Original Kodachrome Peter Frei

First flown 17 February 1976 and handed over to SAA 19 March. ZS-SPA became the world distance record by commercial aircraft on her delivery flight from Everett to Cape Town 23-24 March 1976 with a distance of 8,939nm flown (10,290 miles, 16,556km). She was owned by SAA her entire career with periods leased to other airlines: Luxair as LX-LTM between October 1980 and January 1981, Air Mauritius as 3B-NAJ between April 1987 and May 1994, and Alliance Air as ZS-SPA between March 1995 and December 1999. Retired April 2002 and broken up at Johannesburg. Photographer unknown

This SP was originally delivered to SAA in March 1976 as ZS-SPA. It also flew with Luxair (as ZS-SPA) and Air Mauritius (3B-NAJ) before joining Alliance Air in July 1995. In February 1999 it returned to SAA but was wfu and stored at Johannesburg (JNB) in April 2002 a nd scrapped a few months later.

Basic Luxair livery after return from lease

Original livery

Back with SAA after the lease to Luxair.

Delivered to South African Airways as ZS-SPA in 1976. To Air Mauritius as 3B-NAJ in 1987. Back to South African Airways as ZS-SPA in 1994. To Alliance Air in 1995 and returned in 2000. Withdrawn from use and scrapped at Johannesburg in 2002.

Leased from (and operated by) South African Airways July 1995-Feb 1999

A venture onto the terminal roof service area gave this view of the famous Alliance SP which served SAA's Uganda/Tanzania/Rwanda joint op 1995-99, just in from LHR. After return to SAA, this 1976 machine was scrapped at JNB in 10.02. Behind, an Inversija IL-76 is being pushed back using its special tow-bar, with Lake Victoria visible beyond. On final over the lake, we had a major bird-strike which took out engine no.3, so I had to wait all day for another SP to ferry up from JNB before going on to DAR