HAPPY NEW YEAR to ALL OUR READERS ! ! !
Transporte Aereo Rioplatense 707-338C, LV-MZE, c/n 19297 in May 1980, possibly at Miami (MIA). (Phil Perry Collection)
Transporte Aereo Rioplatense 707-338C started out life as QANTAS aircraft VH-EBX delivered by Boeing to the Australian carrier on 26Oct67. Flying in QANTAS' famous "V-Jet" color scheme until 23Apr75, the aircraft was sold to British Caledonian Airways having accumulated 26,179 hours over 10,877 cycles. The British airline registered the plane appropriately enough as G-BCAL.
G-BCAL flew for BCAL until September 1979, including a short-term lease to Sudan Airways, when due to BCAL taking on new DC-10's, the carrier started to retire its 707's. G-BCAL was sold to Skyways Air International of Panama in December that year which immediately leased the aircraft to TAR taking on the new registration LV-MZE.
TAR initially only applied its titles to the aircraft while maintaining the basic BCAL gold/blue cheatline and colors but later painted over the cheatline to a two-tone blue and changed the style of its logo too. The aircraft flew cargo services for TAR for nearly 11 years before being withdrawn from service when the airline shut down in December 1990. In October 1994, LV-MZE came to its end when it was parted out at Miami International (MIA).
More photos: http://www.british-caledonian.com/G-BCAL.html
Sources: http://www.british-caledonian.com/G-BCAL.html
http://www.airframes.org/reg/lvmze
