After writing my last blog post about John Travolta’s 707, I became interested in the history of this classic airliner.
So, here it is. Ladys & Gentlemen fasten your seatbelts, the history of the John Travolta Boeing 707.
His 707-138B was built in 1964, constructed at Boeing Seattle and has Boeing Construction Number 18740 Line 388.
1964 John Travolta was 10 years old. Travolta first became enamored of aviation as a child. He observed the flight paths of the nearest airports, read books on aviation, and took special interest in Constellations, DC-6s and DC-7s. Attesting to his early charisma, he persuaded the girls in his neighborhood to don their Brownie uniforms to play flight attendants as he “captained” his backyard airliner.
On September 10, 1964 first owner became Qantas. It’s registration number became VH-EBM “City of Launceston”. [ Photo ]
It was primary used for routes from Sydney to Asia and North/South America.
Since November 1, 1968 it was withdrawn from use and stored engineless at Sydney Airport. The same year in June it was already cancelled from the Australian Aircraft Register.
On June 7, 1969 new owner became Braniff International Airways. It’s registration number changed to N108BN.
From February 24, 1972 till 1975 it was owned by Frank Sinatra.
During this time, on October 20, 1973, it was again withdrawn from use and stored.
In June 1975 it was sold to Boeing.
In September 1975 it was again sold, this time to Kirk Kerkorian / Tracy Investments Corp (Tracinda / TIC).
Since September 26, 1977 it was owned by TAG Aviation, a holding company based in Luxembourg.
During this time it was also leased to Saudi Arabian Sheikh Akram, for short time.
On August 25, 1981 the 707 was again withdrawn from use, stored at Newark and ferried to Le Bourget for further storage in August 1983.
In December 1983 our 707 returned to service.
In November 1987 it has been sold to Trans Oceanic Aviation.
1988 - 1989 it was out of service again. During this time VIP interior was installed and it was modified with hush kits which converted it to a 707-138B(Q).
In July 1990, with a changed registration number to N707XX it returned to service.
In 1995 the ownage changed again to “Aviation Methods” and was ferried to Istanbul for storage on 29 October 1995.
In September 1996, with only 27,682 of total flying hours, it was offered for sale.
On May 20, 1998 it was finally registered to Jet Clipper Johnny LLC (John Travolta), sold on May 25, and changed registration on December 13, 1998 to N707JT “707 Jett Clipper Ella”. Named after his children “Jett” and “Ella”, Clipper in homage to legendary airline Pan Am, which used/uses “Clipper” in all their aircraft names.
In June 2002, the 707 finally returned home to Qantas, since Travolta participated in the Qantas “Spirit of Friendship” tour, because it was always his dream to be involved with a major airline in some way. He was piloting his own Boeing 707 on a thirteen city, 35,000 mile tour. [ Photo ] He continues as Ambassador-at-Large for the Australia based Qantas Airways. For this campaign the plane was repainted in full classical Qantas “V-Jet” livery. The same livery that was used for the 707’s first flights, back in the old days.
John Travolta is a pilot with a life long passion for aviation. Since earning his wings in 1974, he has logged close to an astounding 5,000 flying hours. Literally every cent of his first paychecks went to flying lessons. He achieved qualification as a captain in the Gulfstream II, Learjet 24, Hawker 1A, Citation 1 and 2, Tebuan and Vampire Jet. He owns the type rating for the Boeing 707 and is certified for SIC privileges (Second In Command). Travolta keeps his skill up-to-date through continual refresher courses, training at American Airlines, SimuFlite and others.
Great to see someone like me that loves aviation. Its people that do research like this on Johns plane that make aviation enthusiasts proud…
Ted
I was glad to have the oportunity to be a part of this planes history. I was one of the flight crew in the picture above during the 2002 world tour. It is an amasing plane with a colorful past. I hope it last another 40 years
Brad
You list John Travolta as having an ATP (Airline Transport Pilot) license. Why then does the FAA list his pilot certificate as a Private Pilot License?
Indeed, the last paragraph might be a little bit incorrect.
