
As the 747 Begins Its Final Approach, a Pilot Takes a Flight Down Memory Lane - danso
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/10/travel/747-airplane-jet-pilot.html
======
OliverJones
My dad worked for the US diplomatic service when I was a kid. Our family
started out traveling on ocean liners (on the North Atlantic route from Le
Havre to New York in the winter: no glamour there). There was our journey from
Lagos to NY in 1958: A DeHavilland Comet over the Sahara with four stops for
fuel, and a diversion from Paris to Brussels for weather. Then a train to Le
Havre on the English Channel, then five days of rough Atlantic weather with a
steel plate bolted over the porthole in our cabin.

Then the 707 came along. That was then end of the stops for fuel and the
multiday ship rides. Every trip took a day or too because of the 707.

Then came the 747. And that kind of travel got comfortable. Junior diplomats
don't get to take their families in first class, but I did once see the piano
in the upstairs lounge. Imagine: lifing a piano from sea level to flight level
370 and not caring about the weight! What an airplane!

A have a friend who was a flight attendant working the Teheran evacuation in
1979. They packed the 747 full. People were sitting on the floor in all the
aisles. The holds were crammed full of peoples' stuff. And my friend said the
plane just rolled and lifted off from Mehrabad Airport like it was full of
marshmallows. (Of course, they were only going to Athens from Teheran, and
they didn't refuel in Teheran ... the landing on arrival at Mehrabad might
have been a bit heavy, eh?)

The 747 is a airplane for the ages, and definitely one of the good things of
my life. I hope some people who made it possible are reading this. Thanks, you
all.

~~~
taejo
> A have a friend who was a flight attendant working the Teheran evacuation in
> 1979. They packed the 747 full. People were sitting on the floor in all the
> aisles.

During _Operation Solomon_ , an El Al 747 carried 1,122 Ethiopian Jews from
Ethiopia to Israel.

~~~
dredmorbius
TIL. And yes, characteristics associated with Ethiopians apply:

 _Operation Solomon airlifted almost twice as many Ethiopian Jews to Israel as
Operation Moses. The operation set a world record for single-flight passenger
load on May 24, 1991, when an El Al 747 carried 1,122 passengers to Israel
(1,087 passengers were registered, but dozens of children hid in their mothers
' robes). "Planners expected to fill the aircraft with 760 passengers. Because
the passengers were so light, many more were squeezed in." Five babies were
born aboard the planes._

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Solomon](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Solomon)

------
jacquesm
I used to fly these every two weeks, KL691 and KL692 the flights between
Schiphol, Netherhands and Toronto, Canada.

Then at some point they moved to 777's, and even though it was a nice plane
and far more modern the 747 almost never had a turbulent ride whereas the 777
trips were far less comfortable, especially the red-eye return flight rarely
was smooth enough that I could get some sleep.

Retiring the 747 was one (small) factor in the decision to move to Canada. I
flew that flight so often that I knew most of the flight crew by name after a
year or so, and quite a few of them would recognize me.

It's a magnificent aircraft and the most impressive bit to me is that it was
designed mostly with slide rules and other old-fashioned gear.

Also, this is the only time I've ever gone faster than 1,250 Km/h groundspeed
in a regular jet (and that probably wasn't even close to the record). Trade
winds really helped there but still, it was incredible to see how fast we
moved over ground (or rather, sea).

~~~
analog31
I wonder if the increase in turbulence was due to climate change.

~~~
HarryHirsch
Why is this being downvoted? Turbulence is caused by atmospheric instability,
which is driven by the atmospheric temperature gradient, and that has
increased in the last few decades thanks to global warming.

[https://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/arep/wwrp/new/wwosc/documents...](https://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/arep/wwrp/new/wwosc/documents/Williams_CAT.pdf)

~~~
colmvp
Also I think it should be encouraged to ask questions even if the true answer
is the opposite of what was implied.

------
avar
For anyone wondering why airlines are retiring the 747 this Wikipedia section
summarizes it:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_747-400#Retirement_and_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_747-400#Retirement_and_economic_value)

Summary: Old, inefficient, less need for jumbo jets. Everyone's either buying
smaller or migrating to the modern Airbus A380.

~~~
DaiPlusPlus
The A380 isn't that popular either. The A380 only makes sense for really
popular routes with a guaranteed high passenger count, whereas the 787 is more
flexible because it has a similar range and takes less passengers but is
almost as efficient per passenger-mile.

