VH-EBG (2)  Boeing 707-138                        (c/n   17702)
 
                                  

                                       First delivered to the airline in October of 1959, VH-EBG, like the rest of Qantas' 707-138s was
                                       returned to Boeing two years later for conversion to -138B standard. (engine and airframe mods
                                       to increase the range).   Greg Banfield's photo above, therefore, taken at Mascot in May 1964
                                       illustrates it as a Boeing 707-138B.   It was sold to British Eagle Airways in 1968 becoming
                                       G-AWDG.    It passed to Laker Airways upon the demise of British Eagle and then had many
                                       other owners after that, finally winding up in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as 9Q-CLK.
                                       It is the personal mount of (President for Life) Joseph Kabilai (isn't that statement an oxymoron,
                                       especially the "Democratic" bit)?    It is, I believe, still current.        Ron Cuskelly in his superb
                                       summary of the history of this machine indicates that taking photographs of it (especially within
                                       the borders of the said Democratic Republic) is punishable by death.    Puts me in mind of the
                                       time I tried to photograph a Lockheed LASA-60 (of all things) back in the 1960s in Ensenada,
                                       Mexico.  Almost got shot by Mexican troops.  I'm not even sure it was a military aircraft.