"user314" (user314)
07/13/2020 at 11:00 • Filed to: flightline, Planelopnik, qantas, Boeing 707, planelopnik history
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"user314" (user314)
07/13/2020 at 11:00 • Filed to: flightline, Planelopnik, qantas, Boeing 707, planelopnik history | 4
| 8 |
Boeing Field circa 1959
Back to Boeing Field in the Fifties, this time with a Qantas 707-138 front and center. The -138 was a specially shortened version of the first production -120 model, specially ordered by Qantas to increase the range of the 707. Three fuselage frames were removed from both in front and behind the wings, shortening the plane by 10 feet.
VH-EBA rolled out of the Boeing plant on February 11th 1959, and her first flight was on March 20th. After a three day flight from Seattle, the plane arrived in Sydney on July 20th and was soon christened “City of Melbourne”. VH-EBA was soon flying from Sydney to far-flung locales such as San Francisco, New York and London until 1961, when she was returned to Seattle to have the original JT3C-6 engines replaced with up-rated JT3D-1 models. Back in service by September of ‘61, the plane flew with Qantas for six more years before being sold to Pacific Western Airlines in October of 1967. After eleven years with PacWest, she was place in storage before again being sold, this time to Tiger Air. Converted to an executive configuration, the plane changed hands several times between 1978 and 2006, including time in the Saudi Air Force flying ambassador to the US, Prince Bandar. The plane was finally acquired by the Qantas Foundation Memorial and flown back to Australia for the last time, and is now on display at the Qantas Founders Outback Museum.
The VH-EBA registry has been reused twice since 1967, being first applied to a (now scrapped) !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and more currently an Airbus !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which is still !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! for Qantas today.
facw
> user314
07/13/2020 at 11:04 |
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I still find it a bit odd that they went with those demonic wings on the logo:
ttyymmnn
> user314
07/13/2020 at 11:07 |
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Another fantastic photo. Love me some Astrojet. Not quite the same, but I did snag this 737 Astrojet a couple of years ago at DFW.
Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
> user314
07/13/2020 at 11:14 |
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But John Travolta!
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user314
> facw
07/13/2020 at 11:15 |
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Winged ‘roos, ‘cause they’re not mean enough:
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user314
> ttyymmnn
07/13/2020 at 11:18 |
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Kinda odd see ing an unpainted plane with winglets. Just an off kilter blend of old-school aesthetics and new-school aerodynamics.
Roadkilled
> user314
07/13/2020 at 12:41 |
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You can still see variants of the 707 at Boeing Field.
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user314
> Roadkilled
07/13/2020 at 13:41 |
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Saudi Air Force? Nice.
someassemblyrequired
> user314
07/13/2020 at 14:45 |
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That actually looks to be Renton Municipal (RNT) which is a few miles away. Nowadays 737s are assembled there and then ferried to BFI for paint(in some cases, some painting still occurs at RNT
) and customer
delivery