A very interesting article giving more detail about the 707 which paint-stripped a few of Vauxhall's finest in 1978!........
Full article at:
Best of Airways Magazine - Good Jets Gone Bad
Pan Am started phasing out its non-turbofan 707s in 1970 when the value of the aircraft would have been around $1.5 million (equivalent to $8.7 million today). Many were sold in the United Kingdom, Turkey, the Philippines, Yugoslavia, and of course the USA. Ten years later one could be acquired for less than $500,000 (now $1.4 million).
One such aircraft was Pan Am’s former Jet Clipper Aurora, 707-300 N725PA. It saw service with THY-Turkish Airlines, followed by a two-year stint with UK-based leasing company Tempair (Templewood Aviation). When the latter firm was liquidated at the end of 1976, the 707 was parked at Ostend, Belgium.
In December 1977 Lieutenant General Maurice F. Casey, trading as Burbank International, acquired the aircraft. At one stage during payment negotiations in Miami, a gun appeared on the table and the buyers tried to pay with Australian black opals. On February 17, 1978, wearing its new registration N725CA, the airplane was ferried from Ostend to Luton, England, for checks. Casey’s intention was to operate livestock flights between Miami and Venezuela, which was always going to be problematic because the aircraft was not equipped with a main cabin cargo door.
A special certificate was issued to ferry the aircraft from Luton to Miami via Gander, and the flight took place on March 8. Freelance navigator Dave Welch (Airways, January 2012, May 2011, July 2003, May 2002 & June 2001), who was on the flight, described the 707 as “a flying heap of sh*t.” Before its departure on March 8, N725CA carried out a test flight from Luton, during which a hydraulic cable broke loose, dumping a load of fluid over new cars parked at the nearby Vauxhall plant. This prompted the national press to refer to the aircraft as ‘The Luton Carwash Bomber’.
Welch adds: “We just managed to get the 707 airborne [on March 8] before a bailiff arrived at Monarch Engineering’s operations intending to slap a writ on it for all the damage. Vauxhall made a million pounds [£4.5 million/$6.8 million] insurance claim against Templewood, plus a large number of the population of Luton claimed that their cars were ruined too. On the way to Gander it developed the worst Dutch roll I ever experienced—twice at least. One problem was that one of the outer engines wasn’t giving full power.”
The aircraft never moved from Miami, although more than $73,000 (worth $220,000 today) of repair work, mainly to wing corrosion, was carried out during most of 1979. Three liens were placed on the 707 between March 1979 and October 1981, and at one stage it came close to being sold to a company in Wyoming. Finally the aircraft was bought by General Air Services in 1981, and broken up at Miami between September 1983 and January 1984"