[CloudHound]

Sad day and though not strictly GA an iconic a/c and a lot of crew (some of whom are active GA pilots) in jeopardy.

https://www.flightglobal.com/fleets/british-airways-to-immediately-retire-all-747-aircraft/139341.article


edit to explain acronym

[Trent772]

To be honest, the majority were getting long in the tooth. I went to Miami in Feb on one - over 100,000 on the clock and 25 years old !

The interior was very shabby, IFE was terrible with a tiny screen and poor choices.

All good things come to an end, they had worked hard.

[Hooligan]

Always a nice shape in the sky, particularly the one in BOAC colours...

[oldbiggincfi]

Remember from the Early days of operation this thing appearing over the horizon when playing football near Windsor .
It was low -very - and noisey and stopped play .

Can somebody confirm it was true some passed under the Gliders at Booker ?

As I posted sometime earlier I fear some pilots have already flown their last flight .


BTW ( Hate it ) what does wef stand for ?

[Dave W]

wef = "with effect from"

[PaulSS]

WEF TBA

[rikur_]

I was at Everett for some of these being built in my time at BA

I think that means there is no more of my avionic handywork flying .... in my time did mods on Concorde, 737-236, 747-236 and 747-436.... 777 mods were just 'on board loadable software'

[oldbiggincfi]

WEF TBA

Quite If personal terms are used can we have a glossary .

Yes I'm a bit thick

[Pete L]

Group of 20 like the Plane Sailing Catalina? Seems a shame to have them disappear from the skies forever...does Boeing run a heritage flight?

[townleyc]

Quite If personal terms are used can we have a glossary .

Yes I'm a bit thick

Google is your friend - sometimes carefully

KE

[Flyin'Dutch']

Google is your friend - sometimes carefully

KE

You mean, FTAOD, some are NSFW?

[Fellsteruk]

I understand why they are getting ride of the big girls buts it’s sad that in such a short time the 747 and A380 will be a thing of the past.

I actually flew on one of the older KLM 747s and boy was that thing old, was like a time zone change to the 70’s. Yet only a couple years back I was on a brand new Air France A380 and already their entire A380 fleet retired.

I do hope that we’ll return to an age of monsters of the sky at some point in the future but I doubt I’ll see it.

[PeteSpencer]

Same thing happened to Concorde which got a huge boost in development when Congress cancelled the US supersonic airliner program(me).

Concorde's 'advantage' thereby was short lived when1)Congress threw its weight behind Boeing and the 747, which went on to have a successful career far outshining Concorde's which came to a abrupt end in 2003 and 2) Banned supersonic flight over the US mainland before Concorde had even flown an Airmile.

Even the oldest Concorde on display today (Manchester) had only , at 27,000+ hours, just passed the mid point of its structural fatigue life (50,000 hours).

Indeed some of the French Concordes didn't even reach half life.

The argument at the time of the plug-pulling was that punters didn't any more want ultra fast and glitzy, but big, steady and cheap.

Now even that notion , with the demise of the A380 and the B747, has been turned on its head.

Fickle lot , the great unwashed.................

Peter

[rikur_]

The bland twin engine tubes seem to have won the day ..... no more iconic 747 bubble, or A380 double decker; joining the long gone 3 engine brigade; not forgetting the whispering jet, and sleek Concorde ......

[JAFO]

BA announce B744 fleet retirement with immediate effect

Never mind WEF and TBA and other TLAs, WTF is a B744?