And in 2016 there were fears Airbus might even cancel the A380 entirely:
[https://qz.com/782361/airbus-a380-airlines-are-abandoning-
th...](https://qz.com/782361/airbus-a380-airlines-are-abandoning-the-worlds-
biggest-passenger-plane/)

~~~
FabHK
The A380 was a bet on hub-and-spoke (Emirates is the biggest A380 operator,
with all flights going to/from Dubai), while the B787 was a bet on point-to-
point.

~~~
filereaper
Yup, Wendover Productions (massive aeroplane nerd) did a fanatastic video
about this, really recommend it if anyone's interested in the economics of
airlines.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSxSgbNQi-g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSxSgbNQi-g)

~~~
mistermann
That whole YouTube channel is awesome, and there are a few related ones that
are also fantastic.

------
WalterBright
In an era when corporations are constantly accused of short term thinking, the
747 was a bet-the-company deal for Boeing. There was no government financing
nor subsidy. It was in service for 10 years before it began to show a profit
for Boeing.

And then, boy did it ever show a profit. And not just for the Boeing, but for
the airlines who loved its ability to make money.

The 747 was a triumph any way you want to look at it - free market, safety,
engineering, money making, pleased customers, etc.

~~~
function_seven
My father worked for Boeing during (or shortly after) the time the 747 was
designed. It was all done with pencil and paper. Thousands of draftsmen
drawing every little component.

I can't imagine the scale of such a process.

My favorite bit about that. If you were take all the drawings produced during
the design phase, and put them on a 747, it would't get off the ground. Not
sure if apocryphal or not, but I buy it.

EDIT: I see in another comment you worked there as well. Maybe you can verify
the "heavy documents" anecdote :)

~~~
WalterBright
There was a joke that the design was not done until the weight of the
paperwork exceeded the weight of the airplane, but I doubt anyone added it all
up.

The 757 was the last Boeing airliner to be designed on paper. They were
experimenting with CAD software at the time, but it was pretty primitive.

Slide rules were long gone. Engineers used calculators, and I snuck into the
computer room and used Fortran for my work that had traditionally been done
graphically with drafting equipment (I had no idea how that worked).

~~~
Gibbon1
My dad[1] worked on I think can't find the right term, but the fixtures that
hold satellites while they're carried into space. Back in the late 60's they
were using numerical analysis to design the things. But have a gut feeling
before 1980-1985 likely wasn't anything that could hold, retrieve and display,
edit all the cad drawings for something as complex as a 757.

Bonus I remember retraining our draftsman to use CAD back in the late 80's,
twuz painful.

[1] Bonus my dad is as old as the DC3.

~~~
WalterBright
Computer numerical analysis was used in some areas. But not with anything I
was involved in (other than the programs I wrote myself), and it was not
connected with CAD software.

Bonus: my dad flew DC-3's :-) He had nothing but good things to say about
them.

------
Stratoscope
I still remember my first time.

I was a freshman at Caltech in 1969, and my friends and I were looking for
something to do.

We could go to downtown LA for a Chinese dinner, or to Tijuana to see if we
could get into Mexico. Didn't work the last time: the border guard said "Hair
too long. Go back!"

Or maybe we could visit Pomona College to try to meet some of the young ladies
there.

That seemed unlikely, so a trip to LAX it was. We'd heard that the first 747
was there.

We dropped some fake psilocybin and made our way to the airport. No one minded
that we were dressed like hippies and acting a bit odd, they were happy to
give us a tour of the 747. It was the most awesome airplane in the world!

------
jsanford
Joe Sutter, lead engineer and PM for the 747, wrote a nice autobiography "747:
Creating the World's First Jumbo Jet"

[https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060882425/](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060882425/)

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1267151.747](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1267151.747)

The considerations for redundancy, safety, and testing for these huge
passenger jets is quite striking compared to, say, the Skunkworks book.

Recommended.

------
pcurve
Boeing is still selling 747-8, but most are sold as freight variant. It hasn't
sold a single 747-8 passenger variant to major carrier in 5 years.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_747-8#747-8_Intercontin...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_747-8#747-8_Intercontinenta)

But the death of 4 engine plane trend continues even for A380.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Airbus_A380_orders_and...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Airbus_A380_orders_and_deliveries)

~~~
jacquesm
End of the line is predicted for Q3 2019 or slightly after that if they can
get some more orders, manufacturing is now down to 6 per year.

