Farewell to the wonderful 747

[KarenBravo]

My father worked for Pan Am and as an employee could bring his family to walk through the very first 747 to arrive in the UK at Heathrow in 1971. Pan Am had parked one of their 707's next to it just to get an idea of the size difference. I was 12 at the time and was totally over-awed.

[Flying Saucage]

Flew the B747 several times with British Airways and Lufthansa, and many times with THAI. Wonderful aircraft. In THAI and Lufthansa, I experienced all three classes. One of my best flights ever was Lufthansa First Class in a B747-800 from Frankfurt to Buenos Aires, which was a 14 hour flight. 

 

Overall, my absolute favorite plane is the A380, though. Followed by A350 and B787. I enjoy how quiet these new planes are. 

[KarenBravo]

It really wasn't the Corona virus that killed this marvelous plane. It was already on the way out way before the pandemic.

It was a rule change. Previously, twin engined jets were not allowed to fly over large expanses of water, so, flying over the Atlantic and Pacific oceans were the sole preserve of jets with more than two engines. This is why the Lockheed 1011 and DC10 had three engines.

The rules were changed to allow twin engined planes to fly across oceans because of improved jet technology which saw an increase in reliability and the fact that the plane could continue flying with only one engine.

The secondary reason was that four engines consume much more fuel than a big twin.

[pgrahmm]

52 minutes ago, Flying Saucage said:

 

 

Overall, my absolute favorite plane is the A380, though. Followed by A350 and B787. I enjoy how quiet these new planes are. 

The 380 is a smooth glider - the 747 is a brawny brute of a work horse....

Edited October 10, 2020 by pgrahmm

[Ireland32]

11 hours ago, pgrahmm said:

When they first rolled out Pan Am parked one next to/overlooking hwy 101 at SFO to display & giving tours.....

It looked enormous, hard to imagine it could actually fly.....

It's served well, a proud bird....

I think the 380's are out of production now, so goodbye to the jumbos.....

I love 380’s 

[elliss]

11 hours ago, pgrahmm said:

When they first rolled out Pan Am parked one next to/overlooking hwy 101 at SFO to display & giving tours.....

It looked enormous, hard to imagine it could actually fly.....

It's served well, a proud bird....

I think the 380's are out of production now, so goodbye to the jumbos.....

 

     

        I think , we can say goodbye , to affordable long haul flights to Thailand ..

        Those were , the good old days ....

 

       

Edited October 10, 2020 by elliss

[KarenBravo]

Did anyone else fly the Thai Orient B727 Phuket-Don Muang-Utapao route?

The B727 that was used was so old it had real leather covered seats and curtains for the windows. 

[Flying Saucage]

3 minutes ago, KarenBravo said:

Did anyone else fly the Thai Orient B727 Phuket-Don Muang-Utapao route?

The B727 that was used was so old it had real leather covered seats and curtains for the windows. 

I put Orient Thai always on my personal black list due to safety concerns.

Edited October 10, 2020 by Flying Saucage

[KarenBravo]

8 hours ago, Flying Saucage said:

I put Orient Thai always on my personal black list due to safety concerns.

Yes, I understand, but, before all the problems were known with them, they were called Thai Orient. Then, they changed their name to Orient Thai and finally One-to-Go.

The interior of that B727 was really something to see.

[elgenon]

If 747 too big, what about the a380? Economical enough to still be used?

 

Are any airlines still finding them beneficial?

[sloperating]

23 hours ago, metisdead said:

My dad was in the US Air Force and stationed at Rhein Main Air Force Base, that was on the other side of the Frankfurt International Airport in Germany.  We went on the airbase ring road and watched the first flight arrival of the 747 which was flown by PanAm.  Definitely impressive back then. 

A memorable event for you to share with your Dad; a lucky lad, indeed.

[KarenBravo]

41 minutes ago, elgenon said:

If 747 too big, what about the a380? Economical enough to still be used?

 

Are any airlines still finding them beneficial?

No. Most airlines have cancelled new orders and are trying to sell their existing A380's.

Airbus made the wrong bet. They thought that the future of long-haul international travel would be the hub and spoke model with the spokes feeding lots of passengers to fly on the A380.

Boeing made a different bet. They thought the future of international travel would be point to point which would allow lots of new destinations. Therefore, they developed the B787 which has an incredibly long range for it's size, but aided by fuel efficient engines.

