Originally Posted by
VictorGolf
I'm with you ZFT. I flew from Heathrow to Nairobi on BA020, a 747 G-AWNI, on 4th April 1972. I remember being absolutely gobsmacked by the interior space on the thing and this was 51 years ago. Amazing.
Yes, BOAC had 11 747s by then, they came in fairly rapidly, although both 707s and VC-10s lasted on in passenger service for the best part of another 10 years. The Jo'burg flights look a bit inefficient for utilisation, night flights both ways, but by efficient scheduling the early arrival at Heathrow can be sent out on a morning Transatlantic, while one of the later arrivals can form the evening departure to Africa.
There must nevertheless have been some performance limitation on the route on the initial 747s, for when the more capable Rolls-Royce powered 747-200Bs came along in 1978 this was one of their first routes, interleaved with the new California routes to LAX and SFO, whose round trip cycle time is just over 24 hours, so it was LAX on Monday morning, SFO on Tuesday afternoon, JNB on Wednesday evening, back the next night and repeat to LAX on the Friday, needing four aircraft.