10/19/2026
Good explainer about a certain Boeing aircraft.
With our "John Travolta" 707 now at HARS and being re-assembled, we still get questions as to why we did not fly it here as was originally intended.
The short answer is an FAA airworthiness directive, COVID and an overworked maintenance company prevented this.
The long answer is re-posting an explanation given a year ago.
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As many of you know, our Boeing 707-138B aircraft - donated to HARS by John Travolta will be dismantled and shipped back to HARS before being re-assembled - hopefully to taxi standard and maybe even to flying status.
For those who don't know, this aircraft was the last of 13 aircraft specially built for Qantas by Boeing and affectionately known as "The last of the Hotrods".
So, why would HARS engineers be able to have any hope of returning the aircraft to flying status? Well many of them have worked on 707 aircraft before and really know what they are doing. One of our engineers who was involved in repatriating "the first of the hotrods" to Qantas Founders Museum from England was relating how when they arrived to work on the aircraft, locals gave them absolutely NO chance of success. He stated that this was "throwing down the gauntlet" and made him more determined than ever to show them what was what.
Now, what is so special about the aircraft.
When Boeing first proposed the 707 to airlines, it was a development of the Boeing 717 / KC-135 with a wider fueselage, revised systems and a Flight Engineer and Navigator. Qantas was the only airline that took the shorter fuselage option up, since it allowed them to operate from a number of airports with payload that the longer variant would not. All other airlines wanted the offered stretched aircraft.
Why was it known in Qantas service as a "hotrod"?
The 100 series aircraft had a takeoff weight of just under 250,000 lb with its puny 13,500 lb engines. When the more powerful engines with 18,000lb thrust became available, the 300 series stretched 707 had a takeoff weight of just over 300,000 lb. However, the 138 kept its lower takeoff weight with the more powerful engines and so .....
How did HARS have the aircraft donated?
A number of HARS members know John Travolta personally. This originated from many years ago when he and Qantas agreed that his aircraft should be painted in Qantas colours. Each of the sides was humbled that the other side wanted it to happen. As a result, John was put through a full 747-400 endorsement. And for those who might doubt ... the training people thoroughly enjoyed working with him.
Why was the aircraft donated?
Many decades ago, a PanAm aircraft over-ran the runway at Sydney and severely damaged one of its engines and the attachment pylon. Sometime about 2011 or so, a 707 tanker from "Omega" was taking off from Ventura near Los Angeles and literally lost an engine on takeoff .. it was THAT aircraft. As a result, there was an onerous Airworthiness Directive issued to inspect 707 pylons.
As a result of this, the expense of keeping the aircraft in a private capacity was just too much and it was decided reluctantly to sell it for scrap ... and that is where HARS stepped in saying that they may be able to sort things and keep the aircraft flying - to which JT enthusiastically agreed.
So, what went wrong?
The initial plan was sound. The aircraft was given an FAA clearance for a one time flight to the maintenance facility in Georgia. When HARS engineers visited to inspect the aircraft, their report was "we felt like we could just fuel it up and fly it home".
Negotiations with the FAA that this aircraft had far fewer hours on it than the 707 fleet generally were rejected and a ferry flight to HARS was not on the cards.
And then Covid hit. The workforce went away, and when covid went away, there was so much work for the maintenance company that the HARS 707 was relegated to the back of the queue. Of course, during Covid, HARS engineers were unable to go and do the work required.
Eventually it was accepted that given the many years it would take before any work could be done on the aircraft, the best course of action was to carefully dismantle it and ship it to HARS at Shellharbour where it could be assembled and worked on by our expert engineers.
And that, gentle reader is where we are now.
