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40 years ago...

Miss Neecerie

I'll Lock Up
Messages
6,616
Location
The land of Sinatra, Hoboken
Not -quite- Golden Era...so I will put it out here...but its worth noting....

Today marks the anniversary of the 747's first commercial flight



51761436.jpg




a photo gallery and the article:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-22jumbojet-pictures,0,1757098.photogallery

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-jumbojet21-2010jan21,0,5054273.story
 

dhermann1

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,154
Location
Da Bronx, NY, USA
Pan Am, now that's Golden Era. I remember the first time I saw a 747 fly over. I was living in Boston at the time (1970). I was totally wowed. The one time I flew on one was 6 years ago, when I went to Europe.
I also remember seeing the first Space Shuttle non-powered version, the Enterprise, flying low over Central Park in New York, on its way to being permamently retired after test flights. Super wow.
 

Foofoogal

Banned
Messages
4,884
Location
Vintage Land
Wow.. I so wanted to be a stewardess when I grew up when I was about 12.
A new airport opened in Houston and someone took me to it.
There were tours and no kidding when I say this person talked to a stewardess and she took us into an empty plane and gave us a coke and showed us the cockpit and all.
Can you imagine that now. How luxurious air travel was back then. How it is not so much now..
 

dhermann1

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,154
Location
Da Bronx, NY, USA
Mickey Mouse Club

Oh, wow. Do you remember the first season of Mickey Mouse Club (1955) when they had an on going piece about a little boy and girl, the little boy aspiring to be an airline pilot, and of course the little girl aspiring to be a stewardess? DC-7's!
 
And there are still some of those old -100-series models racking up revenue miles, but they're few and far between--IIRC, JAL and Qantas are some of the last operators of the "Classic" line (which is the 100, 200 and 300-models, the later I believe erroneously because it's a lot easier to bring a 300 up to 400 spec than a 200 up to 300--mainly because 300 introduced the longer upper deck).

The oldest still flying in the US is N747GE, an October '69-vintage Pan Am aircraft now used by GE as an engine testbed, with a grand total between owners of 88,000 flight hours.
GE_747.jpg

http://www.aviationnews.eu/2009/10/30/ges-747-flying-testbed-celebrates-40-years-of-flight/
The oldest in US-flagged revenue service are likely to be freighters in the UPS fleet.
 
If you really wanna see the oldest, though, we still have N7470, "City of Everett", and occasionally Boeing re-leases the old girl for the odd test--her certificate still lists her as active and airworthy, which is probably why she's almost never open for touring.

EDIT: I'll try to keep an ear to the ground for the next chance and post it if interest warrants, the only one I remember was October 2 '09 and I missed it.
 

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