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Browsing Tag: Cargo

Flying Andy Granatelli’s Indy 500 Race Cars on a TWA Boeing 707

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A TWA Boeing 707 freighter on Runway 25-Right at LAX. Notice that engines 1 and 2 are in reverse and that the spoiler fully deployed - Photo: Jon Proctor

A TWA Boeing 707 freighter on Runway 25R at LAX – Photo: Jon Proctor

Here’s a little background about a wonderful encounter I had with racing legend Andy Granatelli in the late 1970’s.  At that time, I flew for Trans World Airlines on their Boeing 707 and 727 aircraft.

In April and May of 1978, my regular assignment (trips for the month) was to fly a 707 freighter from Los Angeles to Indianapolis. Typically, we would launch very late in the evening around midnight, and arrive in Indy at around 6:00 am local time. A day-and-a-half later, we’d fly a return flight to Los Angeles at 6 pm. That gave us a 36-hour layover in Indy.  On our first trip of the month, I got to the airport quite early, as I had been on vacation the previous month and had lots of accumulated paperwork to attend to. At about nine in the evening, I bummed a ride with a TWA mechanic from the hangar to the TWA cargo facility on the other side of the airport – probably the most harrowing part of my three-day trip.

As we arrived at the air freight terminal, I noticed two large box vans – both painted with the legendary STP logo. The TWA mechanic and I walked over to the vans and looked inside… one was filled with tires, crated engines, tool boxes, and other motor racing equipment.  The second van had two Indy 500 race cars inside!

Lufthansa Cargo Boeing Freighter Order Causes an AvGeek’s Confusion

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A Rendition of what a Lufthansa Cargo Boeing 777F will look like - Photo: Lufthansa Cargo

A Rendition of what a Lufthansa Cargo Boeing 777F will look like – Photo: Lufthansa Cargo

Two years ago an interesting order was placed with Boeing. One that might have slipped under the radar for most.  This order didn’t really make all too many waves in the AvGeek world and to be honest, I didn’t even realize it myself till I was tipped off by a fellow AvGeek.

In March 2011 Lufthansa Cargo put in an order for five 777 freighters and this spurred a large amount of curiosity since it did not seem like the ideal choice to replace their aging fleet of 18 classic MD-11 aircraft.