John Travolta’s jet to go from Georgia to Australia. Travel time? 35 days.
BRUNSWICK ― Taking an airplane between Georgia and Australia typically requires an exhausting 21-plus hours of travel time.
One jet bound for “Down Under” will take even longer — 35 days.
The Boeing 707 will float, not fly, from the Port of Brunswick to Port Kembla, south of Sydney, over the next month. The 62-year-old aircraft’s destination is the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society Aviation Museum Australia, that nation’s equivalent to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.
Its history is interesting beyond it being a time capsule and one of the first jet-powered airliners flown by Qantas, Australia’s largest carrier. Among its owners after its service as a commercial aircraft are three high-profile celebrities: legendary crooner Frank Sinatra, business mogul and Las Vegas property flipper Kirk Kerkorian and movie star John Travolta.
Travolta is the aviation aficionado responsible for its move. The Hollywood A-lister and accomplished pilot grounded the jet for maintenance a decade ago, storing it at Stambaugh Aviation, a well-regarded service facility adjacent to Brunswick Golden Isles Airport.
Travolta announced the donation to the Australian museum, also known by its acronym, HARS, in 2017. The original plan was to fly it to Australia in 2019 for full restoration. But the aircraft’s age, repair costs and coastal Georgia’s unyieldingly hot and humid climate made that impossible.
The HARS museum raised money for the sea journey, hired a company to disassemble it into a handful of large parts and moved it from the Brunswick airport to the Georgia Ports Authority’s Colonels Island terminal by truck in mid-March. It is expected to depart on the slow boat to Kembla early next week.
Here’s what else to know about the airliner and its Georgia connection.
The aircraft has lived the good life
Qantas put the Boeing 707 into service in 1964 to fly trans-Pacific routes. The airline sold it to Braniff, a now-defunct U.S. carrier, in 1969. It later flew as part of the fleet owned by aircraft leaser TAG Aviation before becoming private transportation for the likes of Kerkorian, Sinatra and, starting in 1998, Travolta.
Travolta is an accomplished pilot who’s owned about a dozen jets in his life, ranging from converted airliners to Gulfstreams to Learjets. His primary residence in central Florida is in what’s known as a fly-in, fly-out community — a residential subdivision with a runway reserved for homeowners.
Travolta’s home, details of which he’s shared on his Instagram account, includes an airport terminal-like flight gate. That allows him to taxi his aircraft to his doorstep like most homeowners park their cars in an attached garage.
Travolta embraced jet’s ties to Qantas
The Boeing 707 headed for Australia bears a retro Qantas paint scheme. Travolta restored the livery design after striking a deal with Qantas in 2002 to serve as a brand ambassador.
The deal reportedly included Qantas paying operating costs for the aging jet. Travolta flew the aircraft on two worldwide tours to promote Qantas and the industry.
The actor kept the branding, including Qantas’ “V-jet” logo on the tail, and the paint scheme was an eye-catching feature during the jet’s tenure at the Brunswick airport.
Travolta’s agent did not respond to interview requests, but in formally announcing his donation of the aircraft to the HARS museum in 2024, the actor paid tribute to what he christened the Jett Clipper Ella in honor of his children, Jett and Ella Travolta.
“Flying is a passion of mine, and I am just so grateful to be fortunate enough to count many hours flying such a beautiful aircraft,” Travolta said.
By land before sea
Designed to fly from place to place, the airplane’s latest move has proved challenging.
Moving the airliner from the airport to the seaport required removing its main components — tail section, wings, engines — from the fuselage. The load was still too big to go via I-95, and it instead made the 15-mile trip via U.S. 17 and the Sidney Lanier Bridge, the cable-stayed span near downtown Brunswick.
The bridge crossing was the “talk of Brunswick,” said Matt Henderson, general manager at the Brunswick port for Wallenius Wilhelmsen, the shipper.
Nebraska-based Worldwide Aircraft Recovery handled the move and trucked the fuselage and parts to the port terminal.
Giving the jet its sea legs posed an added logistical conundrum. Wallenius Wilhelmsen is the biggest user of the Brunswick port, specializing in wheeled cargo, and its ships make two monthly trips between Brunswick and Australia, typically carrying mining and farm equipment.
The ships load cargo into their enclosed holds with ramps that lower onto the dock. The trailered aircraft is 80 feet long and measures about 12 feet around, giving Wallenius Wilhelmsen about a meter of room to spare to fit it on board. The shipper used computer simulations to determine that loaders will need to create a so-called negative angle by propping up the trailing end of the fuselage.
Wallenius Wilhelmsen is used to such challenges: The shipper handles towers as long as 135 feet and has also loaded and unloaded helicopters and large motor catamarans. Still, Travolta’s jet was “unique,” Henderson said.
Ports Authority CEO Griff Lynch said the jet cargo showed the “fun side of the business” at the port.
“Containers and autos are what make us a leading port, but handling that airplane shows the uniqueness of our port’s capabilities,” he said.
The aircraft also had to be fumigated before loading. The Australian government requires the cleaning to curb infestation from the brown marmorated stink bug, an agricultural pest. All cargo bound for Australia undergoes 96 hours — four days — of fumigation before departure.
A voyage halfway around the world
The approximately 10,000-mile ship voyage from Brunswick to Port Kembla will cross the Caribbean Sea before passing through the Panama Canal and into the Pacific Ocean.
The freighter will make three stops on its route: a port on the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal, then New Zealand and then Brisbane, Australia, four days before arriving at Port Kembla.
Weather permitting, the Travolta jet will be offloaded at Port Kembla around May 10.
About the Author
Adam Van Brimmer is a journalist who covers politics and Coastal Georgia news for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
