<<For one brief, glorious period, I was 'Speedbird Moscow.' My sole purpose was to do the Trans-Siberian flight planning for BA861, the Tokyo-bound and sole* 707 (G-AWHU) which plied the route. As the temperatures plummetted with the onset of winter, we found we could get an extra 1000kg in the 'full tanks' uplift which was invariably necessary.
*G-AWHU was ex Saturn Airways, and an oddball, in that it had a different flight system from the rest of the 707s and it had a different passenger cabin configuration.>>
Yes it was - but only basically to fly JFK-NAS/KIN Shuttles and LHR-JFK's - by the time it was operating SVO-HND's it was back in the retro BOAC config.
I dont think it was ever the 'sole' 707 on the svo-nrt route - my logbooks show HU only once out of 8 trips on that route up the end of '71 - the last few trips of that year were flown on XXZ and XXY - the two 336B's we had which were bought for just that route - because they were not C's they didnt have the cargo extras , so had a lower zero fuel weight - hence we could get more fuel and payload on
cheers
BTW G-ALHI was the last aircraft I flew in with my father - doing circuits at LGW with a Captain Martin checking him out!!. This was just before my starting at Hamble in 1964
arem
Last edited by arem; 17th Feb 2007 at 13:58.