Boeing 757
 

Is there anyone out can remind me when the 757 entered service with BA.
And while I am down memory lane perhaps someone remembers a Tristar in BEA colours, not for long because of the merger with BOAC.

Boeing 757
 

A simple google search says Feb 9th 1993 on shuttle services between London and Belfast?

1983 surely for the 757 ? A simple search told me that much :rolleyes:

Much earlier I think - I flew them for a couple of years in the mid 80's - a lovely aircraft to fly!

Boeing 757
 

I don't think you flew them in the 80's :-)

If I remember correctly Monarch got theirs in 84 and BA about six months earlier.

The first two arrived in January 1983.

First BA ones built from 82 so in service in 83 sounds about right. All of the first batch still going strong with DHK and EAT with the DHK ones carrying the same registrations now as when they entered service all those years ago.

Flightmech

Why do you say that? The 757 entered service with BA in 1983.

Definitely January 1983. Monarch started receiving theirs a month or two later.

G-BIK_ frames… We used to go past them on the crew bus all the time at BRU whilst they were being loaded/resting on the cargo ramp.

Yes and no.

Lockheed painted up an Eastern Airlines TriStar with the BEA logo and "Speedjack" for the 1972 Farnborough show, but the aircraft ordered by BEA were delivered in BA colours.

http://www.abpic.co.uk/images/images/1034404M.jpg

I think I'd agree it was more like 1983.
We were doing major maintenance on them in 1990.

Update...

A quick check of GINFO shows G-BIKA first registered to BA on 28/03/83.

Monarch Airlines 757s
 

Monarch introduced the 757 to service in early April 1983. The first three aircraft: G-MONB/C/D were delivered with 535C engines and were retrofitted by Monarch Airlines Engineering Ltd. with 535E4 engines when they became available.

G-BIKA was the 3rd aircraft delivered.

G-BIKB first regd 25/01/83
G-BIKC first regd 31/01/83

I said it because I was wrong. About 10 years wrong....ooops

The TriStar at the 72 Farnborough had the BEA logos applied over here (possibly just temporary vinyl decals?)...here arriving at Heathrow in basic Eastern stripes
Photos: Lockheed L-1011-385-1 TriStar 1 Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net

I think I only flew in a 757 once from London to Rome. I don't normally remember registrations, but this one was the unforgettable G-BIKE.

India Four Two, you misread that one G-BIKE is a Piper Arrow.

Originally owned by a company that installs velodrome tracks (founded by a former Australian cycling champion), hence the registration.

The venerable Ron Webb, responsible for just about every well known cycling velodrome in the world. You can experience 3G's momentarily when going really fast around the bends on the smaller tracks.

Do I remember correctly the BA 757's doing crew familiarisation on UK routes in 81/82 ? That plane was always good for a powerful takeoff.

The 757 and 767 didn't fly until late-ish '81.

An Eastern Airlines 757 and a Delta 767 appeared at Farnborough '82 and no doubt did some demo flights in the UK.

EIS for Delta 767 was about 2Q82; 757 about the same time.

First 757 delivered to Eastern was N506EA on 22/12/1982.

First PW 767 delivered was N606UA to United on 19/08/1982. First GE aircraft was N102DA to Delta on 25/10/1982.

Indeed; BA decided to miss out Kilo Echo, going from Kilo Delta to Kilo Fox in registration sequence for the 757. Something to do with Norman Tebbit I think. ;)

Coming back from Rio on a business trip and flying on a Varig or Vasp DC10-30 arriving at LHR around 1130. Rang the wife in MAN saying I was OK and back in country to be told that MAN was closed and all flights canx. Still I boarded a BA B757 and off we flew to MAN. Arrived about 40 minutes later in foggy weather and on disembarking the a/c was handed a CAT111 tie for one of the first B757 cat111 landings in November 1984. I must admit I did just see the runway as the wheels touched. Being an avionics engineer, this was my very first Cat111 landing in anger so to speak, and I was very impressed with the smoothness of the aircarft. I had been on the flight deck of L1011, DC10-30 and A300-B4 aircaraft when cat111 landings had been carried out, but as stated earlier, this was the first in anger. I have only ever, to my knowledge been on a single other which was a LH CRJ200 coming back into MAN and carried out a Cat111 landing.

