r2i forum

For the jumbo jet and aviation fanatics, on Feb 9, Boeing 747 completed 47 years of its first flight..

Amazing years of dominance till Airbus came into picture..

In the 10 years from 2004 to 2014, Airbus has received 8,933 orders while delivering 4,824, and Boeing has received 8,428 orders while delivering 4,458 (source: wiki)..

Boeing made 1500 747s till now but will just make 15 planes per year from now on.. That means it is almost at the end of its dominant run..

My first international flight (or any air travel for that sake) was on Boeing 747, so I have kind of nostalgic memory associated with 747..

Share your memories or any tidbits on 747 or Boeing..

It is a fascination still, when I am at an airport, to look at planes taking off or landing. When it is a 747, it amazes me further that such a giant could even take off and fly.

Human genius in action.

The one thing that I observe is that the speed is not increasing. Typical flight speed is still ~500-600 mph. Hope someone does something about that. :)

Speed of sound (about 750 at ground and lower as one goes higher.) has caused the hold up. The cost goes up disproportionately. Concorde was not a commercial success due to this.

My first impression of 747 as a kid.......Original Air India



This 747 is fake but will give you that real feeling....

[video=youtube;GfhkznnH-9s]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfhkznnH-9s[/video]

Impressive run by many standards but it has to slowly give way to newer and improved aircrafts. The 787 dreamliner obviously built on top of earlier successes and lessons learnt is a much better aircraft. I like it better than Airbus A380 as this relatively smaller aircraft allows for more direct routes which I am a fan of. Less number of connections, the better. I wish for a direct flight from US east coast to Hyderabad.

Coming to personal experience, my first ever flight was on an Airbus A747-400 in 1996 from Mumbai to Chicago. Just 50 people on board this huge plane, I occupied 4 seats in the middle and felt like I travelled first class in economy. The air hostesses were friendly and I got a bunch of tiny liquor bottles as souvenirs.

An interesting picturesque fact list
http://www.boldmethod.com/blog/lists/2015/01/14-facts-about-the-boeing-787-dreamliner/

My first flight was also a Boeing 747. Boy, I was so nervous and excited at the same time. I used to love air travel as it was such a new experience to me.
Fast forward 14 years, I have had so many interesting international travels, travelling with 2yr old all by myself, travelling with a 4 yr old and 1yr old baby all by myself, travelling with 2 kids and set of aged in-laws all by myself, travelling with 6 tightly packed bags and 4 carry-on all by myself (when we did R2I), getting back with similar quantity of luggage (R2A) again all by myself!! Aggghhh... I don't even remember when was the last time I had my hubby' help or anyone's help when I traveled with all sorts of attachments!!! Now I look back and wonder how I endured those. Some have good memories and some are outright horrible ones! Although with kids being older, it has gotten manageable, I do not like air travel anymore, not on Boeing 747, not on any aircraft. I finally traveled alone last summer and didn't like that either (actually missed my 2 little attachments)!
I was really hoping international travel will drastically reduce after R2I and believe it or not when we thought of R2A, that was my major worry ... all those long horrible flights. But no getting away from it and so like it or not Boeing (747)is part of my life again!

Yes SamSan,

Travel with small kids will be tough even on Pushpak Viman. I tried my best to avoid travel with kids until my younger one was 4 years old.

ILuvHyd;622816Yes SamSan,

Travel with small kids will be tough even on Pushpak Viman. I tried my best to avoid travel with kids until my younger one was 4 years old.

Believe me, I would have avoided them all if I could.. but with my dad getting sick, I had to go see him (Big downside of R2A). My parents have been unable to travel for the last 7 yrs and so the only way for them to see me and their grandkids is if I take them with me :-( With both me and my hubby not being able to take off work together, I had to travel by myself irrespective of how old my kids were!!! Another big downside of LIA with aged parents in India :-(