01/31/2008. This aircraft was delivered to Eastern in September 1961,
registered as N8704E and was given the fleet number 704. In September
1969 it was withdrawn from use sold to to the Norwegian charter
company Trans-Polar, being registered on June 4, 1970 as LN-TUW and
named Richard Evelyn Bird. On May 24, 1971 the registration was
cancelled and the aircraft returned to the USA, and registered again
as N8704E it was acquired by Boeing.
Boeing proposed a special version of the 707-320 as a long-range
patrol and AWS (Anti-Submarine Warfare) aircraft to meet a Canadian
requirement. To demonstrate the potential of such an aircraft, this
720 was converted. It was fitted with dual wingtip-mounted booms that
could accept MAD (magnetic anomaly detection) heads up to 10 ft (3.05
m) aft of the wing trailing-edge. It was also fitted with sonobuoy
storage and launch facilities.
The aircraft was flown in this configuration for the first time on
April6, 1972, registered as N3183B. It demonstrated the capability to
remain on station for 8 to 10 hours, at a range of 1,000 nautical
miles (1,151 mls, 1,852 km) from base, while dropping sonobouys at low
(200 ft, 61 m) and high (40,000 ft, 12,192 m) altitudes.
During the ASW test program the aircraft was re-registered to N40102,
by October 1979 the aircraft was sighted at Kingman, Arizona, being
broken up.
