Goodbye Jumbo

Nanniemate

Nanniemate

LIFE MEMBER
Joined
Oct 1, 2019
Posts
7,301
Likes collected
50,637
Funster No
64,882
MH
IH
Exp
Still dropping clangers and making it up as I go along
Sad to see the 'Queen of the Skies' retired so unceremoniously.
I stood as a child on the cliffs of Botany Bay to see the first Jumbo Jet arriving at Sydney airport. The excitement as the Captain positioned her so that we could see the iconic shape was unforgettable.
Time moves on but we now have a generation that do not remember the moon landings and have never or will ever hear the amazing sound and sight of Concorde taking off from LHR.
Yes the Airbus is what it says it is a bus with wings, but will never hold the romance of the Jumbo.
We now have a generation that takes changes in technology in their stride, we get on planes as if they are buses and have phones that record our every move.
I wonder what the next great achievement/icon will be be to come and go in my life time?
 
I remember our first trip to San Francisco in a Virgin Atlantic 747, lovely aircraft but we move on as always something new.
The incredible thing is how many aircraft now stand in graveyards across the world, time for some serious recycling.
 
That's progress. Two engine jobs now more efficient and can cover the same distance more or less. The Airbus A350 XWB has more or less made them redundant. Even the A 380 is no longer built !

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
I first flew in 1953 to join my father in Kuwait. We flew on a BOAC Argonuat and it took 24 hours with a stop in Rome for the night. Over the years I remember the Britannia, the Viscount, the Caravelle, Douglas DC10, and the sleek and revolutionary Comet 4. My final flight back from Kuwait in 1960 was in a VC10 - and it took 7 hours - what a change in just 7 years. I well remember the fanfare which heralded the 747 "Jumbo" and was in awe when I first saw it, and even more so when I first flew in on in 1970 and was lucky enough to be upgraded to Business class. Ahhhh, memories...they don't do it like that nowadays!
 
DuxDeluxe said:
Loved the 747. Upstairs seats were the best
Click to expand...
There was a phase when BA had the upper cabin as economy class. It was great getting a seat there. It made the plane feel a lot smaller and personal. :)

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
kevenh said:
There was a phase when BA had the upper cabin as economy class. It was great getting a seat there. It made the plane feel a lot smaller and personal. :)
Click to expand...
Never knew that..... have travelled economy on JAL internal flights upstairs though.
 
Richard and Ann said:
They still make the 747-8 jumbo according to Wikipedia 👍

en.m.wikipedia.org

Boeing 747-8 - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org
Click to expand...

Think Trumpy's new A.F.1 may be the -800 , end of the line though as even pre CV19 airlines were opting for twin jets for better economy etc, since the onset of the pox the Queen of the skies is simply not viable.

One hell of an innings tho' (y)
 
The BOAC pilots went on strike when the 747 first arrived because I think they were insisting on having 3 crew members on the flight deck. The aircraft didn't fly during the strike which was for around 12 months.

At the time my parents lived in Twickenham, close to Heathrow.

Along with my brother we managed to get into the area where the first 747 was parked for the duration of the strike.

There was absolutely no security getting into the airfield and only one guy at the foot of the steps up.

Amazingly he allowed us on board to have a look around including the cokpit and take photos, so long as no flash. I should still have the pictures somewhere.

How tmes have changed, we wouldn't now get within a mile of a new aircraft.
 
Most of my working life spent on the 747... 200's (Classic) & 400's.
A joy to work on... galleys in the right places, and right sizes for the passenger configuration... though towards the end, BA messed it up, took galleys out, for more seats - crew at the back then had to transfer trolleys from the upper deck & mid galleys... not great for crew or passengers in the middle of the night...
Fave position was UD on the Classic... just 12 Club World pax (& flight crew) look after...
Brilliant standing at the back of the flight deck on approach to landing... not so good, clattering my head on the drop down film screen (no seat back screens then...)
 
icantremember said:
The BOAC pilots went on strike when the 747 first arrived because I think they were insisting on having 3 crew members on the flight deck. The aircraft didn't fly during the strike which was for around 12 months.

At the time my parents lived in Twickenham, close to Heathrow.

Along with my brother we managed to get into the area where the first 747 was parked for the duration of the strike.

There was absolutely no security getting into the airfield and only one guy at the foot of the steps up.

Amazingly he allowed us on board to have a look around including the cokpit and take photos, so long as no flash. I should still have the pictures somewhere.

How tmes have changed, we wouldn't now get within a mile of a new aircraft.
Click to expand...
Same as F1 back in the day. Some People just spoil it for everyone

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
icantremember said:
The BOAC pilots went on strike when the 747 first arrived because I think they were insisting on having 3 crew members on the flight deck. The aircraft didn't fly during the strike which was for around 12 months.

At the time my parents lived in Twickenham, close to Heathrow.

Along with my brother we managed to get into the area where the first 747 was parked for the duration of the strike.

There was absolutely no security getting into the airfield and only one guy at the foot of the steps up.

Amazingly he allowed us on board to have a look around including the cokpit and take photos, so long as no flash. I should still have the pictures somewhere.

How tmes have changed, we wouldn't now get within a mile of a new aircraft.
Click to expand...