He owns a type rating for the 707 and is certified for SIC privileges only.
I guess I need to correct the posting someday.
A few years back I got to tour the lockheed Constellation that John Travolta owned when it was at the San Jose Airport. $ 3.00 bucks for a tour but it was worth it.
A very interesting, well written article, which answered a lot of questions I had. I love flying, I got my PPL in June 1970 and still fly as often as I can, mainly with my business, and I love to trace the history of aircraft, so this was just up my street. Keep the good work up.
George
Hello,
I just finally came online in order to try to figure out if John Travolta’s 707 was originally a Pan Am aircraft. ETs coverage of the Jett Travolta tragedy included a shot of his aircraft “Jett Clipper Ella”. Being an ex Pan Am exployee, it really touched my heart to see his pride in both of his children and obvious knowledge of Pan Am history.
Pan American World Airways Chairman and Founder Juan Trippe was the first to commission and operate the first commercial U. S. jet. On October 26, 1958, Pan Ams Boeing 707-121 “Clipper America” departed Idlewild Airport bound for Paris.
I think that was when Pan Am started referring to their aircraft as “Jet Clippers”. I myself did many terminal and boarding announcements “Pan American Jet Clipper Flight Two, Round the World Service to London and points beyond…”.
Thanks again for doing the research. It is something that I have been curious about for a while. Sheila
Hi,
If indeed it was the Qantas V-Jet “City of Launceston”, it is the plane my family and I migrated to Australia from England on in April 1965. That trip took us via New York, San Francisco, Honolulu and Fiji and lasted some 36 hours. I was 7. I think I still have my Qantas Junior V-jet Club logbook somewhere - signed by the captain.
I wrote to Qantas in the mid seventies to ask what happened to the plane and they told me it had been sold to an Asian airline.
Do you have access to a closeup photo of it from it’s Qantas days?
this aircraft landed at auckland n z 16 april 2009
Hey I saw it at auckland Int. Airport on the 16th April too! Shame I didn’t realise it was his. I overheard some people saying it was John’s but unfortunately didn’t really beleive them at the time. It wasn’t until I got home and googled the image that i realised it was true.
Does anyone know of web sites were people can see when celebrities are flying in and out of?
707 Jett Clipper Ella has arrived in Cape Town South Africa
Left Cape Town last night for Botswana
It’s parked in Port Elizabeth since Friday evening.
Hi All,
Seen awax 707 going into Manchester airport last Wed or Thursday, looked good. I have seen this happen last your, anyone know why?
Regards,
Peter
I’, an ex Qantas 707, then 747 pilot’-
I flew this aeroplane on Qanta routes for many years.
- Would HATE to see it ’scapped ‘ when John Travolta has
stopped flying it away from Australia.
-
He’s an honourary ‘Qantas Captain ‘ with his personal old 707.
-
Qantas has a ‘Volunteer’ Qantas Museum in outback Australia at Longreach where Qantas started.
- Lots of aircraft and even an early Q-747.
-
Is there any way that John Travolta’s ex-Qantas 707 come back to Australia and Longreach ?
stewart96@bigpond.com.au
ENDS
Dear Michael,
You still have people quoting those bogus qualifications you gave Travolta (ATPL), right off this website, when you said over a year ago (20 August 2008) that you needed to get around to correcting what you call “a little bit incorrect” but what a reasonable person might call “totally false and misleading.”
Have you been too busy to get around to that yet? How about taking a minute to set the record straight with his actual status as a PPL SIC of this beautiful, rich man’s toy? He’s in the news again with his trip to Haiti so that people are reading your article and making an obvious mistake, given that numerous press releases speak of him “piloting” his 707.
I realize that getting serial numbers and registrations, aircraft history, is more your thing here, when you do a great job with that but pilot qualifications are also important and should be given correctly.
Yours,
Chuck Pillette
He was waving out the left winshield after the Haiti flight. My understanding is that he has a private license for 707 co-pilot duties who would sit on the right side. As a private pilot he can not have paying passengers. Am I correct? thanks, John