Ever since I was a little kid it was a game when at airports to look over to the international terminal at all the 747’s from airlines all over the world. I sit here at SeaTac right now feeling very old and nostalgic. Not a single 747 to be seen. The only thing with 4 engines is a Lufthansa A340. That doesn’t even come close, it’s the product of a 707 and an A318 and a bottle of Boone’s Farm on a hot and sweaty night.

When did I get to be old and when did the fun get sucked out of flying? Bring back the bright orange Braniff 747’s and the PSA stewardesses in mini skirts.

quote:

Originally posted by 2000Z-71:
Ever since I was a little kid it was a game when at airports to look over to the international terminal at all the 747’s from airlines all over the world. I sit here at SeaTac right now feeling very old and nostalgic. Not a single 747 to be seen. The only thing with 4 engines is a Lufthansa A340. That doesn’t even come close, it’s the product of a 707 and an A318 and a bottle of Boone’s Farm on a hot and sweaty night.

When did I get to be old and when did the fun get sucked out of flying? Bring back the bright orange Braniff 747’s and the PSA stewardesses in mini skirts.

Not quite as old, but I know what you mean. Traveling between DFW and ORD all year and the 747 sightings are few and far between. Cathay Pacifc seems to be one of the more prevelant carriers, BA has put one on their Heathrow to DFW route occasionally as well (my mother and a few friends caught on to London this fall). I feel like I need to plan a trip to London soon just so I can say I’ve flown on one. Very sad to see.

That said, I’ll take a 787 any day over the alternatives.

Braniff, PSA, and mini-skirts? You're dating yourself! How about Pan Am, Northwest Orient, Eastern, or TWA?

Lufthansa flies the A-380, another four-engine that's, er...large, so large that few airports can handle it.

https://www.airbus.com/aircraf...r-aircraft/a380.html

I fly widebody, so I see 747's all day long, but they're not prevalant as they once were. DC10's and MD11's and the Tristar faded from the scene, with a few MD11's and MD11's doing freight. The 747's have been dropped by many operators in favor of the 777; it's more efficient and has what's called ETOPS certification to do long routes over the water, etc, on two engines instead of four.

Even the A340's are drying up, and the A380 has always struggled and is drying up, too.

I flew the 747, started in the -100, -200, etc, and I miss the airplane. It's reassuring, especially in the middle of nowhere, to have four engines, four systems, and a ton of redundancy in an airplane that flies and handles like a big, heavy Cessna.

There are a few 747-400's flying passengers, and the -400 and -800 are found flying cargo, but any more that's when you'll see most 747's...at night, doing cargo.

I'll take a 747 any day over a 787.

My office is on the departure path of IAH, and about the only 747s I see are cargo anymore.
Still get a couple A380s a day, but the guppy doesn't come close to the Queen.

I missed my chance (as unlikely as it was) to get a ride on Concorde, and options are quickly drying up to get a ride on a 747, too.

Great circle (Arctic) route Chicago to Tokyo on a 747, looking down at hostile terrain hour after hour, I was really glad that there were four engines.

Not only that it used to be fun to see the different types of aircraft. They had unique appearances; the 727 with three engines mounted on the tail, triple engine DC-10 and L10-11, 4 engined 707, DC-8 and the queen the 747. Now everything looks the same, two engines, one packed underneath each wing and hard to differentiate from one another.

Excuse me, I need to go yell at those damn kids to get off my lawn...

I got lucky and flew several trips on 747's. It was reassuring to see those four huge engines and enter something the size of a house for those over-water trips.

The upper deck passenger area was the bomb!

RMD

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
Great circle (Arctic) route Chicago to Tokyo on a 747, looking down at hostile terrain hour after hour, I was really glad that there were four engines.

Last month I did a route from the west coast US, across Canada, to Europe. Three hours of really intense northern lights that felt all around us. Spectacular. Some very remote frozen areas out there, and when I'm over them I often reflect on the explorers who went out there with nothing but a compass and a sextant, no idea what lay ahead, and endured months of hardship and dwindling food supplies.

