AIRLINE GEEK ALERT! I was 20 when I first flew the Queen. An excited 3rd year student heading for a memorable 6 weeks travelling across North America. Thanks to a hellish experience in a Trident, which failed to land at Gibraltar airport when I was an unaccompanied traveller aged 14, I could be described as a nervous flier. But this beast was a whole new experience. I was pleasantly surprised how clean the People Express plane looked (see below). The pilot explained on landing in Newark in Texan drawl. “Hope you enjoyed your flight. Glad we made it OK as this was the first passenger carrying flight this plane has made!” She was more wide bodied than even the Tristar I had travelled to Sierra Leone on barely 18 months earlier which itself seemed huge.
On that same trip I travelled around the Boeing factory in Everett, Washington. Wow – close up and personal, she was EVEN bigger than she appeared on the tarmac at Gatwick a few weeks earlier. Today 8th October 2020 marks the final flight of the British Airways 747. How many millions of miles have they flown? BA once had 57 of them flying! How many meetings, reunions, gatherings, memorable experiences have they led to? I flew the BA 747 to New York, Chicago, Bangkok, Miami and Singapore. I flew mostly down the back but also up top in the flat bed lounge thanks to BA’s support for the Consortium for Street Children where I was CEO. I flew mostly alone, occasionally with colleagues and once with Hana (my wife). There are a few American products that I will always be thankful for. The Mac. The New Balance trainer. The Wilson tennis racquet. And the Boeing 747. So as she flies off into history, may she know our thanks. Yes she is but a hunk of metal and wire. But one which has changed the world for the better. And the one the like of which I doubt we will ever see again (not in my lifetime at least). Adieu mon ami.
andrewjohnston63 