if you like the 747 ...
 

.. then you will probaly enjoy this video, just released :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul7LE_oWdHw

I put it in Rumor and News, sorry could not find a more appropriate chapter

Enjoy the scenery.

Thank you for that. Lovely and sad at the same time.

Only enjoyed one 747 ride. That was a business class trip, now retired no more of those.
Upper deck, very good service.
Rest of rides, cattle class, where larger number of passengers through customs in a snag.

All to do with AF's last 747 pax flight from Mex to CDG and retirement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL0rrEOvUlw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBNRJEAOTt8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0X3aiTo_S4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CqsDyLs3UY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFhpEOo2b8g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYgahIt3cZU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY6QE1ItT7A

Jammestab ...
The first video of the thread was absolutely beautiful, and the aerobatic team involved was giving a superb display of flying abilities (a little bit less for the 747, doing nothing except flying straight lines or holding patterns apparently, up to the others to really manœuvre around it)
Now the 7 videos you gave us are just a boring succession of cabin crew smiling to each other, passengers and ground staff exchanging greetings, spotters claping their hands ... totally uninteresting, in my own opinion.

I prefer this one:

SAA used to do some spectacular fly-by's with 747's. I was at a small air show on an 850m airfield close to CPT and they flew a 747 past, did some incredibly steep turns, low passes with flaps and gear down, nearly a touch and go as it were. I'll always remember it - another one to remember was seeing (and hearing and feeling) a Vulcan in the UK :D:):)

Long Goodbye
 

I know we are going to be seeing 'The Queen of the Skies' for many years yet, after all, even the dash four hundreds are only thirty years old! But seeing things like this remind us that this may be the beginning of the end for passenger 747's. I have no doubt that the Freight Dogs - more power to their collective elbows - will be flying her for a long time to come.

Because she will probably 'fade away' like the 707 and the 727, the Comet and Caravelle, there won't be a huge thread like "Concorde Question" in Tech Log. There won't be thousands of devoted followers who rarely even saw her, never mind fly in her, much less actually fly her. Just a gentle acknowledgement of the passing of a remarkable aeroplane and a dwindling number of people who flew in the 747 and actually piloted and maintained the 'Jumbo Jet'.

We will forget the fact that she was for many, many years; the fastest sub-sonic airliner; the largest commercial airliner; the record breaking carrier of people (over a thousand, which might still stand?); and the tireless haulier of the worlds freight. And although beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, the 747, in all its forms, has the same 'function forming beauty' as the Spitfire, Concorde, the E Type Jaguar and the Ferrari 250 GTO. In short, the 747 is beautiful. The A380, in my opinion, is not. It is just big.

Landroger

Many thanks for posting this. I had the opportunity to fly the right seat of a 747-SP in the early '80s, after verifying an avionics retrofit on one of the UAL airframes. I've sometimes thought about, and attempted to calculate the number of passengers which the 747 has transported over the years. The best landings which I've ever encountered were in 747's.

soundtrack???
 

Anyone know the soundtrack in the first post? Shazam won't pick it up.

Je ne sais quoi

Link to photos from the flight

Landroger writes:
I've had the pleasure of riding a 74 half a dozen times in my life, and will certainly miss the opportunity in the future. A couple flights were on the -200, the rest on the -400. I never got lucky enough to stash my hindquarters on an SP.

Regarding the last two sentences in the quote above, I have to agree that appearance-wise, the A380 isn't as aesthetically "engaging" as the 74, but definitely represents some darn good engineering.

Which is what it is all about -- airframers don't deliberately set out to design a wizzy looking aircraft, they design to meet certain goals, and that sometimes results in something iconic.

Thankfully, there *is* the freight market. This means those of us who are fans will still be seeing the 74 here and there long into the future.

Cheers!

Landroger,

I think the Convair 990 was faster

Rottenray

I like the phrase "..isn't as aesthetically engaging...". That could be uttered by any member of the FCO (Foreign & Colonial Office), yet I note you are from Denver? :ok: Don't misunderstand, the A380 undoubtedly represents engineering of the very highest order, but everything in it is pretty much Airbus writ large. There isn't much we didn't already know about.

The 747 was a whole new concept. Everything about her was not only writ large, but pretty much different. Sure the 707 had four engines and swept, supercritical wings, but the way all that was hung together was so different. The materials, the engines (Oh Lord, the engines!), the shape and the cost were all unknown territory. Remember, Boeing almost 'bought the farm' with the 747.

The whole civilised world ought to be grateful they didn't. Long live the Queen.

Landroger

The SP was a strange beastie, not very many were sold. I believe there are still one or two still in service.
I had the pleasure of a free upgrade to upstairs on one of its shortest routes, back in the 70s it did Joburg to Durban on wednesdays only while the A300 was in the hanger for a weekly service.

I kind of felt the same way after reading your post.

Maybe you should have given up after the second or third one instead of having the interest to keep watching more.

I used to fly the stretched version of the SP.

I'm lucky enough to still fly the "stretched version of the SP"...and the stretched version of that!

Lovely, lovely airplane.

Simply my favourite aircraft, never got to fly it as a Pilot but have been around the world on it in the back many times.


There's just nothing like it.