my first encounter was as boy on a holiday early 70's.
BOAC were showcasing their new 747-136's on LHR-Palma Majorca flights on summer weekends and I begged my Dad to book our next holiday on one -
huge delays due to the early engine problems but was a wonderful experience - we sat right at the back - amazing feeling as we lifted off and rocketed skywards - off course very kid wanted to visit the flight deck
to see a shiny BOAC 747 plus 2 newly delivered Condor machines on the ramp at Palma was awesome and as we taxied out an Aer Lingus 747 landed with a Sabena 747 on the approach
the airlines really wanted to show these behemoths off to everyone on their holidays to the sun.
KLM and SAS/Scanair was also a regular user of the 747 on holiday charters to Spain and the Canaries (tragically an infamous accident one weekend at TCI was to happen some years later to one of KLM's and a Pan Am 747 both on holiday charters with catastrophic impact)
I then joined aviation as a career in 1972 but working with DC-8's DC-9's BAC 1-11's Viscounts and 707's
I started to enjoy many staff travel trips on the Jumbo with rides on
Pan Am
KLM and Martinair
Tower Air
PIA 200's
BA and KT on the 100 and 200 and 400 series
SAA 400 and SP
QF 400
Aeromaritime 300
Air Europe 100
LION AIR/ORION
Virgin 100 200 400
I ended up working on all 8 of Virgins PW JT9 powered immaculate classic fleet
we started with just 2 a/c VIRG and GIN
then we got VRGN and TKYO with -7Q engines that enabled us to go non-stop to USA west coast and Tokyo.
then along came VJFK and VLAX two ex QF machines
next came the more unusual 747-123 series (ex Highland Express G-HIHO)
as G-VMIA very high density and had underfloor galleys.
her capacity was 14J/474Y so with the crew complement and staff on jumpseats and crew rest on this old bird was always at MTOW to MIA or MCO with over 500 people onboard.
I often sat in my car on the ramp at LGW on a hot summer's day at temps over 25c to watch her lift off.
last Virgin PW classic to arrive was the ex G-BMGS from Caledonian and she became G-VOYG shady lady
Virgin did a huge overhaul and new cabin interior on her and she went onto fly for many years.
These were joined by two Rolls Royce powered -200's from CX and the whole ex 747 -219 RR fleet of 5 from TE/ANZ
these Rollers were all beautiful and redone with Virgins interiors but sadly post 9/11 most of this fleet soon ended up in the desert with only some to see work again for the likes of Transaero and Air Atlanta Icelandic.
Virgin started to receive brand new -400 GE powered ships in the mid 90's plus took all 5 that were originally ordered by AZ/Alitalia which has formed the leisure fleet still flying at LGW plus they cover the outstations MAN/GLA/BFS.
common sight was to see 3 of these at MCO, two for LGW and one for MAN
one of my best memories was a lovely sunny day on an engineering flight to DUB for mx at EI Team and we flew very low level out to the Scilly Isles and we did a couple of circuits over the islands - the white beaches and caribbean blue sea was stunning - we were going to ask for an app and flypast at St Mary's but we bottled out of that one.
happy days