Ageing Gracefully

Across the decades the ‘Jumbo Jet’ has evolved from that first aircraft into its latest form, the ‘Dash 8’. Along the way it has been the stumpy, but long-legged SP, a freighter, and the immediately recognisable Áir Force One’. NASA has used it to piggy-back the Space Shuttle and serve as a stratospheric observatory. The 747 has been a private jet for Royal Families, complete with gold taps, and a fire-bomber belching brightly coloured retardant. It has worn every paint scheme imaginable from QANTAS’s Wunala Dreaming to Iron Maiden’s skeletal mascot and everything in between.

There are very few forms, physical or aesthetic, that the 747 has not taken and with that diversity its admiration has reached across generations. Just as there are those that admire cars, there are those that hold aircraft in awe with an almost emotional attachment to its rivets and alloys. And the aircraft does not necessarily have to be a giant of the skies, as beauty most definitely lies in the eye of the beholder.

Whether it an FA-18 or a Cessna 152, pilots often form an attachment to aircraft that play a significant part in their life. And so, it is for those that have crewed the 747. Models sit on their bookshelves or framed photographs hang from walls. Even so, that childlike passion can sometimes fade, impacted by the day-to-day normality of operations. The affection is no less, just lost amongst the world’s other demands.

However, sometimes the strongest reminder is generated by those who have never held the control column or advanced the thrust levers to TOGA power. There is a veritable army of passionate supporters of aviation and the passing of a particular aircraft type results in an outpouring of sentiment across the internet and beyond.

Whether the relationship was spawned sitting in Seat 47E or perched at the airport perimeter with camera in hand, it is a genuine admiration of what an aircraft’s life has achieved. Millions of lives have been safely transported around the globe in this marvel of modern engineering.

While the most common association is that of uniformed pilots, so many people along the way have contributed to an aircraft’s history. From the original designers, to the engineers, cabin crew and myriad other roles, far too many to mention. The sheet metal, composites and rivets may have formed the armour, but it was always the people that gave the machine its heart – its pulse.

When that final flight is announced, the booking program is generally inundated with those wishing to take their seat in history. To ride the skies one more time on a familiar steed and to say farewell. There will be commemorative covers, T-Shirts, coffee mugs and scale models, but the memories will be the most prized possession.

For the last time pilots will ink the aircraft type into their log books, along with the route and flight time. It will look like any other of thousands of entries but will mean somewhat more. Some will make an additional comment – “Final Flight’. For many there will be no sentiment, but sometimes it takes the passage of time and the ability to reflect for significance to find its place.

And when the final flight commercial flight is done, she wends her way on one final flight and parks for the final time, virtually abandoned, in some distant desert boneyard. Once proud colours are blanked out and once roaring engines are silenced in shrouds. Row upon row of steeds that have safely carried their millions, retire in silence, awaiting the scrappers blade or a rare chance at rebirth. If only those now-lifeless flight decks could share the sights that they’d seen or whisper the tales of a life well-lived, what stories they could tell.

‘The bell is beginning to toll for the Queen of the Skies.’

Ultimately, for the pilots, engineers, cabin crew and fans alike, all good things must come to an end. This time around the bell is beginning to toll for the Queen of the Skies – the Boeing 747. Its records may never be rivalled, but then again, this is aviation and who knows what will occur over the next century. That being said, even if they are able to design warp drives and offer two-hour low-cost hops to Mars, the 747 will still be able to hold its head high. It didn’t merely change the face of aviation, it changed faces all around the world.