Fly Past

10 FLYPAST May 2018

briefi ngs

NEWS THE LATEST IN AVIATION HERITAGE

A small crowd gathered outside

Ferra Aerospace in Grove,

Oklahoma, on February 26 to

witness the arrival of McDonnell

Douglas F-4E Phantom 71-0247.

In a project led by Beverly

and Dave Helms, the Grove Rotary

Foundation and other community

groups raised money to secure the

jet’s transfer from Holloman Air Force

Base in New Mexico. Ferra’s site

manager Mike Tackett donated nearly

an acre of land for the Phantom, and

the company will also install cameras

and provide electric lighting.

Built in 1971, it fl ew with the

480th Tactical Fighter Squadron,

52nd Tactical Fighter Wing, from

Spangdahlem, Germany in the early

1980s. By April 1990 it had been

retired to the 309th Aerospace

Maintenance and Regeneration

Center in Arizona, and was

transferred to Holloman in 1995.

Phantom on show in company car park

McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom 71-

outside Ferra Aerospace in March.

TONY SACKETOS

End of the road for

Argentina’s Boeing 707s

The Argentine Air Force has begun to dismantle four of the 1st Air Brigade’s fi ve Boeing

707s stationed in El Palomar, Buenos Aires. The former airliners have not fl own for over

ten years. The fi rst aircraft to be taken apart was 707-387B T-95, previously LV-ISD of

Aerolíneas Argentinas. ALEXIS BLANCO VIA JUAN CARLOS CICALESI

Classic British propliner

preserved in Thailand

Avro 748 Series 208 60301 was put on display at the Royal Thai Air Force Museum in Don Mueang,
Bangkok late last year. The aircraft was fi rst fl own at the end of 1964, and arrived in Thailand
the following year. It spent its entire career fl ying with the nation’s air force, before fi nally being
withdrawn from service in March 2016. GERRY MANNING

Scottish Aviation Bulldog G-CCOA has

arrived at Sandown, on the Isle of Wight.

It is destined to go on display at the Wight

Aviation Museum which will open this

summer. The attraction will showcase the

island’s rich aviation history and document

the small regional airlines that eventually

became British Airways. PHOTO-DEREK BARRETT

In our last issue an item was wrongly edited to

suggest that the Westland Lynx made its fi nal

fl ight ‘in RAF hands’. This is of course untrue

as the Lynx was mostly fl own by the Army

Air Corps and Royal Navy; never the RAF. The

last AH.9As fl ew with the AAC’s 657 Squadron.

Apologies for the error and thanks to all who

contacted us to put the record straight.