Last ever 747 has left the factory

[tdracer]

Originally Posted by artee

Useless snippet - I was queueing to get on a 400 on my way to Sydney, not long after Qantas had run a non-stop LHR-SYD demo flight to get lots of publicity. I started talking to the guy next to me, who worked with Shell. He said that the fuel for the Qantas flight was specially made in Germany and trucked over to London for the flight. Apparently it had a higher energy density, or something like that.

Sounds plausible - Qantas bought some increased TO weight 747-400s - 910k IIRC (I think Qantas labeled them "Long Reach"). However, even with the increased TO weight, fuel volume could become the limiting factor - higher specific gravity fuel could address that (the energy value in fuel pretty much tracks with the specific gravity).
I know that over the years, some racing teams have used higher specific gravity gasoline to allow richer engine fuel settings (e.g. more power).

BTW megan - I know the aircraft was delivered at one point - maybe Boeing agreed to take it back at some point (after a substantial 'restocking' fee). Non-deliveries could really throw a wrench in the cert process since the Cert process required us to call out the line number of the first delivery of any newly certified changes. I know I personally got crossed up with the Transaero went bust - I had a change with the initial implementation on the first Transaero delivery (which I didn't know didn't deliver at the time). FAA got all bent out of shape because we didn't properly identify the change implementation - Cert blamed it on me, made me write a disclosure, and assigned me the task of creating a corrective action plan to make sure it didn't happen again. So I put together a plan that threw it back at Cert with a plan that would force them to provide planned delivery schedules to all the various ARs on a weekly basis, with any changes from the previous schedule called out. Funny, I never heard back from them on that one...

[FullOppositeRudder]

Only three airlines I'm afraid:
Air NZ (Auckland to Vancouver - 'twas a long way - and on the TO run I was starting to wonder if we've ever get off the ground...) Return trip also with ANZ - great people to fly with.
Qantas (Adelaide to Auckland)
Singapore (Singapore to Frankfurt)

Lovely aircraft - privileged to have had the opportunity to ride on one...

[megan]

He said that the fuel for the Qantas flight was specially made in Germany and trucked over to London for the flight. Apparently it had a higher energy density, or something like that

Remember an article at the time saying they put the fuel truck in a freezer to increase the density as well as being specially refined for high calorific content.

td, history of the 747 ownership

N458BJ Boeing 747-8 Boeing Business Jets Jun 2012

N458BJ Bank of Utah Jul 2012, Ferried PAE-YYR-SBD 9 Jul 2012 on delivery, Ferried SBD-SKF 6 Oct 2012, std at BSL 29 Dec 2012 - 15 Apr 2022

HZ-HMS1 Saudi Arabian Government

N458BJ Aircraft Finance Germany (AFG) Sep 2019

N458BJ Boeing Apr 2022

[hoistop]

The "father" of 747, Mr. Joe Sutter, was a son of Slovenian immigrant Franc Suhadolc. (Joe`s original name was Jozef Friderik Suhadolc, but, as many immigrants, his father changed surname to more practical English version Sutter)
In 2002 Slovenian CAA, local airline Adria Airways and Faculty of Machinery Engineering invited him over, and on occasion he gave a great lecture about designing the 747 at the university. I was really sad that I missed it - all seats on this lecture were "sold off" in no time. Later, he was still coming on summer visits to his father`s birthplace. His dad left his home village Dobrova (few miles west of Slovenian capital Ljubljana) to Alaska, following the gold rush in 1896, when he was only 17. He had some success with gold mining, that gave him funding to start meat processing business and then raise a family with his wife, Rosa Sutter nee Plesik - she was "geborene Wienerin" - born in Vienna, today`s Austria, but then the capital city of Austro-Ungarian Empire, of which today`s Slovenia was part of.


Joe Sutter visiting Slovenian aviation factory Pipistrel, manufacturer of the world`s first certified electric powered airplane (in 2006)

[Less Hair]

Great picture and post. Thanks a lot.

[Asturias56]

13 Airlines

BA
SIA
Qantas
South African
Virgin
Pan AM (SP)
TWA
China Airlines
Cathay
KLM
UTA
Northwest
Air Canada

[sf25]

British (-100),
PanAm (-100),
Sabena (-200),
Syrian (SP),
Lufthansa (-200, t/o on jumpseat),
Air India (-300, -400),
Royal Air Maroc (-400). RAM had had a bad day with lots of pax stranded in Casablanca due to delays. All pax booked on different flights to their domestic destinations which were about to leave all around midnight. Finally all pax found themselves in the same 747, which made a tour to all major maroccan airports .....

[Badger3434]

Inconsequential addition to this wonderful thread: flying from SIN to LHR in a BA 747-400 many years ago I asked for a cockpit visit (with the excuse that my company made aircraft seats) and when I sat in a jump seat I noticed that no one actually did anything, just the occassional button twirl.Eventually I plucked up courage and asked how come they get paid 150k when it seemed no more complicated than driving a bus down the main street.

Response from the Captain: "Yes, you are absolutely right, but every 5 years we have an emergency and then I get paid three quarters of a million to sort it. So I suppose they pay me in equal installments".

