G-VFAB, Boeing 747-4Q8 Lady Penelope, 2009
I mentioned in my last post that I’d come back to the topic of the passing of the Boeing 747 era. Here are a few pictures of Virgin Atlantic 747s to commemorate them.
I’ve flown on 747s from many airlines, with experiences that are quite varied :-). For example, I flew from London to Delhi on Syrian Arab Airlines once in the early ’80s: a tedious, multi-leg trip featuring stop-offs in Damascus and elsewhere. We landed on a Damascus runway lined with the hardened shelters of Syrian air force fighter jets (MiG-21 possibly??), a slightly alarming sight (even for an AvGeek) in view of continuing tensions between regional powers at that time. That flight was by far the cheapest available to a group of impoverished students: it was in the days of shady bucket shops operating behind Oxford St.
I flew across the Atlantic on a PanAm 747 shortly after the Lockerbie disaster: I was less worried about the prospect of a bomb on board than the extreme rattling of all the seats and overhead bins as we ran down the runway for take-off: the feeling of loose seats and the way the overhead bins were shaken open before the plane left the ground gave me the impression the plane might spontaneously disintegrate in mid-air. However, no harm was done, but I never flew PanAm again; in any case, they went bankrupt not long later. But you can tell that this flight - as well the one on Syrian - were unusually memorable :-(
G-VHOT Boeing 747-400 Tubular Belle, waiting for boarding, London Heathrow, 2013
View from the upper deck of Tubular Belle, somewhere over the Atlantic
Most of my trans-Atlantic trips over the last couple of decades have been on Virgin Atlantic, reassuringly normal, comfortable flights with good entertainment systems and engagingly helpful flight attendants. The 747 became part of my way of travelling, although the Airbus A330, A340 and Boeing 787 also featured: it has to be said that the current 787s are very attractive.
Virgin Atlantic has now disposed of all their 747s, so that era has certainly passed.