Movie legend and aviation nut John Travolta has for many years owned and flown his own aircraft. The pride of his fleet was always a classic Boeing 707-100 model, with his own personalised tail number and the vintage livery of Australian national carrier Qantas.
However, this aircraft has not flown nor been seen by many for a number of years, despite various plans being reported for bringing it back to flight.
So what is happening? Here’s what we’ve found out…
A History of John Travolta’s Boeing 707
John Travolta’s aircraft is a Boeing 707-138B model with tail number N707JT.
It was built in 1964 and originally flew for Qantas as VH-EBM – hence the classic livery worn today.
It later flew for Braniff International as N108BN from 1969 and TAG Aviation as N707XX from 1975.
John bought the aircraft in 1998 and has used it for flying himself and his family around. Given its history with Qantas, it has been used for corporate promotions with the airline since being painted in the airline’s V-Jet livery in 2002, and John has been an ambassador with them for many years.
In fact, the 707-138B variant was designed specifically for Qantas, featuring a shorter fuselage than the standard -100 model, and it would operate on the famous Kangaroo and Southern Cross routes between Australia and London in particular.
Briefly, the aircraft also wore classic Pan Am livery to appear in a TV programme.
Recent Years
N707JT parked up. Photo (c) CAHairyBear
N707JT was grounded pending essential works around 2017, and stored at Brunswick, GA. Around this time John Travolta donated the aircraft to the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS) which is based in Australia and was interested in relocating it to their base at Albion Park near Sydney.
However, despite plans to restore the aircraft to flying condition and fly it to Australia, this work has been found to be too expensive and difficult to achieve.
Recent photographs from the hangar in which the aircraft is located have shown that disassembly has begun, with the tail removed. Once this has been completed, it is likely the aircraft will begin the long journey to Australia by sea, and ultimately reassembled as a static museum piece.
But could it be restored to flight again? HARS has a reputation for doing this with other historic aircraft, but in this case it might be too difficult.
They said on their Facebook page:
Despite all our efforts, doing the required maintenance on site has proved to be not practical and so once it arrives at the museum it will be put back together and maintained by our engineers here. Will it be airworthy once again? We will just have to see how far we can go.
Only time will tell!
Did you ever see John Travolta’s Boeing 707? Did you ever fly on a Qantas 707-138B? Leave a comment below!
Title image: Jerome
9 comments
Back in New Jersey, around the year 2000, It flew over my city which was about 5 miles from Newark. Definitely noticed it! The sound too. Flew over me around 4000 feet or so. I also remember it parked on the Northeast side of Miami in the mid 2000s
I first saw this 707 as VH-EBM at LHR in 1964 and 1965 and then again in Perth as N707JT in July 2002.
John Travolta came over to where about 60 of us were waiting to see him and he spoke to each person and shook hands and signed our daughters autograph book. Such a lovely guy, he then walked across to the 707, hopped in and ”Perth Tower this is NOVEMBER 707 JULIET TANGO, TAXI CLEARANCE PLEASE !
Great to see it will eventually come here to AUS.
Recall being at Luton Airport UK spotting when John Travolta flew in with N707JT Boeing 707 on 28/06/2093
I saw it once in Austin, TX.
Saw and photographed it at Sanford FL July 4, 1999 in basic colours. See https://www.flickr.com/photos/alexwaning/50400884467/in/photolist-2jMJTTo-2jMKH1F
Flew on her as N707JT with the man himself at the controls down the coast from Sydney and back again as part of his visit for Qantas celebrations as the Ambassador.
Great pilot, lovely man, very generous with his time and even signed my mums Saturday night fever vinyl set haha.
What an experience riding on the flight deck with him, Juan and Pat.
Experience I will never forget.
Gabe, that’s amazing! What an experience on an incredible aircraft with an incredible person. Thanks for sharing!
I had the privilege of working for qantas in 2010-16 in the transport section and I was charged with picking up his passengers from QCC and taking them to gate 97 were they boarded the aircraft for a joy flight and when they returned to return them to QCC,but as he landed this aircraft the sound of those engines was beautiful to an av geeks ears and then they pushed it back to gate 97 where his passengers boarded the bus and then I signaled to JT if I could come up to the flight deck he signaled yes,and as I prepared to climb the stairs he was coming down and was moving to his waiting car and then I had the pleasure of thanking him for his visit with a hand shake and the words of your welcome my man,and I have a video to back this up.
My father was a qantas engineer and i spent a year in Seattle while my dad was supervising the buildiing of VH EBQ. We flew on its delivery flight back to Sydney in 1965. I flew on Qantas 707s, 138s and the bigger 338 in the 60s and 70s. As as an adult in 2006, i saw Johns 707 parked at los angeles international when i landed on a qantas 747