Qantas 707 restoration project

[S V Choong 4]

A group of Qantas fan is trying to restore the first Qantas Boeing 707, original rego VH-EBA, City of Melbourne, in order to preserve this piece of important history of Qantas and Australian aviation. VH-EBA is currently registered under one of the Sultans in Middle East (Saudi Arabia?), rego HZ-123. Current status: Stored at Southend. Qantas Foundation personnell is now working on restoring the a/c.

 

Check out their website

 

http://www.qfm.org.au/index.html

 

I wonder if we are going to see something similar happening in Malaysia.

Edited January 19, 2006 by S V Choong

[Sandeep G 1]

would love to work on such a project personally myself, but need some capital anybody wanna put down a couple of million for us? hehehe

 

Are there any ex MAS 707s around??

[S V Choong 4]

Surely there are some ex MAS/MSA Boeing 707s around.

Conserving the Comet 4 wouldn't be a bad idea either.

 

Wonder if MAS/MSA's 707s have been upgraded to turbofans from turbojets

[Rozhan 0]

Wishful thinking, but how I wish one of the first B737-2H6 could be restored and MAS or the gov through DCA etc starts a civil aviation museum. At least one of the original still flies in South America, from my research in a discussion of this somewhere here in MW. Two examples have crashed (one being 9M-MBD) and others have been scrapped.

[S V Choong 4]

Quite a few of Boeing 737-2H6 Adv still flying. A few are still with our neighbour - Indonesia.

 

Boeing 737-2H6 Adv

 

Sriwijaya Air, PK-CJG, cn 23320/1120 (Active in Indonesia)

SKY Airline, CC-CTD, cn 20586/307 (Active in Chile)

SKY Airline, CC-CTU, cn 20582/302 (Active in Chile)

SAHSA, N401SH (ex 9M-MBC), cn 20584/305, crashed

Private, N902WG, cn 22620/822 (Active in USA)

TAESA, XA-PBA, cn 20631/310, (broken up as spares)

TAESA, XA-TLJ (ex 9M-MBH), cn 20926/371, (broken up as spares)

Aviateca, N123GU (ex 9M-MBF/9M-AQQ), cn 20587/308 (Active)

Aerosucre Columbia, HK-4253X, cn 21109/436 (Active)

Star Peru, OB-1794-P (ex 9M-AQM), cn 20583/303, (Active)

Mandala Airlines, PK-RIN, cn 21732/559, (Active in Indonesia)

 

Personally I think aiming for the 707 will be difficult as most of them are leased in a/c if I am not wrong. They have British G-xxxx rego. Rozhan, did MAS ever acquired any 707s from MSA? I think 9V-BBB (B707-312) went to SIA, didn't it?

Edited January 20, 2006 by S V Choong

[Rozhan 0]

SV Choong, from my readings, none of MSA's B707 joined the MH fleet at its inception.

 

Yes, MAS had repeat orders of the B737-2H6. But I was thinking of the first six units that became the original fleet, starting with 9M-AQL. Incredible that some examples are still flying after more than 30 years. From your list, those now with Star Peru, Aviateca and Star Airline are excellent candidates. But I wonder if the original seat covers, cabin partitions etc are preserved.

 

I just got a VCD of a 1970s Malay movie called Hapuslah Air Mata Mu starring Sharifah Aini and Broery Marantika. I has about 30 second footage of the First Class interior of MAS' B737-2H6, similar to the following pics from a book in my collection:

 

First Class

 

 

Economy Class

 

 

Notice the grace of the original Golden Girls... and their hairstyles. I like the old cabin partition with the MAS kite. Looks lovely compared to the current ones with meaningless grey patterns.

[S V Choong 4]

Rozhan, many thanks for the pics above.

 

I do remember the seat coverings of the MH Boeing 737-2H6 Adv. I always tried to avoid the red seats but went for the green or yellow when I was young. I didn't like red colour back then.

 

I just can't remember this particular uniform of the golden girls. I think they did revised their uniform during the early 1980s didn't they? From what I can remember, the uniform during the early 80s is closer to the current kebaya but yet it looks different.

 

Like yourself, I also like the kite logos and hope they could replicate it on the new interior.

Edited January 21, 2006 by S V Choong

[Hisham Albakri 0]

I just got a VCD of a 1970s Malay movie called Hapuslah Air Mata Mu starring Sharifah Aini and Broery Marantika.

 

Wow Rozhan ... Hapuslah Airmata Mu ... I am now convinced you are older than me dude ...

[Rozhan 0]

SV Choong. I believe the uniforms were changed to the green and brown batik patterns by the beginning of the 1980s..... maybe to catch up with the changing fashion of the times.

 

Compare that to SQ which hold on to its elegant batik pattern even until today, and it is so famous that it could be branded as 'SIA batik'. I've seen some copies of such batik at souvenir shops around Malaysia, and SIA often comes to mind whenever I see them. From pictures of MSA era, the pattern had already been used then….designed by Pierre Balmain. However I think MAS' kebaya design is closer to the original Nyonya kebaya.

 

Looking back at the seat cushion covers, the colours were indeed very cherry and bright. Since a lot of things 'retro' are back in fashion these days, it would not look out of place in modern airlines again.

 

Hisham, no lah….I’m not that old yet, maybe more mellowed Hapuslah Air Matamu was filmed in 1976 and I watched it at the movies back then. I remember the B737 scenes hence I had to buy the VCD for keeps. TV3 also showed it on TV twice in recent times too. Other old local movie with scenes of planes is Sesudah Suboh, starring P. Ramlee. It shows a Malaysian Airways Comet at Subang Airport. It was a relatively long scene with the plane on the tarmac, taxiing and taking off. I got it at Speedy Video about a year ago.

[H Azmal 0]

At least one of MAS' former B707 is still existent - the 9M-MCQ (9M-ASQ) , though it is in a *very* bad shape. And Uncle Rozhan is correct; SIA got all the 707s and 737s of the former MSA. MAS had three 707s of her own, all acquired from QF in 1973-74 (9M-ASO, ATR & ASQ, later re-registered as MCS, MCR and MCQ respectively).

 

Yeah, I love the old movies also - lots of footage featuring MAS 707 & 737. I'll see if I can dig up my CD archives and post a clip featuring an MH 707 landing at SZB in one of those 'Esok' series of films.

Edited January 22, 2006 by H Azmal

[Azuddin 1]

restoring them woun't be a bad idea. why not restore a 707 or a comet and place it somewhere in KLIA, like the park in front of the airport.

 

Azuddin

[Rozhan 0]

Thanks for the link to the 9M-MCQ / ASQ Hafizi. What an undignified ending after a long career flying the skies.

 

Azuddin's idea is great. It would be nice to have one vintage example of a civilian airliner Malaysia once owned, like what the RMAF has at many of its airbases with those decommisioned military planes. Some are also at a Pekan museum.