------
omnibrain
If you happen to be near Speyer in Germany you can visit the Technikmusem
Speyer and see a 747 up close. [https://speyer.technik-
museum.de/en/boeing-747](https://speyer.technik-museum.de/en/boeing-747)

If that's not reason enough to visit this museum: They've also got a Buran.

~~~
ethbro
I was curious how the hell they ended up with a Buran, given that there were
two, the one that flew was destroyed in a hangar collapse, and the other was
never completed.

Turns out they have the atmospheric aerodynamic test vehicle (OK-GLI / Buran
Analog BST-02).

As for how, it has quite the interesting history. Bought by an Australian in
2000, displayed for the Olympics, owner went bankrupt. No buyers appeared. It
next shows up being exhibited in Bahrain, before the Sinsheim Auto & Technik
Museum buys it (finally moved in 2008).

The remaining Buran vehicle is still in Russian custody.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK-GLI](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK-
GLI)

------
et-al
I once got to go up to the cockpit as a child, and remember climbing up that
spiral staircase, awing at business (or first?) class, and entering the
mindboggling cockpit of switches.

Something about that second floor, with a spiral staircase, is magical.
Recently, I found out that 777's manage to fit a crew rest area on top of the
overhead luggage compartments. I haven't been fortunate enough to check out
one of those.

~~~
hkmurakami
Just as an info drop, the 2nd floor is business class. First class is on the
first floor, in front of the cockpit geometrically.

~~~
sjtgraham
There are no hard and fast rules for the configuration. I've travelled on
aircraft where the top deck was business class and others where it was premium
economy.

~~~
mseebach
Virgin Atlantic even has a few rows of regular economy in the rear half of the
upper deck of (some of?) their 747s (front half is premium economy, business
class is downstairs).

------
nighthawk454
Wendover Productions has an interesting video which touches on this, and the
need for a new middle-tier plane.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlIdzF1_b5M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlIdzF1_b5M)

------
marcosscriven
Would you just _look_ at the padding and space between those seats. I miss
that far more than the plane model.

~~~
tehlike
How much was the airfare (in inflation adjusted dollars) back then?

~~~
filleokus
Previous HN discussion related to that:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15041403](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15041403)

------
rconti
It's truly amazing how cheap flying has gotten. I flew SEA-LHR for $408
roundtrip on a BA 747 in the cheap fuel days of the early 2000s.

I had never flown anything other than coach before, but I was lucky enough to
find a cheap-with-miles business class seat to Europe this summer when I had a
break between jobs. I got to fly UA58 SFO-FRA, top deck, mere months before
United retires the 747. It was truly an experience; it feels like a private
plane up there with only a couple dozen passengers (and more than enough
lavatories, no lines!)

------
WalterBright
When I worked for Boeing, I worked for a time for Burt Berlin, who designed
much of the flight controls for the 747. Talking about the design with him was
always fun, and he was always happy to show me how to do things. He was quite
an amazing engineer and a good man.

------
gluecode
Good interview of author in ‘Layovers’ podcast -
[http://www.layovers.to/podcast/060-nbo](http://www.layovers.to/podcast/060-nbo)

~~~
himynamesdave
I second this recommendation. Since listening I have heard all manner of
things compared to the 747; yoga poses, describing something large, etc, as
raised on the Podcast. It truly is an icon that translates across countries.

------
thiscatis
The pilot from this article also wrote a great book called "Skyfaring". A must
read for aviation fans. Even though it's more lyrical and less technical I
still enjoyed it a lot.

------
Fomite
I've managed one flight on the upper deck of a 747, and I'll never forget it.
To me, growing up, it was _the_ iconic passenger jet.

The 787 is a technical marvel, but it doesn't evoke the same feelings.

------
baus
This is an interesting book on the history of Pan Am and the role the 747
played: [SKYGODS: The Fall of Pan
Am]([https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004J173SS/ref=dp-kindle-
redirect?...](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004J173SS/ref=dp-kindle-
redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1))

~~~
protomyth
For an early history of Pan Am with another type of plane check "China
Clipper: The Age of the Great Flying Boats" by Robert Gandt.

------
vermontdevil
Queen of the Skies.

