The lady turns in 40 years of service

RandolphB · **Posted:** Mon Jan 25, 2010 12:56 pm

Was this the same 747 that was being slowly stripped at San Bernardino's former Norton AFB a few years ago? The one that wasn't tied down properly and blown around into a number of buildings and damaged even more before it's final demise? I remember somebody saying that it was the first 747 in commercial service in a magazine or newspaper write-up.

Rod Schneider · **Posted:** Mon Jan 25, 2010 9:34 pm

RandolphB wrote:

Was this the same 747 that was being slowly stripped at San Bernardino's former Norton AFB a few years ago? The one that wasn't tied down properly and blown around into a number of buildings and damaged even more before it's final demise? I remember somebody saying that it was the first 747 in commercial service in a magazine or newspaper write-up.

That couldn't have been the one used on the first commercial flight. The plane that actually made the first commercial flight (Pan Am) was a last minute substitution when the plane that was planned to be used developed mechanical troubles. The one that actually made the flight was later destroyed in the ground collision on Tenerife with the KLM 747.

JDK · **Posted:** Mon Jan 25, 2010 10:45 pm

Quote:

The 747 fleet has flown 3.5 billion people - the equivalent of more than half of the world's population.

http://www.boeing.com/commercial/747fam ... facts.html

Quote:

Since the airplane entered service, the 747 family has conducted roughly 17 million flights taking passengers and cargo approximately 42 billion nautical miles (about 78 billion kilometers) - about the distance of flying to the moon and back 101,500 times. The 747 also has established itself as the leader in the air cargo market by carrying more than half the world's air freight.

http://www.flightglobal.com/airspace/fo ... aspx#52258

The Inspector · **Posted:** Tue Jan 26, 2010 1:53 pm

General Electric operates RA 16 as an in flight engine test bed it was PAN AM originally-It sure looked odd when it passed through KPAE several years ago with the next generation CFM-56 for the new series 737's installed @ #2. THe guy who opened the door when we blocked it in for the night was surprized when I looked in the open cabin door and said 'this is an old PAN AM isn't it?' he asked 'How did you know?" I replied "I helped build it!'
And I believe KALLITA still has some -100's (RA) in service.

Enemy Ace · **Posted:** Tue Jan 26, 2010 10:32 pm

I'm probably wrong but wasn't the braniff "great pumpkin" 74 the first as well?
And IMHO Boeing is full of it, there's no way 74's have flown that many people. Maybe boeing airplanes have flown that many people.....
I for one haven't had the pleasure yet. Flown in just about all the others though....

JDK · **Posted:** Fri Jan 29, 2010 7:20 am

Enemy Ace wrote:

And IMHO Boeing is full of it, there's no way 74's have flown that many people. Maybe boeing airplanes have flown that many people....

Well our Boeing employee went a bit higher field, but apparently that didn't count for some reason.

I'll leave you two to discuss reliability of data. I'm not bothered to check Boeing's claim, which I'd suspect is probably accurate enough - unless someone cares to prove otherwise? That's why I referenced some data from Flight as well.

Regards,

k5083 · **Posted:** Fri Jan 29, 2010 9:54 am

I have no reason to doubt the 3.5 billion figure. You have to realize, of course, that those 3.5 billion people are mostly the same people over and over again. If you take 747s to Paris and back, right there you're 2 people; if you stopped for fuel at Shannon, as you used to have to, you're now 4 747 passengers because each hop counts. And there's a type of traveler (mainly transoceanic) who flies 747s a lot, others who fly them hardly ever. So to translate the 3.5 billion into a claim like "most people in the world have flown on a 747" doesn't withstand a moment's thought.

But let's focus on the positive. Many things can be said about this great airplane that actually are true. It was such a brilliant success from a marketing perspective that it changed the scale of intercontinental, and to some extent transcontinental, air travel and forced major changes in the whole infrastructure, and at the same time such a sound airframe that it has been able to compete with the succeeding two generations of competition, and is going to make a running try at competing with yet a third generation. You have to go back to the 707 and the DC-3 to find similarly influential large transports -- and that's an exhaustive list -- and none of the currently heralded wunderplanes shows any potential to be such a game changer. So a toast to this true classic definitely is in order.

August

Second Air Force · **Posted:** Fri Jan 29, 2010 12:56 pm

These photos are of the center wing box and part of the inboard MLG well of a former JAL 747. We found her remains at Clinton Sherman (the same place that saw the demise of many Navy airplanes in the forties) in 2005. For those who haven't been up close to a 747 these give one an idea of how large an airplane it is.

This was c/n 20505, JA8111, and went into service with JAL on 21-3-1972, removed from service in June of 2002.

Notice the "stadium lights" on the far right of the second photo? These lit the apron where SAC once parked a Wing of B-52s and KC-135s in the olden days.

Scott

rreis · **Joined:** Tue Aug 04, 2009 4:42 pm **Posts:** 441

Maybe a little apart for some of you but there is a portuguese artist, André Sier, that has a series of installations called 747 and inspired in the Jumbo Jet

http://s373.net/projectos/projects.html

http://s373.net/agora/7473.htm

JDK · **Posted:** Fri Jan 29, 2010 8:14 pm

k5083 wrote:

So to translate the 3.5 billion into a claim like "most people in the world have flown on a 747" doesn't withstand a moment's thought.

To be fair, that's why they put in 'equivalent to'. It's rather like thinking they mean it's the number of flights to the moon, rather than being 'equivalent to' the number of flights to the moon.

As for the 747's claim to fame, I'd give it the award as No.1 important airliner (and freighter). 'Awesome' is a vastly overused word, but the 747 as a flying machine is worthy of awe.

The DC-3 family has an edge, but also far more significant worldwide use and military service.

Regards,

The Inspector · **Posted:** Sat Jan 30, 2010 2:17 am

k5083,
Dude, you need to watch something besides FOX NEWS, you are taking everything far too literally. Does, by your logic it mean that if someone rides the bus to work for a week and then drives to work the next week that the bus rides never existed? It's an aggregate compilation of the total number of humans who have ridden on a 'whale' at one time or another over 40 years and round trips don't cancel each other out in the real world.
Kick back-have a frosty adult beverage and get more sleep, stop watching BILLO the Clown for a while- :drinkers:

JDK · **Posted:** Sat Jan 30, 2010 3:01 am

'Spector,
Sounds to me like you are channelling one of your texting-assembler students when you pick them up for shoddy thinking...

Mine's a champagne if you are buying. You did say adult, didn't you? :lol:

Regards,

rreis · **Joined:** Tue Aug 04, 2009 4:42 pm **Posts:** 441

wow, was there ever a 747 called "Moby Dick" ?

The Inspector · **Posted:** Sat Jan 30, 2010 11:50 am

JDK,
very perceptive! Full marks on that one-

Enemy Ace · **Posted:** Sun Jan 31, 2010 3:18 pm

I've never heard of the plane being refered to as "the Lady". Always been the Whale.

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The lady turns in 40 years of service

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