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| British Airways retires its entire fleet of 747s | Login/Join |
Has Achieved Nirvana |
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-53426886
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| Serial origamist Has Achieved Nirvana  |
The 747 is a great airplane, but compared to others, like the 777, it costs a little more to operate and may be bigger than even an august carrier like BA needs right now. The largest 777 can carry almost as many people and can go about as far with lower fuel costs (two engines versus four) and lower maintenance costs. The 747 has been and icon since it first came out. It is one of the five most recognizable man-made objects, right up there with the Coca-Cola bottle. It funny that I've seen an oblique, but clearly 747-shaped airplane outline on a road sign pointing to an airport... but it was an airport with a 3000-foot runway -- where you'd land a Cessna, not a 747. But like "Coleman" means "camping", "Kleenex" means "snotwipe", an image of a 747 means "airplane". They are still being built today, nearly all are cargo airplanes. A few of the passenger version are built for VIP airplanes. The two that will be the new Air Force One fleet were actually built in 2013 for an airline that went out of business. I flew on BA's 747s several times. I especially liked being upstairs where in many of their airplanes, that was Business Class. Upstairs, the airplane is only as wide as a 737, so it's cozy and uncrowded, but with all of the comfort and stable ride the jumbo has to offer. Once, long before Sept 11 and the security changes that ensued, I once visited the flight deck somewhere over the Atlantic. Two kids were also visiting the flight deck. I grabbed some juggling balls from my carry-on bag (because, one should *always* have juggling balls in one's carry-on bag!) and juggled for the entertainment of the flight crew and the visiting kids. How many of you can say you've done that? If you're ever in Seattle, visit the Museum of Flight and you can walk through the first ever 747. It's all open inside, so you can see all the workings. It's pretty cool... if you're any sort of geek at all.
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Minor Deity |
Nice, one of these days ... 
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Has Achieved Nirvana |
Back in my day it was 727's.   | |||
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| Has Achieved Nirvana |
Well, I did manage to engineer a visit to the cockpit to chat with the BA pilot and co-pilot on my flight back from London. We were somewhere over Hudson's Bay. We talked about beer. But you got me on the juggling part....
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Has Achieved Nirvana |
I’m so glad I got the boy on one last year. He will be sad to hear this. Got him on an A380 also, and those are earmarked for discontinuation too.
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| Serial origamist Has Achieved Nirvana |
If you bring the boy to Seattle sometime, we can go on the factory tour. It's pretty cool. It's the largest building by volume in the world. Imagine a building big enough you can actually misplace a 747 in it. That's how big it is.
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| Pinta & the Santa Maria Has Achieved Nirvana  |
One of my goofiest 747 memories... I had a mileage upgrade from SFO - Honolulu years ago, and they put me in "the bubble." This was on the model where the bubble was much smaller -- I don't know if that was an early model or a later one. At any rate, the airline was having a contest to see who could come the closest to guessing when we were exactly halfway to Honolulu, and they did it by cabin. There were maybe 6-7 of us in the bubble, and I won! I may well have been the only person who actually did the contest. It remains one of the few times I've ever won anything, and the wine was pretty good!  | |||
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| "I've got morons on my team." Mitt Romney Minor Deity  |
Wow, I remember one of those contests too. I think I was 12, and we were flying back to Nassau from somewhere in Europe. Even at 12 I had to laugh at the 'contest.' They gave you the airspeed, the current time, your current position, and the mileage to go to get to Nassau and asked you to calculate something silly like "At what time will we be 1000 miles out of Nassau." I muttered something like, "arithmetic," and won whatever little prize that was on offer. It wasn't a glass of wine, alas. I really liked the 747. I think the longest flight on one was Honolulu to Atlanta non-stop. I was used to 707s and DC-8s, which were much narrower. Never got to fly in the bubble, though. | |||
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| Serial origamist Has Achieved Nirvana |
Ahem. The correct term, as used by aviation enthusiasts the world over, is “the hump”. Thank you.
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| Serial origamist Has Achieved Nirvana |
And did I ever tell you about the time I got out of Kreplachia in the flight deck of a 747?
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| "I've got morons on my team." Mitt Romney Minor Deity |
Is that a small fishing village wedged between Latvia and Estonia?  | |||
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| Has Achieved Nirvana |
Seriously, I flew in one once. I was 14. It was a school trip to London. I enjoyed it. I'm glad I had the experience. And, yes, my friends and I sat in the hump away from the chaperones.  | |||
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| Has Achieved Nirvana |
That would be AWESOME
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well-temperedforum.groupee.net The Well-Tempered Forum Off Key British Airways retires its entire fleet of 747s