To me, any 747 without a space shuttle on top of it looks naked
The Boeing 747 begins its final descent
81–90 of 378 posts
Re: The Boeing 747 begins its final descent
#82Those interiors look so much more pleasing than the ones we have right now even in business / premium economy class and I am not even that old!
Flying is much cheaper today. People want low prices over more comfort. They vote with their wallets.
Re: The Boeing 747 begins its final descent
#83I will miss the 747. Modern planes with less engines feel less safe. I hate all the justifications used to fly long distances across oceans with only 2 engines, or only 1 engine.
More people have died due to one engine falling off a 747 and knocking off the other engine on the same wing than have died due to dual engine failure on an ETOPS certified aircraft
Re: The Boeing 747 begins its final descent
#84Re: The Boeing 747 begins its final descent
#85It’s such a beautiful plane. Despite having worked for Airbus, the 747 triggers emotions for me that the A380 simply doesn’t. It represents an era of aerospace engineering that will not come back (in many cases probably for the better - but still!)
It’s beautiful because Boeing started, not with the smallest, but with the largest plane possible. Meanwhile Airbus started with Concorde, a completely orthogonal project to round up everyone’s identical patriotism, and both projects were absolutely beautiful in their own way!
> Meanwhile Airbus started with Concorde
Oh gracious no, Airbus started with the utilitarian A300 widebody twin[1].
Concorde was Sud Aviation and BAC joint venture, nothing to do with Airbus which didn't even exist at that time.
[1]The original A300A might have been interesting, having a fuselage as wide as the much later 777, but Airbus got cold feet and scaled it down to the dull and worthy A300B. Every Airbus widebody until the A380 was constrained by that decision.
Re: The Boeing 747 begins its final descent
#86Those interiors look so much more pleasing than the ones we have right now even in business / premium economy class and I am not even that old!
Flying is much cheaper today. People want low prices over more comfort. They vote with their wallets.
I don't know, having more color doesn't seem that much more expensive? I guess the fabrics are expensive and stain relatively easily, but if public transport can keep them clean so can airlines IMO. Some fabric seats are over 3 decades old and they're still in a really good shape.
Re: The Boeing 747 begins its final descent
#87I will miss the 747. Modern planes with less engines feel less safe. I hate all the justifications used to fly long distances across oceans with only 2 engines, or only 1 engine.
You mean the justification that they are, in fact, just as safe?
I'm curious about this--wouldn't one expect more engines to be safer?
Unless having more engines increases the chance of certain kinds of accidents? Like maybe the chance of an engine failure damaging the hull goes up with more engines?
Not questioning the justification--I do believe it--I'm just curious about the details.
Re: The Boeing 747 begins its final descent
#88Didn’t read the full article but it starts with > The jet was perhaps the pinnacle of American engineering excellence. Its retirement signals an end to an era of American culture—and ambition. End of American ambition? SpaceX landing is rockets… today! That’s apples to apples also, both aerospace. In other fields we have literally taught computers how to talk.
America is currently leading the way in both commercial aerospace and AI simultaneously. This feels like a decade old article.
Re: The Boeing 747 begins its final descent
#891969 was truly the pinnacle of US aerospace industry - Concord, Boeing 747 and Apollo 11 all happened during this year.
This is such an absurd statement. What US aerospace has created post 1969 is nothing short of remarkable in comparison. (And we can be proud of the Apollo era too.)
Today’s airliners cruise slower than a 747.
Re: The Boeing 747 begins its final descent
#90I realize this might be an unpopular opinion but I never liked the look of the "hump" created by the upper deck of the 747.
What?! It makes it look like a giant fighter jet