Boeing won the bet.

[thaibeachlovers]

20 hours ago, MarkyM3 said:

A beautiful aircraft and truly iconic but I never had a massive fondness for it as a passenger. Noisy and sideways movement was pronounced at back of aircraft.

 

Flew several times on EVA and TG 747s from LHR to BKK (TG aircraft were clapped out) but much prefer the 777/787/A350 comfort.

 

Also really liked the A380 flying experience though it's fugly and was 10+ years too late and has no cargo conversion.

I always booked the most rearward seat possible to have only one person next to me, and very convenient for the loos. Didn't care about the noise as watched VDOs most of the trip and ear plugs when not. Didn't notice sideways movement.

[ncc1701d]

I know the op specifically mentions passenger B747's - but for info, the B747-8 Freighter is still going very strong. For example, Cathay's freighter operation is more or less propping up the entire company at the moment. 

 

The A380 (as with most but the the A350) did not perform as well as airbus said it would. The fact that everyone is trying to offload them (only 12 years of service!) compared to the 747 says a lot imo. Who knows. Maybe the 747i will come back some day.

[elgenon]

On 10/10/2020 at 6:23 PM, KarenBravo said:

No. Most airlines have cancelled new orders and are trying to sell their existing A380's.

Airbus made the wrong bet. They thought that the future of long-haul international travel would be the hub and spoke model with the spokes feeding lots of passengers to fly on the A380.

Boeing made a different bet. They thought the future of international travel would be point to point which would allow lots of new destinations. Therefore, they developed the B787 which has an incredibly long range for it's size, but aided by fuel efficient engines.

Boeing won the bet.

I remember when Airbus started to get orders, people derided Boeing for being bonkers.

 

Still Boeing was bonkers for trying to get by (cheaping out) with just modifying an existing plane and it resulted in an unsafe craft.

[KarenBravo]

2 minutes ago, elgenon said:

Still Boeing was bonkers for trying to get by (cheaping out) with just modifying an existing plane and it resulted in an unsafe craft.

Very true, but, I think the Airbus A320 and its variants are out-selling the B737.

Amazing to think that the B737 first flew in 1967 and entered service in 1968. The most successful airliner in the world. Maybe time to design from scratch it's successor?

[elgenon]

I forget the model number that was quickly pressed into service to compete but because of the crashes it hasn't been allowed to be sold until its modification and testing. Obviously Boeing dropped the ball on developing  a similar plane and had to play catchup and did it very poorly.

[thaibeachlovers]

2 hours ago, elgenon said:

I remember when Airbus started to get orders, people derided Boeing for being bonkers.

 

Still Boeing was bonkers for trying to get by (cheaping out) with just modifying an existing plane and it resulted in an unsafe craft.

The very first jumbo was a modified Convair B-36 Peacemaker bomber with a double deck carrying 204 passengers. Never succeeded- before it's time, perhaps.

 

I never understood why Boeing didn't put a full upper deck on the 747 with more powerful engines. They were halfway with the extended upper deck anyway.

[pgrahmm]

Seems, sky's the limit....

[david2923]

The president of the US evil empire will continue to utilize 747

when Trump flew into an Airforce base in Japan I saw two arrive. A single one cost over 210,000 per hour to operate. 

you would have thought god himself was flying into Japan 

[Oliver Holzerfilled]

OP I is this the BBC documentary?

 

 

[elgenon]

On 10/11/2020 at 11:58 PM, thaibeachlovers said:

The very first jumbo was a modified Convair B-36 Peacemaker bomber with a double deck carrying 204 passengers. Never succeeded- before it's time, perhaps.

 

I never understood why Boeing didn't put a full upper deck on the 747 with more powerful engines. They were halfway with the extended upper deck anyway.

I guess better they didn't, with the biggies out of fashion.

[elgenon]

But at the time, I wondered too.

[bermondburi]

Just a plane, couldn't care less. 

[DrPhibes]

I used to be an Aerospace Engineer (second career) and was sad to see the MD-80 series, DC/KC-10, and C-17 lines end. A piece of me in each one of them.  The 80's were a GREAT time to be an engineer in Southern CA!

[fusion58]

I miss that Delta Airlines LAX --> NRT --> BKK flight.

 

Nothing like the upper deck of that 747.