Nov '83 to Feb '86 - think that counts as mid 80's

We were very proud of the Electric Jet when it first arrived in BA and spent most of our time showing it off to numerous jump seat occupants from all over the airline and aviation world.
I remember the first time we took one into (still Soviet) Moscow on service, thinking as I got off:
That aeroplane probably has more computer power on board than the whole of Moscow put together. Shouldn't we lock it up or something?
But it was still there in the morning, a guard fast asleep against the nosewheel.......

Happy Days! The first, and only, time I was ever able to switch on the last word in brand new ground-breaking electronic technology and use it fully,

without asking the kids how.
;)

I flew as a passenger in a BA 757 from Edinburgh to Heathrow in about April 83. My colleague and I had been visiting what was then Ferranti in Edinburgh, and were studying the possible introduction of colour CRT displays into helicopters. As a result of a polite request, and a business card, to a FA, we spent almost the entire flight to Heathrow in the cockpit discussing the then new EFIS and EICAS systems with the crew. It was supposed to have been a Trident on the shuttle, but the 757 turned up instead. There were 4 captains on the flight deck, as I recall. One of the most memorable aspects of the flight was a take-off run of around 25 seconds, unlike the Trident. Those were the days

Yes, I must have misread - it was definitely bigger than an Arrow! I must have looked at the registration and thought how funny it was that there was a Boeing Bike!

" An Eastern Airlines 757 and a Delta 767 appeared at Farnborough '82 and no doubt did some demo flights in the UK

They did indeed and, using my charm and diplomacy, I managed to get a look around both.

The 767 found it's way to Luton, but nowhere further North of course, due to Britannia being the first operator in the UK.

This is the 757 (N505EA) at east midlands, having worked on the engine design i also got a look in her along with many other from RR.

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...5_filtered.jpg

Spent many hours operating that aircraft when Airtours rescued it from storage. Loved flying the 757.

757 reg
 

Shaggy Sheep Driver, it was not BA who decided not to take the registration of G-BIKE.


We were told that Raleigh Industries had pre reserved it, for obvious reasons, so we had to miss it out.

Ah, thanks Tristar. So much for the Norman Tebbit rumour!

Don't think they had much choice in missing it out - according to the CAA's G-INFO site it was first registered on 18th April 1980, so nearly 3 years ahead of the BA 757s arriving.

First BA one I saw in service was at MAN on 22nd Feb 1983 when G-BIKB was the first 757 to visit on a proving flight. Seemed astonishingly quiet at the time, though now seems noisy compared to the 787.

As a slight distraction anyone here doesn't feel that the wonderful 75 is about as handsome as any airliner built , and such take off performance -even as Pax, it must have been a lot of fun up front especially with the two RRs making that wonderful close to flat out noise..
PB

BA only just missed out on getting G-BIKE - they originally reserved all the G-BIKx 757 registrations in 1980, well in advance of the arrival of the aircraft.

Got a ride in the Eastern Airlines one at Farnborough when it appeared there (82?). The Boeing company don't do flying displays, so it did customer demos, departing and arriving back during the display. Went to Lands End and back; no alcohol served on board.

I was lucky enough to get a flightdeck trip on a BA 757 from Heathrow to Schiphol one evening a few years ago (pre-2001 of course). For such a short trip I guess we were pretty light, so ATC invited us to go over the inbound stacks rather than under as was the norm. (I think they termed it "can you be at FL120 by such and such a point" but I understood to amount to the same). I don't remember how quickly we were up over 12000 feet, but it didn't take long. As fog had been forecast for Schiphol (but hadn't materialised when we got there - was as clear as a bell) the captain asked me to decide if they should do an autoland or a manual. Naturally never having seen an autoland closeup I asked for that, which was kindly obliged.

A truly memorable ride due to the hospitality of the flightdeck crew, such a shame that I won't get the experience again.