Braniff 707-327Cs

[Jackbr]

Anyone on PPRuNe used to fly for Braniff, or know much about the company in the 1960s?

I'm interested in their 707-327Cs. I know they were ordered for PAC-MAC Vietnam flights. However, they were also used on some South American services and their original HNL flights in 1969. Did they ever operate domestic mainline flights alongside the 720s/707-227s? Were some aircraft specifically used for the scheduled flights, while others were based on the West coast for military charters? If not I assume they simply would hav rotated the aircraft through DAL to have F class seats added.

They sure were attractive aircraft. N7097 looked particularly impressive in its original turquoise scheme, but was soon repainted lime green sometime around 1967/68

[WHBM]

Braniff built up quite a number of 707 variants between 1959 and 1969, and then disposed of them all in the years following. Surprisingly the 707-327Cs were the first to go.

They got 9 of them in 1966-67, which were linked to the Vietnam contract, but lost this at the end of 1970. All but one were then sold by mid 1971, the survivor, N7104, lasting until 1973, I am guessing for the Hawaii flight.

It was only after all these modern 4 or 5 year old aircraft were disposed that Braniff then started selling their four custom 707-227s, followed by the five 720s. The secondhand 707-138Bs stayed on line until 1973, when they went, along with that last -327C.

The DC8 (including some secondhand ones) took over South America completely, plus a few domestic sectors, but the bulk of the 707s were replaced by 727s.

[lederhosen]

The best source of information I can think of are the Len Morgan Vectors columns in Flying magazine. He flew for Braniff for over 30 years and offered a fascinating insight into the period you are interested in.

I have a vivid memory of his describing his first flight as captain on the 720 as being the first time he had flown the aircraft at cruise altitude, if I remember correctly with no sim time either. Line training does not seem to have existed as a concept then! The flight engineer had a little experience, the copilot almost none on jets. After surviving a winter flying out of the old Denver airport, which was apparently rather tight for the aircraft, he felt ready for pretty much anything.

[Rollingthunder]

Yeah, they had a bit of class.

http://www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/gal102/americabyair/images/640/S.403.p3a-P.9A0276_640.jpg

[WHBM]

Yeah, they had a bit of class.
Shame that's a DC8. :)

(N1805 for the technically-minded)

[Wunwing]

Not so sure about all but one of the 327Cs being sold by 1971. Qantas had
N7099 on lease for most of 1971, using it as a dedicated freighter. It was returned late 1971 but then leased out again to, I think, TMA.

During its time with Qantas it was painted in Qantas colours but unusually for Qantas carried Qantas Airfreight title. Major servicing was done in Dallas. One of my early training trips was to Dallas, which was a long way off the Qantas network.

Wunwing

[WHBM]

Not so sure about all but one of the 327Cs being sold by 1971. Qantas had
N7099 on lease for most of 1971, using it as a dedicated freighter. It was returned late 1971 but then leased out again to, I think, TMA.
You are correct that some of the fleet, although taken out of Braniff service, was not strictly "sold", and remained Braniff assets for some time, but this was just a financial background issue like aircraft being "owned" by a carrier when strictly the ownership on the dataplate says it belongs to the bank. Their Braniff operational days were over.

A number of the Braniff 707-327Cs passed to Lebanese cargo operator TMA on lease, and unusually they retained their Braniff US registrations for some 10 years afterwards, through into the 1980s.

[Fris B. Fairing]

Here's the history of N7099

N7099 (http://www.adastron.com/707/qantas/N7099.htm)

Rgds