The Last Boeing 747 - and other aircraft


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Earlier today the last Boeing 747 left the worlds' biggest building, by volume, at the Boeing plant in Everett Washington. The customer was cargo airlines Atlas Air.

It was number 1574 of a production run that started in the late 1960s. The last passenger version came off the production line in May 2017

Have you any memories of "The Queen of the Skies"?

My wife and I flew on one in 1975, as 10 pound poms Qantas took us to Australia and to a new life.

Often flew on them in the 80s and during the 1990s I flew every month from Sydney to the USA and return. Fortunately many of the flights were taken up at the pointy end. Upstairs was my favourite place to be, much quieter and for some reason more attentive service. Not once did we have any technical issues but nearly spilled my scotch and coke on a very turbulent trip back from Japan. Once flew on a Qantas 747 SP Combi from the USA and you could hear horses whinneying in the cargo section. Once we had to put down in Fiji to refuel due to headwinds on a flight back from the USA. A far more graceful looking plane than the beached whale look of the A380

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My first flight was in a Vickers Viscount from Bournemouth Hurn to Jersey 1961. My second flight was a pleasure flight in an Auster (it was in fact quite 'austere', noisy and bumpy) from a field near

Earlier today the last Boeing 747 left the worlds' biggest building, by volume, at the Boeing plant in Everett Washington. The customer was cargo airlines Atlas Air. It was number 1574 of a produ

I flew from Dunkeswell in Devon to Lundy Island in a X-Air microlight with a Verner 133 engine. On starting up to make the return journey, oil spattered the windshield meaning no return that day and l

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I remember taxiing past a KLM jumbo at Gatwick the first time we flew to America, with BA on a Tri Star, to see family. The sheer size of it was incredible and we marvelled at how they ever got into the air! A couple of years later we went to the states again, this time with Virgin Atlantic on a 747 and the difference in passenger leg room and comfort to the Tri Star was quite remarkable. Also flew jumbo's in 2003 on my first trip to Japan, this time in business class, with JAL, something else again. Tried Japanese food for the first time on that flight out when told that they had run out of the western menu......can't say I was impressed at the time, I thought fish should have batter on and come with chips!!!

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I was very lucky to sit in the flight deck on a Virgin Atlantic 747 into LAX back in the day when you were allowed up there. I was fortunate enough to know the Captain who used to work for us. My favourite passenger aircraft, I love the way they just hang midair on take off. Have been on some pretty ancient TWA and Pan Am ones in my time too with shaking overhead lockers. 
What a great shame that the last one ever has rolled off the production line.

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For about 18 months in the mid-70s I worked for British Midland at Castle Donington (concurrent with Mrs B - although we didn't know each other). At that time the main BMA fleet was prop-driven Viscounts and Heralds....but they occasionally leased a 707, and I remember the novelty of seeing one parked outside the hangar near where I worked. They'd been in production for around 20 years even then, but they still caused people to stop and look.

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One of my flying instructors back in the 70’s was a 707 pilot. His preflight checks on a Cherokee were detailed and protracted just like his day job. He was the son of the famous Hector Taylor from East Midlands School of Flying who Mrs B may have encountered.

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Phil, I don’t recall Hector Taylor but knew a lot of our 707 pilots as they used to pop in and out of the office all the time. I started at British Midland in 1974 so would probably have known Taylor Jr. what was his first name?

We did our Newark rekkie btw today. Thanks for the heads up on the car park, very easy to find and only a short walk to the market which I was quite disappointed with as only a few stalls. We had a good trunk round the back streets though and lunch at Spoons which was rammed.

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Hector’s son was Robert. He moved from flying 707’s at Heathrow to Orion at EMA where he ultimately became a training pilot. I did some of my night rating flying at EMA in the 70’s and dined in ‘The Greasy Spoon’ pre flight. I’ve not been to the Newark Wednesday market for some years. It used to fill the whole square and was very busy.

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Phil, I can’t remember the son either. If you “dined” in the greasy spoon at EMA you would have known my ex mother in law Eunice who ran it. 

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It's a source of some mild regret to me that I've never flown on a 747.

My first ever flight was on a Boeing 720B, which as I recall was a development of the 707. Medium haul, with  4 Pratt and Whitney engines.

I'm reminded of the story of the Rolls Royce engineer who, when asked why he always insisted on flying in 4 engined planes, replied. " Because there are no 5 engined planes".

Can never have too many engines IMHO...

Even though the vast bulk of long haul passenger flights are now twin engined, and both the 4 engined 747 and Airbus A380 are fading, I still feel a mildly uneasy with only two engines.

I'm flying Jet 2 to Tenerife next week..

I don't think they have 747s..:(

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Jet 2 definitely don’t have 747’s  but going back to your Rolls Royce wish friend that aircraft had 5 engines, the 707’s could carry another spare engine which was always called 5th podding. Usually because they needed to carry that engine to another “sick” aircraft somewhere.  Two engined aircraft are totally capable of flying on one but the routing always keeps them relatively near a divert airport for that very reason.

