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The end of an era.....


Lost Trail

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http://worldwarwings.com/news-boeing-confirms-inevitable/

 

Sad to see these giants retire. I've flown in a few of them and it was always incredible to just walk around.

 

Even more sad is the likely replacement from across the pond. Would have loved to see a Boeing replacement.

Edited by Lost Trail
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For some reason... I've never felt comfortable in an Airbus. :mellow:

Ditto. Could be due to some of the issues I've heard and read about where there are too many things where the software makes the decision and the pilot(s) have little or no override capability. Kind of that whole "big brother knows best" mentality.

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Well the commercial airlines may drop them but the President will likely be jetting around on one for many years to come.

 

Trump may want to cancel the 747-800s currently being outfitted to replace the existing 747-200Bs that have been in service for almost 30 years. However, there is nothing else in currently manufactured in the US that would meet all the special requirements of the VC-25 program

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For some reason... I've never felt comfortable in an Airbus. :mellow:

Me, either! AirBus make a whiny noise that sounds to me like a turbine is going to blow. Although I know that the noise is normal, it makes me uncomfortable.

 

And, that now reminds me.....

 

A few weeks after 911 I was back in the USA sitting next to this woman in her late 70's in First Class on an AirBus. The plane took off under full power with that whining noise going. She freaked out and tried to leave her seat to get off the airplane. I put my arms around her and gently calmed her and explained it was just a different airplane making different sounds. Then she was afraid that terrorists were on board and would crash the plane. Turns out her daughter or daughter-in-law was a commentator and author (Barbara Olson, I think?) killed on 911 on Flight 77 that hit the pentagon. This poor woman was flying alone and scared half to death. I left my seat and kept switching around with others who each sat a few minutes with her to keep her calm. One of the flight officers came out and sat with her a while, too. It was a long flight.

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I spent 40 years in the aerospace industry and worked on everything from the Apollo & Space Shuttle to the B2 Stealth Bomber. One day the VP/Program Mgr I was working for called me into his office and said he was putting me on special assignment for a couple of months. Our company made the fuselage panels for the 747 and we were just getting started on the first one of them that would be Air Force 1. There was a lot of Boeing, Air Force and even FBI types onsite and he wanted things to go smooth, so I got the task to be Project Manager for this particular plane. It was what I later called the job from hell! Too many people telling us how we should be doing everything from cleaning up the work areas to complaining that the cafeteria food was terrible (it was!). I finally told my boss to tell everyone to get the hell away from the area and let everyone do their job!

 

Don't know how many have been built, but we had a railroad siding and were shipping box cars out of LA to Seattle several times a week. The 747 was a really big, robust airplane. My only other experience with it was when we modified a surplus American Airlines 747 to carry the Space Shuttle on it's back.....that's another story for another time!

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