[Bergerie1]

Badger, That's about right. But I would also add that at least half of the salary was earned by recognising an impending problem and then making the right decisions a few hours or minutes earlier, this avoiding the emergency in the first place.

[CV880]

As a maintenance engineer trained on very early 747’s how many remember the following-

· A Main Landing Gear Load Evener system.

· A Standby Horizontal Stabilizer Trim system.

· Engine Nose cowls with suck-in secondary doors like the JT3D powered 707’s.

· 400-600LBs of ballast weight in the outboard engine nose cowls.

· Rotary Engine Start/Ignition switches as used on 707, 727 etc. Replaced by individual ignition toggle switches to enable single ignition starting to quickly identify an inoperative ignition system after too many delays caused by dual failures.

· 2 or 3 cockpit placards stating ‘Disregard spurious indications during HF transmission”. One was applied to the engine oil quantity indicators if I recall correctly.

· No Body Gear Steering ARMED – OFF switch. BGS was active whenever aircraft was on the ground.

· No Auto Brake system.

· Memory tells me the very early Rudder Pedal/Nosewheel Steering interconnect was mechanically activated by a flexible push/pull cable from the nose landing gear (the cable used to break and was replaced by an electrical actuator system).

· Cool Gas Generators for slideraft inflation (a pyrotechnic device that instantly turned the liquid in the bottle into a gas, mounted in the upper door bustle).

· Rotating anti collision beacons that needed fairly frequent relamping.

There are probably more but these are ones that come to mind.

[slast]

Originally Posted by Badger3434

I noticed that no one actually did anything, just the occassional button twirl.

Detailed payslip breakdown:
For twirling button: £152.33
For knowing which button to twirl: £15223.00
For knowing when to stop twirling button: £134,614.67
Total £150,000.00


And, as I quoted in another thread:
"the superior pilot uses his superior judgement to avoid ever having to use his superior skills"

[treadigraph]

Originally Posted by Bergerie1

Badger, That's about right. But I would also add that at least half of the salary was earned by recognising an impending problem and then making the right decisions a few hours or minutes earlier, this avoiding the emergency in the first place.

I heard a story about the Duke of Edinburgh making a lengthy cockpit visit high over the Atlantic in an RAF Comet. After some considerable time with everyone relaxed and enjoying the chin wag with HRH, one of the crew received a brief radio message, acknowledged and changed frequency. "Crikey!" said the Duke "it's all go up here, isn't it?"

[albatross]

Quick Question: Have the new USAF “Air Force One” 747s officially “exited the factory”?
Aren’t the delivery dates 2024 and 2027?

I heard that the tasteless, gaudy paint scheme chosen by Txxxp has been cancelled. I trust there will be no golden toilet with paper shredder option.

[DaveReidUK]

Originally Posted by albatross

Quick Question: Have the new USAF “Air Force One” 747s officially “exited the factory”?

The two new VC-25s first flew in 2016.

They are currently at San Antonio/Lackland having their mission fit.

[farefield]

Inconsequential addition to this wonderful thread: flying from SIN to LHR in a BA 747-400 many years ago I asked for a cockpit visit (with the excuse that my company made aircraft seats) and when I sat in a jump seat I noticed that no one actually did anything, just the occassional button twirl.Eventually I plucked up courage and asked how come they get paid 150k when it seemed no more complicated than driving a bus down the main street.

Sir Dicky Branson was the same, He'd have preferred a maximum activity flight deck so that we appeared to be earning our pay and then 10 hours later when the wx was sh*t we'd actually earn our pay.

[911slf]

Originally Posted by farefield

Sir Dicky Branson was the same, He'd have preferred a maximum activity flight deck so that we appeared to be earning our pay and then 10 hours later when the wx was sh*t we'd actually earn our pay.

A parallel for you. My son used to go caving. No emergencies but events included:

• the water in a fast flowing stream was ankle deep on the way in but waist deep on the way out
• some vandal removed the ropes they had used to abseil in, while they were in the cave
• a newbie had a major panic attack while underground

All three events were reasonably predictable and contingency plans were activated.

[SteveHobson]

B 747'S FLOWN

I have been fortunate to fly in many 747's, but the last few times I flew the BA 747-400's they were really showing their age.
My favourite aeroplane is the B 757, sleek and elegant looking.

BA -100, 200, 400
PAN AM - 100
ANA -400
AIR NZ -400
KLM - 200, 400
LH - 200, 400
SWISSAIR - 200, 300
IRAN AIR - SP, 200
AIR FRANCE - 400
SINGAPORE - 300
NORTH WEST - 200
CATHAY - 400
BRANIFF - 100 BIG ORANGE

[tdracer]

The last 747 - a 747-8F - is scheduled to deliver to Atlas tomorrow (Tuesday, Jan 31) at 1pm Pacific Time. A big ceremony is planned.
It will be available on-line here:
Boeing 747 Celebration (vimeo.com)

[treadigraph]

On delivery to Cincinnati right now - interesting route!

https://www.flightradar24.com/GTI747/2f0b1162

[tdracer]

Originally Posted by treadigraph

On delivery to Cincinnati right now - interesting route!

https://www.flightradar24.com/GTI747/2f0b1162

Yea, they showed that routing during the delivery ceremony yesterday. Nice to see it actually panned out as planned.