Description & Facts: John Travolta grew up in New Jersey, close to Newark International Airport and New York’s LaGuardia Airport. He vividly recalls watching the flight paths of the aircraft and dreaming of becoming an airline pilot one day. While other kids collected baseball cards, John collected airline flight schedules and used airline tickets. He took a strong linking to the long-vanished Pan American World Airways and its individually-named ‘Clipper’ ships, as well as to Qantas for its long over-water flights and its enviable safety record.

Travolta took his first flying lessons in 1970, earning his wings in 1974 in a light aircraft called an Ercoupe.In the 32 years he has been flying he has earned type ratings on the Gulfstream II, Learjet 24, Hawker 1A, Citation 1, Citation 2, Tebuan, and Vampire Jet.

As part of his role as ‘Ambassador at Large’ for Qantas Airways, he spent two months with Qantas Senior Check Captain John Dennis, learning to fly the Boeing 747-400. Captain Dennis has been flying the B747-438 since 1989 and also serves as Qantas customer liaison captain.

Having logged a considerable number of hours in his four-engine Boeing 707, John found the training came naturally as regards the Non-normal Procedures, though he admits that the glass cockpit and the B747-400 Primary Flight Display, Navigation Display and EICAS (Engine Indicating and Crew Alerting System) took ‘a bit of getting used to’. His training on the B747-400 involved some 65 hours in the simulator at Qantas’ base in Sydney and at Flight Safety Boeing in Seattle. Another 15 hours were spent observing on actually Qantas flights.

John’s Aircraft

John acquired the Boeing 707-138B ten years ago. Built in 1964 (c/n 18740-388) the -100B originally belonged to Qantas (38 – in the 707-138 – is Boeing company code for Qantas) and was sold to Braniff Airlines in 1969. Since 1975, it has been privately owned by, among others, the tycoon Kirk Kerkorian TAG Aviation, and AMI: its long period in private hands resulting in the frame having only 29,000 flying hours. It is powered by Pratt & Whitney JT3B-1M6 engines.

For the ‘Spirit of Friendship’ tour, the aircraft was painted in the original 1960s Qantas livery, the color scheme it wore when it was delivered. John named his aircraft Jett Clipper Ella after his children, a title which also kept alive the aircraft-naming tradition of Pan American Airlines. Internally fitted with a full bedroom, several lounges with full-size couches, and two dining-room tables, the aircraft’s layout and design shows what can be done to customize the interior of a large aircraft.

John flies from the left seat of the flight deck.The aircraft is equipped with two Inertial Reference Systems (IRS) interfaced with two Global Positioning Systems (GPS). The upgrades installed include two Honeywell GNS XLS Flight Management System display unites at the front of the center pedestal. The navigation and communications radios are selevted using the electronic Honeywell Primus II radio system normally fitted as standard on the Citation X and Learjet 45.

Captain Joe Duval, one of Travolta’s pilots, said that for the most of John’s personaly flying the pilot crew carries out the flight planning for each sector, using one of two services: Universal Weather and Aviation or Air Routing International, both of Houston, Texas. For the ‘Spirit of Friendship’ tour, Air Routing International was used exclusively. This entailed flight planning, filing, weather, NOTAMs (NOtice to AirMen) customs and most ground handling. Flightplan in hand, Joe will wait for John to join him on the flight deck and then they will load the route into the navigation system together. This procedure keeps John ‘in the loop0 for the whole flight.

In 1992, John wrote in his first book, entitled Propeller – One Way Night Coach. The story is based on a fictional character named Jeff and tells of his first flight, travelling on an airliner with his mother at the age of seven.

Travolta freely admits to being an aircraft spotter. He says that when he feels like it, he loves to get into his car and go off to watch aircraft. Not only is he one of the world’s biggest movie box office draws, but he is clearly one of its biggest airline and aviation enthusiasts as well.

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