Cologne Bonn Airport offers a chance to be jabbed aboard. It provided a first vaccination session earlier this week, with two more programmed for December 17 and 21.
Airport sources say some 300 people were vaccinated aboard the plane on December 13. First, second and third vaccinations were given by the Cologne City vaccination team, allowing ‘passengers’ to see inside the craft while completing the process.
The plane that was used for the vaccination drive has a long history. The aircraft was the third A300 built by Airbus and was used as a testbed for the European manufacturer’s first aircraft program. According to data obtained from AeroTransport Data Bank (ATDB.aero), the aircraft first flew on June 28th, 1973, as F-WUAD, meaning that the airframe is almost half a century old now.
Airbus held onto the jet until May 1996. It was reportedly wet-leased to Lufthansa between 1973 and 1974, while Transavia had intended to take the aircraft in 1975. This acquisition didn’t go through. After Airbus, the plane landed in the hands of Sabena Technics, where it took on its Zero G role as F-BUAD. It then went on to SA Novespace in January 2005.