Folks,
Interesting looking through some of those lists, I wonder how accurate they are??
For example, John Travolta's aeroplane is not a B707-100B, it is a B707-138B, of which only about 8 or 10 were built, the nearest standard B707 would be a -120B, but a B707-138B is not a -120B.
A lot of the B707 say -300B, I doubt that, I think a closer examination would show that most of them are -320B, a very different aeroplane to a -300.

Leadsled
Do you know the Diff between and B707-120B and a 138B
or a B707-200B and 320B???

You must be a lot of fun at dinner parties.

kibz2005
why would you ask that??
keep to the aviation!!

Any 707 operator looking for crews, or am I 20 years too late? :}

Sad but yes!!!

Does anyone know if the DC8 at Manston, Kent is still in existence. Used to be very easy to view from the road side.

For those who still wanna find a job at a DC8 here is very good news,,,Samaritan Purse are hiring pilots and engineers:

DC8 Captain Pilot Greensboro Job

Professional Flight Engineer DC8 Greensboro Job

http://www.skyliner-aviation.de/photos/N782SP.jpg

fourenginejock,
The difference between a -120 and a -138 was about three frames in the fuselage, the -138 was that much shorter, which made its dutch roll characteristics even more interesting.

The -138s were delivered with JT-3 "straightpipes", but, along with many early B707/720, converted to fan engines. In the -138B, the fan was a JT3D-MC6. The B707-138 was the first Boeing 707 delivered to a non-US customer, they were built for Qantas, the first non-US operator of any Boeing jet. -X38 is the Boeing constructor number for Qantas, -X36 was BOAC, and -X21 was originally PanAm.

As I recall, the major difference between a -120 and a -720 was the -120 had a centre wing tank. Some -720 also had freon air conditioning, instead of air cycle machines.

As for the "full size" 707, compared to the original -300 Intercontinental (using Boeing trade names, not necessarily the same as the name on the type certificate) the 707-320 had a heavily revised wing, with full span leading edge devices, and a different training edge and flap system, that increased the wing area. All weights were up, but the revised wing gave much improved field performance.

Most of the -300 had JT-4 engines, a few had RR Conway (BOAC B707-436? and, from memory, Air France), most -320 had a JT3D-3B, but a few had up to and including the much higher thrust JT3D-7 (SAA).

The only major variants I haven't flown, in about 8000h on 707, is any -200, the Conway powered aircraft, and the -138. A great old aircraft, and the original -300 was, in my opinion, the nicest handling, even if that bad tempered little Welshman, D.P Davies would not agree with me. The -320 could be a bit touchy, particularly on approach.

Hi Leadsled
Thanks.
I also have over 8000 hours on the B707. flew the -200 once on a ferry to the desert back in the 80s.
Still love reading anything about B707

LeadSled and/or four engine jock,

Could you please provide an explanation to the differences between the 707 and the 720?

Thanks in advance.

Rwy in sight,
The B720 was a short range version of the B707-120, as I recall only significant difference was it had no centre wing tank, just the tanks in the wings outboard of the wing roots.
I don't think there was any obvious way of telling the difference just by external view.
As I mentioned in a previous post, some B720 (ex-TWA, I believe) had freon air conditioning. I never saw that on a 707, but that doesn't mean there weren't some built with freon.
When you were flying aeroplanes from a number of different original customers, the flight deck setups were often (always) very different, unlike the present day, where significant variations in a glass cockpit are more or less limited to the colour of the seat covers.
On those jobs, I found I needed to adapt real fast -- an interesting change, coming from an operator whose fleet was absolutely one standard.

Lead Sled you score about 75% on that answer. All B720 and 720B had Center fuel tanks with varying capacity. As I recall the standard fuel load was about 100K but could be bumped to something around 110K. Western Airlines and Continental Airlines, (I think) both flew the from the mainland to PHNL. MGTOW was about 236K for these airplanes.

Some 720B's had Freon, some did not depending on whether the buyer checked the box next to Freon :) WAL had it, CAL did not. Ditto for the 707 320C that each carrier flew.

Most 720's only had one over wing exit on each side. The exception being the EAL 720's which has two on each side.

The standing joke back in those days was each and every new Boeing airliner was a prototype!

ZS-OSI at MSE was scrapped last Feb.

Spooky 2,
Ain't that the truth.
Just about everything could be customer option.
Not any longer, the certification costs alone dictate a very standard aeroplane.
At one stage, I worked for a crowd who had about 10 or so 707 of various origins.
The only two that were common were to ex-Pan Am 707-321, with JT-4, two of the first ten delivered to Pan Am.
We also had the very last 707 delivered to Pan Am, a -321C, the contrast was very obvious in the cockpit. This -321C was a dedicated freighter, had never been a passenger aircraft, I never envisaged that a -320 could have such a low empty weight.
Even the two ex-Qantas aircraft they had were different series 707-338C.
You became very adaptable very fast.
The great thing about the 707 was they were so simple, of the flight controls, only the rudder and spoilers were hydraulic, they stood up to even the crudest conditions very well.

DRC Census.....
 

These are the Operational Airframes....
Service Air - 5 x 727-200F's
Trans Air Cargo 1 DC-8-62F & 1 DC-8-73F
Air Force 1 727-100F
Government 2 x 727-100 VIP & 1 707-138B VIP
Aka The Boeing 707 Dreamliner.....
Photo: 9Q-CLK (CN: 17702) Democratic Republic of Congo - Government Boeing 707-138B by Mark Szemberski Photoid: 7684406 - JetPhotos.Net

Folks,
The 707-138B above is getting a bit long in the tooth. The newest it could be is 1963, the earliest 1959.
I hope they are looking after it!!

I had a rather arms length involvement with that airplane way back in the mid 80's when TAG owned it. They wanted out of it so we tried to sell it to the USAF for a parts donor for their KC135 JT3D engine upgrade program. As it turned out the fact the engines on this airplane had been upgraded from their original non fan configuration as opposed to simply hanging new JT3D's on the airplane made it ineligible for the program. TAG was willing to let the airplane go dirt cheap at the time. It had a very nice interior and was a well kept 707! You would have think that parts would be getting scarce. I'm sure it remains on so sort of low utilization maint. plan and those typically call for parts overhaul or replacement based on the calendar rather than time / cycles so the clock is certainly ticking....

The 707-138B in question was built in 1959. Full history here:

VH-EBG

LeadSled and Spooky 2,

Thank you very much both of you for your answers. Obviously that created an other very short question: does the two digit at the end of the model -2xx or 3xx is no longer used since all aircraft are identical and can't be modified cockpit wise to customers requests?