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CS-TBJ TAP Air Portugal Cargo Boeing 707-373C landing runway 27L at London Heathrow

CS-TBJ one of TAP Portugal's fleet of Boeing 707s is seen looking great in the evening sunshine, approaching runway 27L at London Heathrow. The aircraft was built as a convertible passenger/freighter, and operated with a side cargo door (as can be seen here if the photo is enlarged). By the time I photographed the aircraft here, in the 1980s Air Portugal livery, it had been converted to a pure freighter.

 

Memories of a mis-spent youth 😎

By 1986, when I took this shot, I had been making regular forays to my home airport of London Heathrow for ten years... and in that time, my photography had developed from using a primitive Kodak Instamatic (1976-77), through a short period with a borrowed secondhand 35mm (1978-79) to, firstly a secondhand Zenith E + 300mm telephoto lens (1979-80), via a temporary replacement Zenith EM (1980), to my first brand-new camera - a shiny black-bodied "Moscow Olympics" special Zenith TTL, with which I took this photo :)

 

The summer of '86 - aged 24, and with a new job working in urban ecology, I had less spare time to visit my old haunt of Heathrow airport. However, after getting my old negatives scanned, it appears that I did make a few forays with my Zenith TTL and 300mm telephoto lens. By this time, I had abandoned Kodachrome 64 as a tad too expensive, and was using Kodacolor VR100 or 200 print film.

 

So over a relatively short period, one August evening in 1986, I shot 20 frames and managed to capture this huge variety of aircraft and airlines:

3x Tu-154s Aeroflot (2 frames), Malev & Balkan

3x B707s TAP cargo, NAC cargo, TMA cargo (2 frames)

2x B727s Pan Am & VIP

2x Airbus Egyptair A300, Swissair A310

1x B737 Aer Lingus

1x B747 JAL (2 frames)

1x TriStar BA

1x BAC1-11 Dan Air

1x F-27 Luxair

1x Saab 340 Manx

1x G2 VIP

Gives you an idea of what Heathrow was like back in the good old 1980s 😎

 

CS-TBJ 'Lisboa' c/n 19179 (Line No. 500) Boeing 707-373C was delivered new to World Airways as N372WA in May 1966. After eight years the aircraft was sold to TAP as CS-TBJ. Although a cargo convertible, the aircraft initially flew with the airline as a passenger aircraft, but was converted to a freighter in the late 1970s. The aircraft was sold to Sicotra Aviation of South Sudan as 9Q-CSB in 1987, transferring to Filair in 1992. To Trade Winds Air Cargo in the late 1990s and re-registered twice, as 3D-CSB then 3C-CSB. To Koda Air Cargo as 3C-GIG in 2001 and then to Air Leone as 9L-LDU a couple of years later! The aircraft was damaged beyond repair in aground fire at Istanbul on 23 Dec 2005 - the end of a very eventful 39 year flying career!

 

Taken with a Soviet made Zenith TTL camera and 300mm lens, using Kodacolor VR200 print film. Scanned from the original negative without restoration.

 

You can see a random selection of my aviation memories here: www.flickriver.com/photos/heathrowjunkie/random/

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Uploaded on January 30, 2024
Taken in August 1986