Yesterday British airways staff said goodbye to the last two Heathrow-based Boeing 747 Jumbo Jets as they left on their final flights.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-54457434
Yesterday British airways staff said goodbye to the last two Heathrow-based Boeing 747 Jumbo Jets as they left on their final flights.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-54457434
I was booked onto one of those for my trip to 'Origins' this year
I laugh in the face of danger - then I hide until it goes away!
Makes you wonder what the future of air travel looks like in the next 10 years. All the jumbo jets are being parked and scrapped because nobody is traveling right now.
Would I be considered old if I said I remember when the Comet 4C was phased out from BOAC.
There are plenty of us here, who are old enough to remember that, Gary.
Actually, many have been finding second lives as freighters--remember, the 747 was itself designed to only be a stopgap until the 2707 SST came online, so the engineers designed it from the wheels up for easy passenger-to-freighter conversion; and while 2707 died stillborn those conversion capabilities have been retained in every revision of the basic design right up to now.
Diamondback, that is an interesting piece of history. Thanks for sharing that.
The first plane I remember flying on:
Either this one:
Canadair CC-109 Cosmopolitan, based on the Convair CV-440 Metropolitan. Max 64 passengers.
Or this one:
Canadair North Star based on the Douglas C-54/DC‑4 aircraft, but instead of using the designed radial engines, the RCAF went with Rolls-Royce Merlin engines to achieve a cruising speed 35 mph faster. Up to 62 passengers in sardine mode.
When my father was posted to Europe in the '60's, we flew there. IIRC, we went each of these planes, one type going and one type coming back.
The Boeing 747 was first flown two year after our family returned to Canada.
Mike
"Flying is learning to throw yourself at the ground and miss" Douglas Adams
"Wings of Glory won't skin your elbows and knees while practicing." OldGuy59
Back in '68 we could set our clocks with the arrival of the 747 from Toronto - easily visible from our front window in Richmond, BC
My first ever flight as a teenager was on a 747 out of Boston, to LA. On take-off looking out from my over the wing seat, I swore we were not gaining altitude as this gigantic beast chugged along, wings bouncing about what felt an eternity. I was glued to the window the entire flight. My neck was sore for 2 days in California!
As a teenager I had flown on many different types of passenger planes espcialy the VC10, but the 747 was something different alltogether.
Hunh. Missed this last month. Seems like all our icons are fading away, one way or another.
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