Going back further still, the the 1940's my father and step father were school kids in Marlbrough, next to an American airbase. They sneaked up to a bomber parked on the runway and made of with some 20' of belt ammunition, which they then wrapped around a tree on the edge of a quarry and lit a fire at the base (and then retreated). They both used to tell the story for the rest of their lives with the resulting explosion getting bigger and bigger.
 
Robert Clark said:
Better upstairs on an A380
Click to expand...
The only thing I liked about the upstairs on a 380 whale was the huge washroom at the front (MAS plane), the rest was totally without atmosphere and just like any other. 747 had a great feel of exclusivity
 
DuxDeluxe said:
The only thing I liked about the upstairs on a 380 whale was the huge washroom at the front (MAS plane), the rest was totally without atmosphere and just like any other. 747 had a great feel of exclusivity
Click to expand...
I guess it depends on which carrier you’re flying with
On Qatar each individual cabin had a permanent bed and sofa. Chef came round after takeoff to ask what he could prepare you for dinner.

Regrettably the experience was ruined when they lost all our luggage

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
Robert Clark said:
I guess it depends on which carrier you’re flying with
On Qatar each individual cabin had a permanent bed and sofa. Chef came round after takeoff to ask what he could prepare you for dinner.

Regrettably the experience was ruined when they lost all our luggage
Click to expand...
My experiences with Qatar have been with the very comfortable conventional seats. Pretty good all the same
 
Lets not forget the 747 in all guises was the pilots favourite aircraft, in passenger or freight use, it had such a good safety record. I remeber when there was a law that stated all cross Atlantic aircraft had to have 4 engines for safety reasons,.
Its hard to get my head around how some of these massive 2 engines planes are allowed to fly cross Atlantic, as that would assume they could/should be able to fly on 1 engine, with all their passenger & freight payloads.
It was always great to get on a Jumbo and look out towards the wing and see RR written on the side, you felt safer somehow, and knew it would be a smooth flight.
I flew with Air Canada a couple of times on their Combi 400, strange internal layout for toilets across the back.
I also flew (staff travel) with BA, and virgin Atlantic to the Caribbean Islands, always forked out the extra to fly premium economy on the top deck, it was so worth it for a long haul flight.

If you ever had a chance to watch the ramp engineers pull the dipsticks on each RR engine, you would have noticed they had a litre bottle of engine oil, not all of it used after a 7-10+hour flight. If on the other hand it had Pratt & Witney engines you would see the same guy go up and pour in several bottles to top the engine up, as the main bearings were not as well sealed.
Hats off to RR for the development of The RB211 engine as that revolutionised the air travel industry, and had been further improved until today.
I really feel for the airline industry, none of us know how it will end up or who will survive.
Sad Times.
LES
 
Virtually the entire BA A380 fleet seem to be parked up at Chateauroux. I read somewhere that the B787s are coping with the demand. Strange times....
 
MaxJet ad SilverJet were pretty cool.......both went bust shame really
 
I once flew Business Class on the upper deck of a TWA 747 which was very comfortable for 12 pax. One stewardess to look after us from its own galley, and after dinner she went downstairs and as she departed said 'just help yourselves to anything here in the bar.'

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
Several years ago I had a 747 pilot on a VHF/DSC radio course I was running, during the coarse of the day I learnt his occupation and the chat got around to flying.
I had recently flown across to LA and back on a 777 and he looked shocked and said to me that no way would he fly across the Atlantic on one of the 777s as it only had 2 engines and in his opinion was an accident waiting to happen. He explained he had 4 on the 747 and if 2 went down he could still get in safely but he wasn't so sure of the chances of a 777 if one of his engines went down. Made me think
 
The 747 was an awesome achievement, Joe Sutter must have had many sleepless nights over the old girl. I've been watching air traffic closely during the lockdown & the one thing that's been obvious, most aircraft are two engines jobs. I've seen one Airbus A380 & that's been it. Progress is simply inevitable. Farewell dear old Jumbo.
 
TinaL said:
Hats off to RR for the development of The RB211 engine as that revolutionised the air travel industry, and had been further improved until today.
Click to expand...
Ah Les, you are so right about the RB211, I was brought up on a farm which overlooked Prestwick airport in the days when Prestwick was the designated Scottish Trans Atlantic Gateway & the first time I heard that now familiar ringing sound of an RB211 the hairs on the back of my neck stood up & that noise still does the same to me. For those who don't know, Prestwick is also one of the UK's only fog free airports & when Heathrow/Gatwick or other UK airports were fogbound, everything arrived at Prestwick & I'd be in my glory when that happened. Incidentally a crazy aspect of the fogbound days was that they'd hire coaches to get the passengers to the airport they were originally heading for but, very often as the fog lifted, the aircraft took off & would land many hours before the passengers arrived home.
 
The two-engine replacements have to fly slightly longer routes, e.g. over the Atlantic, because the statuatory requirements are that in the event of an engine failure the aircraft must be within 183 mins. flying time, on one engine, of the nearest viable alternate(viable for runway and for weather). Therefore they cannot fly the great circle route from London to Miami and have to fly slightly further North.

Geoff
 
Electric planes next big thing?

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 

Join us or log in to post a reply.

To join in you must be a member of MotorhomeFun

Join MotorhomeFun

Join us, it quick and easy!

Join us

Log in

Already a member? Log in here.

Latest journal entries

Back
Top