=item2f4185c9d1:g:WYoAAOSw2uhekhl2

 

Also I capture these pictures, where is printed on official leaflet showing a drawing of a Parker 75 Classic:

 

 

 

[sansenri]

Thank you for the photo, nice collection.

I'm really ignorant on ballpoints...

so mine is a Parker Jotter Flighter mid 2000s?

(I think I won this one at a lucky draw at my kid's school years ago...)

[usk15]

Thank you for the photo, nice collection....

...

so mine is a Parker Jotter Flighter mid 2000s?

 

Thank you!

 

Yes, correct Jotter mid 2000.

[usk15]

Sorry...duplicate...

Edited May 31, 2020 by usk15

[Runnin_Ute]

I have Flighters in the following:

45 also MP and FP GT

Jotter CT

Insignia BP/MP GT

Classic BP/MP GT

Latitude CT

 

CT-Chrome trim

GT-Gold trim

[Mercian]

...so mine is a Parker Jotter Flighter mid 2000s?

It should have a production date code stamped on its top.

If you find that code you will know in which quarter of which year your pen was manufactured.

 

E.g. the stamping on my stainless steel Jotter reads “PARKER” directly beneath its clip and if I rotate the pen to look at the ‘back’ side of the top I can see the phrase “MADE IN UK”, and then the date code - which on my pen is “A.I”

 

The ‘A’ tells me that the pen was made in 2002.

The ‘I’ tells me that the pen was made in the third quarter of that year.

 

Parker use the following formula for their date codes:

 

Year ending in/stamped Letter

 

0/Q

1/U

2/A

3/L

4/I

5/T

6/Y

7/P

8/E

9/N

 

Production Quarter/stamp

1/III

2/II

3/I

4/

 

Pens produced in the 2010s would have the year-quarter order reversed - i.e. code for the quarter then the letter for the year.

E.g. I have a 2012 Parker Urban whose date code is “IIIA”.

 

The Urban does not have a dot between the quarter code and year code.

I believe that Parker alternate the presence/absence of the dot to prevent potential confusion over the decade in which a pen was produced. Alternating the dots means that their date codes don’t repeat for forty years, instead of twenty.

Some pen models might persist for twenty years, but I cannot think of any that remained in production for 40 years without significant and obvious design changes.

So, anyway, if your pen was made in the first quarter of 2006 its date code ought to be “Y.III”.

[usk15]

I have added to my Flighter ballpoint pens collection:

 

75 Silver Plate Grain d'Orge, not a Flighter, but still.

45

Arrow

Sonnet MK1

Frontier, half Flighter

Reflex, half Flighter, set with mechanical pencil 0.5

51, not Flighter.

 

I never seen a P51 BP Flighter, but recently i have seen just the bottom barrel made from SSteel. I'm wonder if this will actually work as should, I have tried different barrels from other Parker Flighter ballpoint pens and not work. The barrel of P51 BP works with P45 and Vector Flighters.

 

 

 

 

Now some Parker Flighter fountain pens:

 

51

65, I swap the section between 61 and 65. Also along with the bp is now a set

25, set with bp

Frontier, set with bp

Vector, set with bp

15, set with bp

 

 

 

 

I'm looking forward to add: 50 (Flacon), 95, Inflection, Insignia and Urban MK1.

[shadeone]

Don't forget about the 1950s Jotter Flighters with the "trough" clip from 1954 and the "21" or "V" clip from about 1957 or so... Be sure to check the barrel right under the area where the two halves meet... The real ones have a little half inch band that is more polished than the rest of the pen. You can kind of see it in my pic...

[usk15]

Hmmm, nice ones, but hard to find in the wild. Thank you for posting the picture.

[usk15]

[OCArt]

@usk15Thank you for posting the photo, it will be very useful in identifying any pens I might stumble upon.

[Bo Bo Olson]

International Classic...ah...ha!!!...

I just refer to it as my P-75's little brother. Same pattern, sterling silver.

About as wide and long as the Cross matt black and gold ball point. Then the class ball point.

 

Mine International Classic had a  lead cartridge, so if one put in a jotter re-fill one could use it as a MP&BP.

 

In @ 1971/2 A Jotter cost @ $3.50/75, one of those thin Cross black ball points was real high status at $8.00.

This was back in real silver blue treasury stamp dollars take to any US bank and get a silver dollar.

 

I'd drifted over to drool over a classic Black and Gold Snorkel I'd promiced my slef to get as a teanager.  (I don't remember exactly @ $14/15), when I got mugged by the Parker 75 brothers....$22 for the fountain pen, $18 for the MP....later BP.

I never liked the International Classicas as a MB, so still have that cartridge.

 

For me, the International Classic is too thin, so I very seldom used it.

 

Sometime there after I kept the two sterling silver pens, in the back of the drawer, in fear of theft....so became a ball point barbarian for some 50 or so years.