N727RE

Our October edition of "HNL RareBirds Classic" goes back to 2004, and this 727-282/Adv, N727RE (c/n 22430, l/n 1715), owned by Imperial Palace Air, as it made a stop at HNL.

22430 was originally delivered to Transportes Aéreos Portugueses [TP/TAP] (Portugal) in March 1981 as CS-TBY "Amadora". In February 1990, it was sold to Blenheim Aviation, then leased back to TAP. Later that December, it was leased to Somali Airlines [HH/SOM] as 6O-SCG, and subleased to Carnival Airlines [KW/CAA] (USA) in June 1992 with the same registration.  In January 1993, the leased was transferred to Carnival as Somali Airlines shutdown, registered as N6167D, and flew until February 1998. Imperial Palace Air acquired this 727 in May 1998, and re-registered as N727RE in February 1999. The cabin was reconfigured to a VIP layout, winglets were installed, and the JT8D-17 engines were replace with Pratt & Whitney JT8D-217s. It flew with Imperial Palace until April 2005, when it was sold to the government of Burkina Faso (Africa) as XT-BFA. It was withdrawn from service in December 2016, and now sits in storage at QLA [Lasham, UK].