VH-EAF (3) Boeing
707-338C
(c/n 19626)
Here's VH-EAF at Mascot in July 1974
when it was named 'City of Townsville'. Photo by Greg
Banfield. This machine had an interesting Qantas
history. It was the first Australian registered
aircraft to
visit China when it carried Prime Minister Gough Whitlam to Beijing in
October 1973.
In
1975 it set a non-stop distance record for the airline when it flew the
first trans-Pacific flight
to
Santiago, Chile. Withdrawn in 1978 it was sold in March of that
year to ITEL leasing and
went to Korean
Air Lines as HL-7432 Greg took a photo of it
half way through its livery
conversion,
still wearing its VH- rego, below, at Mascot. In 1986 it returned
to its
manufacturer
as part
of the
Boeing Military Company's project to become the prototype for E-8A
J-STARS
program. It later
shed its civil registration N770JS and became 86-0416 with the 93rd Air
Control Wing,
USAF. It is, I believe, still current today (2010).