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747-100 and -200 | 1975



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Templates by Medviation, liveries © POTKC 2018, reproduction or use not permitted without written and explicit consent.

747-100 and -200 | 1975

(TOP)
Airline - Royal Airways
Aircraft - Boeing 747-100 | G-ADSA
Delivered to the Royal Imperial Air Company, 1971
Transferred to Royal Airways, 1974
Stored at London Heathrow, 1995
Sold to BLTB Aviation Holdings, 1996
Leased to Barbados Airlines, 1998
Returned to BLTB Aviation Holdings, 1998
Sold to Private Owner, 1999
Sold to Air Khalij, 1999
Stored at Bandar Abbas International Airport, 2006
Livery - Standard 1974
Country - Great Britain

(BOTTOM)
Airline - Royal Airways
Aircraft - Boeing 747-200 | G-TRQA
Delivered to the Royal Airways, 1975
Sold to Atlantic Charter, 2001
Sold to BLTB Aviation Holdings, 2005
Stored at Victorville, 2005
Sold to VacationAir, 2007
Stored at Bruntingthorpe, 2015
Scrapped at Bruntingthorpe, 2016 (Partially preserved)
Livery - Standard 1974
Country - Great Britain

The first new type to be received by Royal Airways was the Boeing 747-200 in 1975. G-TRQA, shown here, was delivered in January of that year. The -200s served mostly the same routes as the -100 variant of the 747 due to their similar capacity and performance, though the -200 was able to operate longer flights. The 747-200s stayed in service with Royal Airways until 2003, though G-TRQA was sold to a charter carrier slightly earlier (in 2001), and then ended up flying for a low-cost carrier until 2015 when, at the age of 40, she was stored and scrapped a year later. Her cockpit section, nose gear, and some interior outfittings were, however, purchased by a collector and put on display.

Shown above is also G-ADSA, a 747-100 originally delivered to RIAC in 1971. After the merger in 1974, many aircraft were painted in 'transition' liveries which, in some cases, they then wore for several years. The RIAC/Royal Airways hybrid livery shown here applied on G-ADSA was worn by the aircraft until 1977, when she was finally repainted in the full Royal Airways scheme. Other 747s already delivered to RIAC pre-merger had very similar liveries until being repainted in the late 70s. In some cases - like on a few L1011s and other jets - the various hybrid liveries actually survived until the early 80s.