Jet Clipper 'Beatles'
SimpleFlying.com recently posted a story commemorating the 57th anniversary of the Beatles arrival in New York City on February 7, 1964. The aircraft that carried them over the Atlantic was a four year old Pan American Airways Boeing 707-331 named 'Jet Clipper Defiance'.
Pan Am had a tradition of naming their intercontinental fleet of aircraft after 'clipper' ships that crossed the oceans in the 19th century.
It was temporarily renamed 'Jet Clipper Beatles' for the return trip to London on February 22.
Contrasted against the image of another B-707 a few months earlier, this was another moment when we remember where we were when the images played out on television. This has always been one of my most pleasant childhood memories.
Surprisingly, this aircraft had a relatively short lifespan. Jet Clipper Defiance was originally registered to Trans World Airlines as N771TW, but never delivered. It was then sold to Pan Am, delivered March 23, 1960 and registered N704PA. Late in its career, it was leased to several smaller airlines including Vietnam Airlines from 1973 to 1975. It was scrapped at Long Beach, California, June 1977.
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Click the icon to view a YouTube video of The Beatles arrival (Posted by Marc Durbin).
