View Full Version : BOAC 747 - April 1971
flash8
1st Apr 2021, 19:54
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1556x600/1boacapril1971_b747completecrewinfrontofaircraftlhr_aoril197 1_16388b7f870cd998cec279ab765c98c5b36e4e1c.jpg
Boeing 747 LHR April 1971 (With due credit to dibley.eu.com (Hugh Dibley))
It is hard to imagine this was fifty years ago, just was viewing and it struck me exactly to the month.
renfrew
1st Apr 2021, 20:12
Maybe the first 747 flight LHR-JFK or one of the proving flights.
I flew on one PIK-LHR on 13th April.
.
Kiltrash
1st Apr 2021, 20:29
Seven hosties per 50 pax sounds about right. But 10 Pilots 😁
My First BOAC 747 flight not till 1975 to New York. Fiance shopping trip and return on QE2
flash8
1st Apr 2021, 20:53
Maybe the first 747 flight LHR-JFK or one of the proving flights.The original label is "BOAC April 1971 - B747 complete crew in front of aircraft LHR - April 1971 (https://dibley.eu.com/images/1BOACApril1971-B747completecrewinfrontofaircraftLHR-Aoril1971.jpg)", so you may well be right (I have no idea personally but imagine they were introduced around that time?).
Seven hosties per 50 pax sounds about right. But 10 PilotsAnd flight engineers :) I think the INS cut out the Nav with the 747 intro!
Arfur Dent
1st Apr 2021, 21:27
Can anyone name the crew? I am an ex 747 Capt.
Airclues
1st Apr 2021, 22:31
Seven hosties per 50 pax sounds about right. But 10 Pilots 😁
Three pilots, one flight engineer, six stewards and seven stewardesses (Stewards had thin stripes in those days).
ExSp33db1rd
1st Apr 2021, 23:44
And flight engineers https://www.pprune.org/images/smilies/smile.gif I think the INS cut out the Nav with the 747 intro!
Akcherly ... the INS cut out the Nav on the 707, tho' the S/O P.3, (Nav qualified) was still carried " Just in Case", but had stopped actually doing any navigating before the 707 was retired.
The early 747's still had the sextant mounting, having been initially designed when Astro was King, but it was designated as the smoke removal port when the 747 was finally introduced into service.
Can anyone name the crew? I am an ex 747 Capt.
Phil Brentnall maybe ? Can't remember..
Bergerie1
2nd Apr 2021, 06:17
Third from the right is Hugh Dibley, not sure about the captain, possibly Phil Brentnall?
My wife and I flew to the U.S. Grand Prix in '77??? with Capt. Dibley. He was kind enough to invite me to the Flight Deck. Good old days!. At the time, he was quite well known as a racing driver, competing with the Howmet Gas Turbine car. Aircraft was G-AWNO.
DaveReidUK
2nd Apr 2021, 08:10
Three pilots, one flight engineer, six stewards and seven stewardesses (Stewards had thin stripes in those days).
The half wings are a giveaway.
My wife is right, as usual. U.S. Grand Prix 1975.
Alan Baker
2nd Apr 2021, 10:38
My wife and I flew to the U.S. Grand Prix in '77??? with Capt. Dibley. He was kind enough to invite me to the Flight Deck. Good old days!. At the time, he was quite well known as a racing driver, competing with the Howmet Gas Turbine car. Aircraft was G-AWNO.
H.P.K. Dibley's days as a racing driver were long gone by 1977. He was at his peak as a driver in the mid sixties, when he was flying 707s. He ran a 6 litre Lola T70-Chevrolet in British sports car races and won the sports car race that supported the 1966 British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch. In 1968 he did indeed drive the Howmet gas turbine in long distance sports car races, without success. He briefly dabbled with racing car construction with an F2 car called a Palliser (The "P" of his initials). There was a story in the racing world in the early seventies that BOAC prevailed on him to concentrate on flying after an unfortunate experience on a 747 simulator!
PAXboy
2nd Apr 2021, 14:05
It was the hairpin turns with the double de-clutch that got him into trouble ...
Bergerie1
2nd Apr 2021, 15:39
BOAC film of Hugh Dibley and the BOAC 500 at Brands Hatch. Anyone notice anything wrong?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov5ZHn7QkFs
spekesoftly
2nd Apr 2021, 16:56
Anyone notice anything wrong?
