The passenger plane Boeing 747-200 sporting registration 9V-SQI left the factory doors in August 1979 headed for Singapore Airlines, one of the world’s most successful airlines.The aircraft was to fly for the Asian airline for less than six years, heading for Tokyo, Hong Kong and London, to name just a few. In April 1985, the Greek company Olympic Airways took ownership of the aircraft. With its new registration SX-OAD, the Boeing 747 flew out into the world from the base airport in Athens for 17 years, its destinations including Canada, New York, Sydney and London.
Olympic Airlines was a Greek state-owned airline based in Athens, bought by shipowner Aristotle Onassis in 1956, who made it a successful airline boasting an impressive network of routes and strong fleet. The names of Olympic’s entire fleet were inspired by ancient Greece. The Airbus A340 planes were named after ancient Greek cities and the Douglas DC-6 planes after Greek islands, for instance. Like all the Boeings 747, our SX-OAD was part of the “Olympic Aircraft” category, rubbing shoulders as “Olympic Flame” with “Olympic Zeus”, “Olympic Eagle”, “Olympic Spirit” and “Olympic Peace”. From its very foundation in 1957, the airline has planned out and thought through its corporate identity down to the very last detail. Olympic was the first airline to have its flight attendant uniforms designed by famous designers like Coco Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Cardin. In January 2002 - before Olympic Airways became Olympic Airlines in 2003 and Olympic Air in 2009 - our Olympic Flame SX-OAD was retired and put on display Bruntingthorpe Museum until December 2020.
To begin with the aircraft was exhibited still sporting its Olympic Airways livery with the six coloured rings on its tail, but in 2006 as part of a marketing campaign the aircraft was painted in the colours of the British supermarket chain ASDA and given the fictitious registration G-ASDA. The plane was later redesigned again and whilst the tail of the plane remained slightly green, the rest of its new livery was removed. BBC has reported that British rock band Kasabian even played a secret gig on the plane in September 2011. After an exciting life spanning more than 41 years it was sadly the end and the Boeing 747 was scrapped. The cockpit has been preserved, though, and has been on show for fans to admire at the South Wales Aviation Museum since 4 February 2021.
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