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The first aircraft on which I flew was a twin propellor Douglas DC3 (Dakota). It was operated by Skyways. This would be around 1960. They ran a coach from London Victoria bus station to Lympne in Kent from where we flew to Beauvais in France. Another coach took us to the centre of Paris. Skyways were the first UK budget airline.

 

 

 

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59 minutes ago, philmayfield said:

The first aircraft on which I flew was a twin propellor Douglas DC3 (Dakota).

I first flew in 1950 as a babe in arms from Manchester Ringway to Belfast Aldergrove to be shown off to my mother's family.

I seem to remember mum saying it was a Vickers Viking but not sure.

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14 hours ago, MRS B said:

Jet 2 definitely don’t have 747’s  but going back to your Rolls Royce wish friend that aircraft had 5 engines, the 707’s could carry another spare engine which was always called 5th podding. Usually because they needed to carry that engine to another “sick” aircraft somewhere.  Two engined aircraft are totally capable of flying on one but the routing always keeps them relatively near a divert airport for that very reason.

 

The 2 engine regulations are generally known as ETOPS ratings. It stands for "Extended Twin (engine) Operating Standards or thereabouts and, apparently  in jest, by some pilots and operators as "Engines Turn Or Passengers Swim" :Shock: Ratings are in minutes and state to how far in minutes  a twin engined aircraft can be from a suitable landing strip, on one engine. The really long flights over the Pacific between South America and Australia etc.,  demand high ETOPS.

I'm not a frequent flyer and my last trip was to Mexico in 2019 with TUI. They operate Boeing 787s. At that time there were options for Rolls Royce, or American ( General Electrics ?) engines. RR were having problems getting top ETOPS ratings so I suspended my patriotism and was relieved to discover that TUI had gone with the American option..

Just remembered a few carriers are still flying the Airbus A340, a four engined aircraft.

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I’ve crossed the English Channel many times in a single engined light aircraft. I used to fly down to Kent and take the shortest crossing at 3000 feet to allow room for a glide descent in case of possible engine failure. Mid channel the engine note always seemed to change but it was probably in my imagination! :biggrin:

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One of my memorable Channel crossings was from Le Havre to Southampton, a distance of 120 miles. The cloud descended and so did I to maintain vision. I wouldn't say I was low but I could read the names on the ships! I was pleased when the English coast came into sight.

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Well since we’ve deviated from the wonderful Jumbo to little single-engine planes, I’m reminded of a trip we made from Boca Raton to Destin in Florida, a flying distance of 500-600 miles I think.   A chap we know wanted us to invest in his pecan nut farm up in the Panhandle and said he’d fly down to Miami to collect us.  We parked the car and spotted ‘Doug’ putting fuel in his plane so went over to him.  We all climbed aboard and it wouldn’t start so he asked my husband to fetch our car across to jump-start it!  That was a successful exercise and we took off, heading north, but I admit I was a little apprehensive at that point.  We got to a grass runway in Destin safely, having had an interesting flight with fabulous views from about 7-8,000 ft.  We stayed the night at his waterfront home, went to look at his nuts and then he flew us back to Miami the next day.  We didn’t invest though! 

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So he showed you his nuts, eh? Mmm.

 

Going back to the big planes, I can never figure out how a big plane can take off and stay up there with all that weight! 747's particularly.  So when they first rolled out the 380 I said, you'll never get me on one of those! Guess what we flew to Seoul on? Yep, and it stayed up there!  It was tge quietest plane we've been on.

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Following on from KatyJ's above post, we were once in conversation with a Swedish jet fighter pilot and said to us,....

"What is interesting is that when looking at a wing end on, you see from the shape that it is designed for air to travel at different speeds over and under it,so as to create 'lift'. When we fly upside down, why doesn't that shape then force the aircraft down"?

We were dumbstruck !

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The only time I’ve ever seen anyone with a green complexion was a lady who volunteered to go with a friend of mine on an aerobatic flight . When she staggered back into the flying club she had a distinct green pallor which I’d never seen before nor since.

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My first flight was in a Vickers Viscount from Bournemouth Hurn to Jersey 1961. My second flight was a pleasure flight in an Auster (it was in fact quite 'austere', noisy and bumpy) from a field near Skegness, 15 minutes north and south over the shoreline and back, quite an enjoyable experience.

My first Jumbo flight was about 30 yr ago to San Francisco by British Airways. Interestingly from Heathrow we went not west to USA but north via Western Scotland then south of Iceland, past the tip of Greenland where, following the shortest route  straight line being navigated on a globe, the track was slowly changing west. On the deep blue sea, were visible a few white specks which appeared no bigger than a grain of sugar on a table, i guess these were icebergs 35000 feet below just calved from the Greenland glaciers. Further on and now on a more  southwest heading we were crossing the Canadian shield, hundreds of lakes then hint of civilisation; roads. Looking barely thicker than a thread, with the occasional tiny glint of sunlight off vehicle windows. Crossing the border into USA I guess somewhere in west Montana heading nearly south we arrived over Oakland Bay in SF, rapidly losing altitude, gear down, making a tight right hand turn losing height all the time, final approach northwest and we thumped down in the USA. Happy Jumbo days. 

 

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