Just a guess, but portraying Hugh Dibley as a VC10 pilot when he wasn't?
As an 11 year old our VC10 flight to Lagos was delayed 24 hrs due to 'generator problems'..??!! BOAC looked after us wonderfully,, including a trip to the zoo and a ride over to the hangar to see the new 747 ,, It was a lasting impression,, we were all regular fliers and copletely in awe !!
Bergerie1
2nd Apr 2021, 18:42
spekesoftly,
Spot on!! He was a 707 copilot at the time. And a very good friend.
treadigraph
2nd Apr 2021, 19:11
Excellent film, Bergerie, thank you - the cars of that era were so much better looking than they are now. Deliberate error? Showcase the British VC-10 rather than the American interloper? :p
Going back to the original pic, must have been two or three months later I had my one and only BOAC 747 flight - well, two flights I think, Heathrow - Nairobi via a quick stop at Frankfurt I believe. I would have been seven...
Arfur Dent
2nd Apr 2021, 20:25
Great film - thanks very much!
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!
2nd Apr 2021, 23:53
Finally, an aircraft with a proper livery !
ExSp33db1rd
3rd Apr 2021, 03:48
In retrospect .... enlarged the original photo, Capt. doesn't look like Phil Brentnall. 2nd from the right looks familiar tho' ?
toratoratora
3rd Apr 2021, 18:30
Do you reckon Hugh bought that Cobra on a BOAC SFO salary?
The original label is "BOAC April 1971 - B747 complete crew in front of aircraft LHR - April 1971 (https://dibley.eu.com/images/1BOACApril1971-B747completecrewinfrontofaircraftLHR-Aoril1971.jpg)", so you may well be right (I have no idea personally but imagine they were introduced around that time?).
First delivery 22 April 1970. They then sat unused for a whole year in an industrial dispute with the pilots over rates of pay on it. Only 747 introductory carrier where this happened.
As an 11 year old our VC10 flight to Lagos was delayed 24 hrs due to 'generator problems'..??!! BOAC looked after us wonderfully,, including a trip to the zoo and a ride over to the hangar to see the new 747 ,, It was a lasting impression,, we were all regular fliers and copletely in awe !!
That was in the days when this sort of thing happened. Remember a near-12 hour delay on Wardair at Gatwick, we were coached for a tour of Beachy Head etc, ending up for dinner at a hotel in Brighton before getting back.
Last time I had a big issue with BA at Heathrow I got a £5 refreshment voucher ... which the Pret-a-Manger near the gates then refused as "we don't take those".
pax britanica
4th Apr 2021, 11:52
My first ever flight was on a BOAC 747 G- AWNJ ?? , LHR JFK BA175 , which still exists to this day Dep LHR 1100 Arr JFK 1335 . Staff travel trip (via my dad) Thanksgiving Day with Thanksgiving dinner for lunch and 'Afternoon Tea ' Y was pretty good back then
Scotty Beamup
5th Apr 2021, 03:12
Ah those were the days, when airlines were structured for the benefit of the Captain.
About three hours out of Heathrow we were herded out of the upstairs bar which we were told was closed for an hour.
It was so odd that curiosity overcame me and I headed back up the stairs to find the captain having a significant lunch in splendid isolation, being attended to by a handmaiden and the barman.
I was traveling first class.
I understand that in those days the needs of the flight crew had the highest priority, engineering was a consideration and ops had a thing or two to say.
And passengers? well, they were just a damn nuisance.
Lordflasheart
5th Apr 2021, 18:03
...The early 747's still had the sextant mounting,
Murg ..... IIRC - but I wasn't there - Didn't the early 747s also have a LORAN set ?
Mounted somewhere outboard of the F/O's seat ...... Just in Case .......
Where would he lay the LORAN chart if he needed to plot a position ?
It was the size of a small bed sheet. You needed the A Bird's help to fold it.
LFH
....
tubby linton
5th Apr 2021, 21:13
Do you reckon Hugh bought that Cobra on a BOAC SFO salary?
I met him at Airbus training in TLS many years after the normal retirement age so perhaps he was still paying for it.