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Chinese Air Line Administration Boeing 707-320C


Chinese Air Line Administration Boeing 707-320C

Aircraft Photographed:

Boeing 707-320C | B-2005
Pratt & Whitney JT3D-3
Delivered to CALA, 1970
Destroyed at HLLM, 1986
Status: Destroyed

The Chinese Air Line Administration was running successfully in the 1960s, using primarily a fleet of Soviet-made prop airliners. Their intra-Asian routes were constantly busy and their aims to expand operations into the newly communist North Vietnam set the airline up for major growth. However, they would find expansion to be difficult even with these dependable Soviet airliners. Placed between the odds of the East and West and the prohibition of Soviet-made aircraft into NATO countries, CALA purchased 12 Boeing 707 jetliners. The first of these -320 jets (the -120 was not purchased as their range was simply too limited to fly far outside of China) arrived in 1969 in the form of the -320B for the first seven units and the remaining five would be of the -320C variant. The type would serve routes to Europe, the United States (via Anchorage), and even as far south as Australia before being transferred to China Capital Airlines for a brief cargo run. They would all be scrapped by the mid-1990s.

This jet, B-2005, was the only Boeing 707 not transferred to China Capital Airlines. It had a successful passenger service life, typically flying around East Asia to western-allied countries such as Japan. As the 1980s rolled around and more capable aircraft became popular it was converted to a cargo-only role. It served its final flight in 1986, landing at Okba Ben Nafi Airfield for a cargo delivery to the Libyan military. It would be destroyed by US-led strikes against the airport a day after arrival. Enthusiasts and conspiracy theorists alike stated that the jet may have been housing nuclear ordnance, however CALA reported before its dissolution that these rumors were false.



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    I like this!