Posted on 12/07/2022 6:14:01 PM PST by DUMBGRUNT
Flew JFK to Rome twice a month for years on the great 747.
In the early ‘70s I worked for a large company and made occasional flights between Detroit and Phoenix in one of the new 747s, usually the first flight of the day. Company policy was that flights over 4 hours could be first class, so that’s how we went. First class was up front and very roomy. A circular staircase led up to an “upstairs” open bar for first class only, and also the cockpit.
The center row of seats held widely separated seats that swiveled. After takeoff, a stewardess would bring out a round table and set in in the middle of four seats and place a white tablecloth and an open bottle of Champaigne on it. We would then swivel around to face the table. The stewardess would then say: “What would you gentlemen like for breakfast?”
On one flight I went with a new co-op student who had never been on any kind of airplane before. He commented after ordering breakfast: “You know, this flying is pretty nice”.
Another time I was flying alone, and the flight was quite empty. First class had a stewardess for every passenger. After breakfast “my” stewardess came over carrying a grocery bag, and sat down in the seat beside me. She asked: “Would you like to play Gin Rummy for bottles of wine. I said: “I don’t know how to play it”.
She replied: “That’s OK, I’ll teach you, and I’ll lose the first few games so you can get some of this wine to play with. I left the plane with the bag of wine.
You know, flying (back then) was pretty nice.
Yes, it was in December.
My wife - born late in 1948 - was in the last weeks of high school when the teacher assigned her class a speaking assignment: “The job I most want in life”. The 747 had not yet flown, but its progress was in the news almost daily. She did her homework on the aircraft, and then mapped out the pathway and required training to obtain a commercial pilot’s license. The teacher’s response - “Too bad you’re a girl”. The class laughed her back to her seat.
In 2012 she retired as an airline pilot, having flown the last 5 years of her career in the Pacific - as a 747 captain. (-:
PS - qrz.com member? See - k0ki
When I was in junior high school in Minnesota we went on a field trip for a tour of a 747.
The Wrights first flight was less then the wingspan of a 747....
Excerpt: Orville - His first flight lasted 12 seconds for a total distance of 120 ft (37 m) – shorter than the wingspan of a Boeing 747. Taking turns, the Wrights made four brief, low-altitude flights that day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Flyer
—”In 2012 she retired as an airline pilot, having flown the last 5 years of her career in the Pacific - as a 747 captain. “
WOW!
Plan your work and work your plan.
Very cool!
How's this: Under the PAINS and PENALTIES of PURJURY, I was so instructed by the Boeing Aircraft Company, of Everett, Washington State, during my tenure between 1986-1991, that a Boeing 747 did have 50,000 (fifty-thousand[s]) pounds of paint on each 747, and at the time, the Boeing Company was trying to reduce said amount by 5 % percent.
In your wildest dreams, I was making F-ING exaggerated claims.
I know that the wing is designed to flex, my thoughts are the mere fact that they do, based on the overall design / weight of the wing itself. (If I recall correctly a 36 foot arc, or put another way; 18 foot up, 18 foot down.)
On the video at youtube; @ 0:28: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsZ6YPsPpj0&t=8s
Boeing Moves Massive Airplane Parts.
That's a "Wing-Spar," inside that transport container. (each wing has 2 (two), a front / leading spar, and a rear / trailing spar) just the massiveness of it, and the fact it does flex, is mind boggling to me. YES' their is a person /driver in the rear transporting of the spar. His/her butt / feet, are maybe 12" inches above ground, if that. You couldn't pay me enough to be that person. FYI, the two people transporting a wing-spar, are in constant contact via radio's, along with the "OVERSIZE PILOT car / vehicle."
https://knaviation.net/boeing-747-specs/
Boeing 747 Wingspan and Wing Area
All of the classic 747s – the “-100,” “-200,” “-300,” and “SP” – have the same wingspan of 195 feet 8 inches (59.6 m) and wing area of 5,500 square feet (511 square meters).
The most popular 747-400 has a wingspan of 211 feet 5 inches (64.4 m) and wing area of 5,650 square feet (525 square meters). For painting purposes,(very special Yellow / Fuel Primer with anti-fungal properties is used on the interior of the wing) you would multiply 5,650 times 2.5 so as to account for painting the inside of the wing (mostly done prior to assembly) and Baffle Walls, {painting both side's completely} approx. every ten feet along the length of the individual wing.
The 747-8 has the largest wingspan of all the variants, measuring 224 feet 7 inches (68.4 meters). That also results in it having – at 5,960 square feet (554 square meters) – the largest wing area of all the 747s.
To sum it up, depending on the variant, a Boeing 747’s wingspan is anywhere between 195 feet 8 inches (59.6 m) and 224 feet 7 inches (68.4 meters) resulting in a wing area between 5,500 square feet (511 square meters) and 5,960 square feet (554 square meters).
Farewell to the Queen of the Skies -— The 747 by the Numbers
https://airwaysmag.com/farewell-to-the-queen/
Never got to fly on one when I worked for AA in the 1990s.
She’s The Queen !!
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