Originally Posted by
Torres
Qantas also want to retire an Aboriginal 747-300 VH-ECR (?) next year to Longreach.
The B743 with the Aboriginal paint scheme is VH-EBU which is currently "grounded" at Avalon. They can't legally scrap it there so the cheapest option may be to get it airworthy enough to fly to Longreach to become part of the Museum.
The 2 Rolls Royce powered B747-SPs that Qantas had were scrapped (sadly) within days of arrival at the Marama desert airfield. PanAm flew PW powered SP's which were considerably inferior in performance and range to the QF RR SP's. As there would be a number of time expired RB211-524-D4 engines available now, it may be possible to retrofit RR donks on an ex PanAm SP after it arrives in Longreach. Too complex to do prior to the aircraft being permantly grounded ( the engines rotate in opposite directions as well as many other technical differences) but the aircraft would look the goods esternally with the better donks fitted. The other option would be to try to get an RR SP that had previously been used by the Saudis.
The B707 that is coming is really significant as it is the very first B707-138 that Qantas purchased. John Travolta's aircraft is the last of the -138 models (the 13th that QF purchased). Subsequent B707s were -338s. The -138s were delivered with turbojet engines but were later retrofitted with turbofans.
I would love to see real aircraft such as the Connie and Electra represented at the Longreach Museum.
