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The fleet of the Oman Royal Flight has always been an interesting collection of types. Even though the Sultan was fond of the VC10, it certainly was never the only aircraft to choose from when in need of transportation. Photos from the 1980s show that a Gulfstream G-II carried the registration A4O-AA and a photo from the air shows a DC-8 and two business jets as well as four helicopters. After donating the VC10 to The Brooklands Museum, the Sultan used two Boeing 747SP-27s for his long-range transportation needs. Of these A4O-SP was taken out of service in 2004 and is currently stored at Roswell, New Mexico awaiting a buyer, but as of February 2016 A4O-SO still flies on in the Sultan's fleet. Scroll down to the bottom of this page to see what the interior might be like.
As written on the page about G-ASIX/A4O-AB the Omani registration was removed from the VC10 in December 1991 so that the Sultan was able to use it on another aircraft. It turned up on a newly aquired Gulfstream Aerospace Gulfstream IV as shown on the photo below. It was clear from an earlier photo that the Royal Flight was familiar with Gulfstreams as a G-II has been in service registered A4O-AA. In more recent years another G-IV has been added to the fleet (A4O-AC), although in 2011 both the G-IVs were re-allocated to the Omani Air Force as '557' and '558', and a brace of G-V SPs turned up, registered as A4O-AD and A4O-AE.
Another interesting aircraft which has been painted in these colours is Airbus A320 A4O-AA, which fits nicely with the ex-VC10 registration now in use by the Gulfstream pictured above. This was not the only Airbus to grace the fleet as shown below. Between 1984(?) and 1992(?) there was also a DC-8 registered A4O-HMQ flying in the Omani house colours. This aircraft was a Super 73 conversion sporting CFM56-2 engines similar to those found on re-engined 707s. With this modification it was probably certified to Stage III levels making it a quite useful type. I guess that in the end the 747s were adequate for the job and because of this the DC-8 moved on to carrying cargo for Southern Air. A shame really as it would have kept another classic design flying in this special role.
On 14 December 2001 the Sultan took delivery of another 747, this time a 747-430 registered as A4O-OMN. It was seen a few times with its original registration of D-ARFO before moving onto the Omani register. This did not spell the end for the classic 747SP as this airframe continues to fly for the Royal Flight. This may change when the next Boeing enters service: Boeing 747-8HO BBJ A4O-HMS. Since delivery in 2012 this airframe has not been seen much, which most likely means that outfitting to the Sultan's standards takes a bit of time. Early in 2020 it was carrying out test flights from Germany as shown below. Showing that the Omani Royal household is an equal opportunities aircraft operator, another Airbus has been added to the fleet in the form of A319 Corporate Jet A4O-AJ.
Next to all these airliners the Royal Flight has also used several helicopters and transport aircraft. At least one C-130 Hercules has been spotted flying for the Royal Flight although still carrying a military paintscheme. I have not included these aircraft on this page. Paintscheme All the aircraft shown on this page use the same paintscheme that was originally carried by the VC10. This consists of a green/red cheatline over an all white airframe with the Omani flag on the tail. An interesting point is that on the VC10 the cheatline showed the colours as green over red, while in later years this has been reversed to red over green. This is to do with the fact that on the Omani flag the red is also above the green. Apparently this was erroneously reversed in earlier years but corrected on later aircraft. From the photos above it is clear that it wasn't just the VC10 that used the wrong cheatline, the DC-8, G-II and 747SP also carried this version but on at least one 747SP the later variant has also been applied. Newer types have started out with the correct colourscheme. So what does a Sultan's aircraft look like inside? Although unverified,
the layout below is what the Boeing 747SP might look like. Some
features:
Key to the drawing:
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