I think about that over the ocean, too; they're very big places when you see them, and I think about the square riggers that crossed them, and Lindbergh in his single engine airplane crossing them. Colombus and Wrong Way Corrigan and the Hindenberg. It's a very desolate, very hostile world out there, for much of it, and on those far north routes, the fuel in the tanks must be monitored closely as it gels and becomes unuseable due to the cold at altitude.

I spend a lot of time thinking about the simple fact that mankind has been scratching its way from A to B for thousands of years, and in the space of just a century we've hit the moon, developed the 747, fly supersonic aircraft, and can read books from pageless plastic pads as thin as a pencil. Truly remarkable. I often wonder what those explorers would think if they could only see. I spend a lot of time reminding myself not to take it for granted: today we do, but all of mankind that came before could only dream of something so fantastic, these things we see now as routine. Truly something.

Plenty of 747 coming and going at LAX.

quote:

Originally posted by 2000Z-71:
...Now everything looks the same, two engines, one packed underneath each wing and hard to differentiate from one another...

Easy way to ID a 777, it's the only twin with triple bogey main gear.

Recent 737s have the large winglets (sharklets?), now some Airbus single aisle twins also have them.

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:

quote:

Originally posted by 2000Z-71:
...Now everything looks the same, two engines, one packed underneath each wing and hard to differentiate from one another...

Easy way to ID a 777, it's the only twin with triple bogey main gear.

Recent 737s have the large winglets (sharklets?), now some Airbus single aisle twins also have them.

737s also dont have covers over the main gear.

The last 747 I saw in person had a space shuttle fastened to it's roof landing at Davis-Monthan AFB in the late 80's.

I need to get out more.

quote:

Originally posted by phydough:
The last 747 I saw in person had a space shuttle fastened to it's roof landing at Davis-Monthan AFB in the late 80's.

I need to get out more.

Same here, and a greatly reduced wingspan (JSC Houston).

Earlier this year from the window seat of a small airbus landing in Frankfurt I got to watch a Lufthansa 747-8 on apparoach parallel with our flight. Beautiful airplane. My last 747 flight was from Chicago to Frankfurt, again a -8. I was in business class along with the Bulgarian national volleyball team. The 7’ young man next to me brought the business class seat to its knees

I shoot skeet at a club about ten miles from Richmond International Airport. On several occasions, I have looked up to see Air Force One approaching the airport with the gear down. It is a thrilling sight. I'm told they practice touch and goes here because air traffic is too crowded in the DC area. Recently, we have been seeing the huge Galaxy C-5's doing the same thing. Now that is a sight, particularly, when it's approach brings it right over the WAWA station, where you are pumping gas, at an altitude of about 200 feet.

A friend's father was a very early Pan Am 747 pilot. One weekend he took us to the hangar at JFK and we got a tour, inside and outside, in the maintenance area.
This was way before there were security restrictions that would keep a similar thing from happening today.

sns3guppy and V-Tail:

Here's a song for you:

Stan Rogers: Northwest Passage

quote:

Cho: Ah, for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea;
Tracing one warm line through a land so wild and savage
And make a Northwest Passage to the sea.
Westward from the Davis Strait 'tis there 'twas said to lie
The sea route to the Orient for which so many died;
Seeking gold and glory, leaving weathered, broken bones
And a long-forgotten lonely cairn of stones.
Three centuries thereafter, I take passage overland
In the footsteps of brave Kelso, where his "sea of flowers" began
Watching cities rise before me, then behind me sink again
This tardiest explorer, driving hard across the plain.
And through the night, behind the wheel, the mileage clicking west
I think upon Mackenzie, David Thompson and the rest
Who cracked the mountain ramparts and did show a path for me
To race the roaring Fraser to the sea.
How then am I so different from the first men through this way?
Like them, I left a settled life, I threw it all away.
To seek a Northwest Passage at the call of many men
To find there but the road back home again.

Although they are cargo UPS has a large fleet of DC-10s. There are always a bunch at Louisville airport flying in and out. Same for 747s.

I still miss seeing the Delta L-1011’s lined up at the concourses at ATL. At least we’ll still be seeing 747’s flying cargo for years to come.