Stockholm-Copenhagen and back on 11 May, then Stockholm-Oslo on 24 May and several more times during the summer for work…

again an interesting snippet.

Dude, your SO on my buiddy list.

Anything I can do to help…

I heard it was previously owned by Frank Sinatra?

It could actually be true, Frank Sinatra owned N108BN (its previous registration) from 24 February 1972 to 1975 according to http://www.707sim.com/jt3.html.

According to the Boeing Jet Airliner Production List by TAHS as well as S.C. Verbrugge’s Airlinerlist.com, the aircraft was withdrawn from use and stored in October 1973, after having been operated by Braniff Airways since 1969.

The story of N707JT differs slightly when checking the above two sources. TAHS’s books usually never miss any details of an airframe, yet the http://www.707sim.com/jt3.html page adds lots of tidbits which aren’t in the book nor on the Airlinerlist website. I’ve taken the liberty to write down the details from the book with the info from 707sim.com in brackets:

Boeing 707-138B c/n 18740, l/n 388
– First flight 29 July 1964
– Delivered to Qantas as VH-EBM City of Launceston
– Withdrawn from use and stored in Sydney on 1 November 1968
– Sold to Braniff Airways as N108BN 24 June 1969
– Withdrawn from use and stored in October 1973
– (Sold to Frank Sinatra 1973)
– Sold to Boeing in June 1975
– (Sold to Atlas Air Systems in 1975)
– Sold to Tracey Investments in September 1975
– (Sold to Kirk Kerkorian on 1 November 1975)
– Sold to TAG Aviation in January 1977
– (Sold to Tracinda Corporation on 28 March 1977)
– (Leased to Sheikh Akram on 26 September 1977)
– (Withdrawn from use and stored at Newark on 25 August 1981)
– (Ferried to Le Bourget for further storage in August 1983)
– (Returned to service in December 1983)
– (Sold to Trans Oceanic Aviation in November 1987)
– (Hushkits installed in 1989)
– Re-registered as N707XX on 1 July 1990
– Sold to Aviation Methods in 1995
– (Ferried to Istanbul for storage on 29 October 1995)
– (Total No of flying hours in September 1996; 27,682 hrs)
– Sold to Jet Clipper Johnny LLC on 20 May 1998
– Leased to John Travolta the same day
– Re-registered as N707JT on 11 December 1998
– Named Jett Clipper Ella

In any case, Frank Sinatra seems to have owned the 707 in question, even though it isn’t mentioned in the TAHS Production List. Other sites mention Sinatra having owned it as well. What else can you expect from a man who gave the world Come fly with me?

This sketch is also great…

I don’t, but here’s some trivia:

After this incident Boeing started installing the so called D.B. Cooper Vane, a latching fitting which aerodynamically prevents the rear airstairs on 727s from being lowered in flight. The aircraft Cooper hijacked was a 727-51 from Northwest Orient Airlines, N467US, sadly scrapped in the 1990s.

Photo of N467US in Portland 1968, from A.net

Is the complete series of Monty Python’s Flying Circus out on DVD, anybody know?