John Travolta's Boeing 707 Is Headed Back to Australia for Public Display
John Travolta by any measure is an AvGeek: A collector of not only aviation memorabilia but also actual aircraft as well. His private fleet has included multiple Gulfstream aircraft, an Eclipse 500 very light jet, and his most well known aircraft, a former Qantas Boeing 707. That plane is now headed back to Australia, where it will be maintained and put on display with the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS), according to an ABC report.
The Boeing 707, which Travolta repainted in a retro Qantas livery, was donated to the HARS by Travolta almost two years ago, but logistics and the cost of getting the plane to its new home has delayed delivery as the HARS needed to raise money to get the plane back to Australia. A special permit was also required for the plane to be able to make the flight. Travolta was hoping to fly the plane himself — he's rated to fly the 707 — but the terms of permit mean that he won't be behind the controls for the delivery flight. The plane is due to arrive back in Australia in November.
While Travolta won't be at the controls, he will be onboard along with a number of HARS volunteers who have been working on the project. The HARS has over 700 members, around 200 of which worked for Qantas, with some of those members having worked on Travolta's plane when it was in service for the airline.
The plane's tail number — N707JT — is a nod to the aircraft type as well as the actor himself: All of Travolta's planes include the actor's initials in their tail number. The aircraft also bears the name Jett Clipper Ella. Jett and Ella are Travolta's children, and 'clipper' is a nod to Pan Am, who included the name Clipper on all of its aircraft.
Travolta is an Ambassador-at-Large with Qantas, a title the airline gave him back in 2002. Travolta has used the Boeing 707 around the world on promotions for the airline and even flew on humanitarian missions to disaster areas like New Orleans and Haiti.
Travolta was also the first non-test pilot to fly an Airbus A380. He told Reuters back in 2007 that, "It's a very easy plane to fly but technically complicated."
If you needed any more evidence that Travolta is an AvGeek, check out his house, which is designed like an actual airport.
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