Qantas Airways Limited Boeing 747-238B

VH-EBA

EBA was intiailly one of four Boeing 747-100s ordered by the Mascot based carrier in October of 1967.
Two years later, that order was changed to the Boeing 747-200 and allocated Boeing Block Number RB001
She rolled off the Everett line in June of 1971 and was delivered to Qantas in July of that year.

EBA was the 35th Boeing airliner delivered new to Qantas, and the first Boeing 747. Named City of Canberra, she became the flagship of the Qantas 747 fleet.
Entering into revenue service as Qantas Flight QF727 Sydney-Perth-Singapore on September 17, 1971, she'd then be returned to Boeing less then 12 months later for substantial wing modifications.
As was common at the time, this 747 was delivered with a 9 abreast economy cabin and flew as a 3-3-3 economy configuration till modifications took place in 1976.

Australian entrepreneur Dick Smith charted VH-EBA for the first antarctic scenic flight in Feburary of 1977, nearly 3 years before the tragic events that unfolded on the slopes of Mount Erebus.
She'd serve Qantas faithfully through till 1993, going through numerous subleasors and name changes.
Finally, on March 29th 1993, VH-EBA - now named City of Ipswich, flew her last revenue service for the airline, as Qantas Flight QF28, a Hong Kong (Kai Tak)-Sydney sector.
Heavy maintance was then conducted on the former Qantas flagship, before departing Australian shores for the last time as QF501D from Sydney to San Bernardino's Norton Air Force Base.
Now registered N614AR, she was then ferried to Marana for long term storage. Surely the story ends here, right?

Nope.
Enter Trans World Airlines.
The St Louis based carrier had been sniffing around for 747s it could use to supplement it's ragtag fleet of aging 747s and L1011s, N614AR was a perfect fit for them. Now sporting a fresh, eurowhite scheme with TWA 'Globe' titles tacked on, she was pressed into TWA service in 1996 as N307TW. Just 6 months later, N307TW became even too terrible for TWA to justify operating, so they parked it again. This time, they offered it to the Argentinians, who loved the idea of this basically brand new 747!

LV-WYT as she was now known, served with Buenos Aires' based Argentine Flag Carrier Aerolíneas Argentinas for 12 months, before being returned to the United States. Surely EBA could finally die?

Wrong.

Reregistered yet again, as HI-756CA, it then started service with Dominican Republic carrier Aeromar Líneas Aéreas Dominicanas for just over 4 months, before being stored at Miami-Opa Locka Airport.
However, all was not lost, as hope a new operator was found!
Transjet of Sweden valiently took up ownership of this fine beast, registering her SE-RBP on the 25th of March in 2002.
However, all was not well for the Swedish carrier and on the 10th of July that same year, just 107 days after taking delivery, Transjet Airways of Sweden ceased operations and SE-RBP was stored at Arlanda, awaiting the scrapper's heap.

Never wanting to pass up a bargain, Swaziland based North East Airlines decided they needed a new 747 and after 2 years of storage, SE-RBP was perfect for them. Entering the Swaziland Registry as 3D-NED and it was pressed into service for the high demand 747 routes that Swaziland has to offer!

As was starting to become a pattern with this particular aircraft, North East Airlines went bankrupt sometime between January 2004 and December 2006. Surely this is the end of our story? Nope.
Kallat El-Saker Air Company is a Libyian based airline that, for whatever reason, decides a 35 year old Boeing 747 with a questionable past is the fleet addition they sorely need. Again registered, this time on the Burkina Faso Registry as XT-DMS, she served her final operator faithfully for 4 years, before being finally, *finally*, retired for good at Riyadh Airport in January of 2010.
There, she was scrapped in 2012, almost mercifully.

Thus ends the story of VH-EBA, also known as 4R-ULF, N307TW, LV-WYT, HI-756CA, SE-RBP, 3D-NED and XT-DMS, the first Qantas 747.

For those curious, at the time of her scrapping, she had served the following carriers in some form or another: Qantas, Air Lanka, Air New Zealand, Trans World Airlines, Aerolíneas Argentinas, Aeromar Líneas Aéreas Dominicanas, Transjet Airways, North East Airlines and Kallat El-Saker Air Company.

Here's some fantastic period photos of VH-EBA as well as pictures of her with some of her subsequent operators.