Friday, April 04, 2008

A Boeing 707 in the Indian Air Force Colors


View Larger Map


Seen above in the Google Maps view is the ARC tarmac area at the New Delhi International Airport in Palam. The aircraft to the right in the above frame is a Boeing 707 maintained by the Aviation Research Center. Around 2002, there was only one Boeing 707 in the ARC area - which looked like it was gathering dust and like it hadnt taken to the air in years. However in recent years, a Second 707 has arrived. suggesting that it has flown in from elsewhere. And more importantly as the photograph on the right shows, the 707 sports IAF markings rather than the civilian ones of the earlier one. The Boeing 707 carries the IAF roundel on the top side of the aft fuselage and the fin flash - certainly a rare illustration of this type in IAF colors.

According to my notes, the IAF received two Boeing 707s ex-Air India. The aircraft VT-DVB and VT-DXT were numbered K2900 and K2989 respectively - and it is belived that the two B707s at Palam are these two types. I am not aware of any specific photos of this type in IAF colors if you have seen something somewhere, do let me know.
Posted by Picasa

4 comments:

Spyder said...

do u realize that u are in deep trouble because of the information u released!... beware.

Guruchetan Virdi said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Megadivine said...

Hi
Those two aircraft on the google maps picture you have posted are IL-76s.

Looks like you need to observe aircraft some more.

Jagan said...

@Divine

Keeping aside the gratuitous advice about me having to observe aircraft a bit more , you do realise that this post is over two years old.. don't you?

Aircraft would have moved around, Google Maps would have updated its images database, a lot can happen. Infact that is exactly the risk one takes when they embed a Google Maps lnk.

Zoom out a little bit and you will catch the two 707s to the south of the Il-76s.