Originally Posted by
EZYA319
Hi everyone,
Currently writing an article for a UK aviation magazine looking back at the history of the Boeing 747 within Virgin Atlantic’s fleet and was hoping I may be able to have a little chat with any Virgin Atlantic ex 747 flight crew who would be ok to answer a few simple questions about life flying the queen of the skies.
Thanks in advance.
I'm not Flight Deck but worked from 1988 closely with the original Virgin 747 Classics from when they had just 2 in the beginning, ending up with 8 Jumbos by 1990.
Flight Crew was 2 Pilots and a Flight engineer, with 17 or 18 Cabin Crew - The Cabin Crew number got reduced over the years to around 16 to 14.
A beauty therapist was part of the Cabin Crew on most flights.
The Tokyo flights saw local Japanese Cabin crew employed and 2 or 3 girls were rostered on a NRT.
IIRC a ''heavy'' Flight Deck crew of 5 was rostered for the long NRT flights.
Before the better performing 747's were obtained the LGW-NRT VS901 flew via SVO Moscow for a while, but with no local traffic rights.
The Virgin Boeing 747-200B fleet was 7 aircraft by 1990, plus a sole -100 series -
G-VIRG G-VGIN were the first pair flying from Gatwick to EWR, MIA and also charter flights were flown LGW to MCO
G-TKYO G-VRGN came next from SQ with JT9-7Q higher powered engines with better fuel economy and range. This pair opened up Tokyo and LAX.
G-VJFK G-VLAX came from QF
G-VMIA (their only 747-100 and had an underfloor galley and only 3 UD windows)
This was in a high density seating config of 14J/474Y and was solely intended for MIA and MCO flights.
G-VOYG was the last -200B to follow from British Airways/Caledonian, an early build ex SAS 747-283B still with 3 UD windows.
(all were second-hand with various history)
These 747's all had names -
The first pair were maiden voyager and scarlet lady,
followed by maiden Japan, maid of honour,
Boston belle but I'm sure she was jersey girl for a short time, California girl,
G-VMIA was Miami maiden which was renamed spirit of sir Freddie (In honour of Freddie Laker)
and lastly, shady lady.
I left just before the first brand new 747-400's were delivered from Boeing via ILFC for summer 1994.
Later at the end of the 90's Virgin startered to retire the old Pratt & Whitney powered 747 Classics and replaced them with newer Rolls Royce powered examples.
2 747-267B's were obtained from Cathay Pacific, and the whole Air New Zealand fleet of 5 747-219B's were purchased and all were refurbished to Virgin standards and comfort.
Sadly post 9/11 all of these 7 aircraft got parked, then retired quite quickly and sold on.
Virgin went on to obtain at rock bottom prices in 2001 5 brand new factory fresh 747-443's which had been built and completed for Alitalia but NTU by them at the last minute.
These 5 a/c were at first, and then for much of their lives dedicated to LGW with high density seating, with a quite basic Nova IFE suite.
They were used on the Virgin Holidays Leisure routes to MIA, MCO, LAS, and to many of the Caribbean Islands, including Jamaica, The Bahamas, Cuba and Cancun Mexico.
Virgin never flew to the Dominican Republic, unlike British Airways who flies to PUY, but Virgin did fly cruise ship charters to SJU San Juan Puerto Rico.
Some of these routes were also flown from MAN (plus out of GLA & BFS in high season)
It was not uncommon in high season to see at least a handful of Virgin 747-400's all parked on the ground together at MCO Orlando.
I am meeting up next week with some old VS Flight Deck and ground colleagues and we are flying the Virgin 747-400 SIM at CAE Burgess Hill for some fun and nostalgia.
If you have any Q's do let me know and we will try and get responses.