The ‘Queen of the Skies’

 

On this day 54 years ago, February 9, 1969, the first airplane to be designated a “jumbo jet,” the Boeing 747, made its maiden flight. It was certified for commercial service in December of that year, and flew its first flight with PanAm in January 1970.

While I spent a considerable portion of my early childhood flying to and from “Those far away places, with the strange-sounding names,” and although I’ve flown tens–perhaps hundreds–of thousands of miles on 747s, I didn’t make it onto a BOAC 747 until I was too old for “Junior Jet Club” status, those days in which I belonged to an elite group of children who were allowed into the cockpit with the pilot (just try that today), and whose every trip was recorded in handwritten and explicit detail:

But the story of the 747’s maiden flight surely brought up some recollections:

Of the sense of belonging, and feeling “special.” Of the party favors, including the small bag with the shoulder strap that we proudly carried onboard. (It currently houses all the leftover currencies I’ve collected from my trips over the years then and since: Nigerian, Spanish, British, Canadian, French, Japanese, Thai, perhaps a few more; I haven’t checked for a while, because I haven’t been anywhere for a while:

And the fan. “All over the world BOAC takes good care of you.” And they did:

And then there are the ephemeral reminiscences. Of how lucky we were to be involved in what was–at the time–still the pretty early days of commercial airline travel for the masses. And how lucky we were to have survived them. (“Not a joke!” as the current occupant of the White House might exclaim, were he telling the story.) We were treated like royalty, although we were nothing of the sort. The service was excellent. The meals were excellent. The seats were spacious and comfortable. The personnel were hard-working, kind, and meticulous.

And the bathrooms! The toilets were miraculous. “Where,” I couldn’t help wondering when I was about four, “did everything go when I pushed the button?” Whoosh! It just disappeared!

But, best of all, was the little vanity and mirror, chock-a-block with individually-sized containers of perfume, lipstick, and sundry other potions and sprays. “Blue Grass” by Elizabeth Arden. I can smell it now. I’d disappear into the bathroom, only to be retrieved many minutes later (usually after someone had complained) by my rather embarrassed mother, who was mortified to discover my painted face and the stinking (but deliriously happy) rest of me. I’ll never forget that feeling.

Some decades later, and this particular memory was, perhaps, the first instance in which I realized the power of the Internet.

Many years ago, when I was wondering, one day, if I was the only person to have such recollections of the past. I did a search–I can’t remember which engine at the time–along the lines of “BOAC elizabeth arden bathroom,” and I came upon a chat group (yeah, it was that long ago) where a woman had written much the same thoughts about her early experiences in air travel. Lord, it felt good to know I wasn’t alone.

I see that the last Boeing 747 rolled off the production line just a week or so ago, some 55 years after the first. The “end of an era,” indeed.

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  1. David Foster Member
    David Foster
    @DavidFoster

    There was an interesting book by Joseph Sutter, who was Chief Engineer for the 747 project. When he first got to Boeing (late 1940s), everyone wanted to work on jets, which were the hot new technology at the time.  Sutter was assigned to a prop-airliner development team (the Stratocruiser) and got a lot more early responsibility than he likely would have on one of the sexier projects. Similarly, when the development of the 747 was first mooted, the trendy thing was the supersonic transport. (The 747 was intended as a cargo airplane and a gap-filler for passenger service until all the SSTs were available.  Had Sutter insisted on working in trendy areas, and been able to dragoon his management into going along with him, he would likely have never become the engineering manager for a large and successful airliner project.

    • #1
  2. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Cool! I especially like your little log book of flights. I couldn’t help wishing you had displayed all the different currencies in one photo. Often they are so colorful and creative. Just a thought . . . 

    • #2
  3. She Member
    She
    @She

    David Foster (View Comment):

    There was an interesting book by Joseph Sutter, who was Chief Engineer for the 747 project. When he first got to Boeing (late 1940s), everyone wanted to work on jets, which were the hot new technology at the time. Sutter was assigned to a prop-airliner development team (the Stratocruiser) and got a lot more early responsibility than he likely would have on one of the sexier projects. Similarly, when the development of the 747 was first mooted, the trendy thing was the supersonic transport. (The 747 was intended as a cargo airplane and a gap-filler for passenger service until all the SSTs were available. Had Sutter insisted on working in trendy areas, and been able to dragoon his management into going along with him, he would likely have never become the engineering manager for a large and successful airliner project.

    That sounds about right.  Don’t know if you noticed, but the last entry on the Junior Jet Club page image was of a flight on the Stratocruiser “Coriolanus.”  Looked her up.  Here she is:

    Stock Photo: BOAC Stratocruiser “Coriolanus” joined the fleet in 1954 flying the transatlantic route. In 1959 “Coriolanus” flew the final scheduled Stratocruiser service.

    Link is here: https://www.agefotostock.com/age/en/details-photo/boac-stratocruiser-coriolanus-joined-the-fleet-in-1954-flying-the-transatlantic-route-in-1959-coriolanus-flew-the-final-scheduled-stratocruiser-service/MEV-10823073.  The notation is that the last flight was in 1959.

    “Cordelia,” a couple of entries up, was also a Stratocruiser.

    I remember flying on the Bristol Britannia, and the Vickers VC-10 (in the early to mid 60s).  Also, many flights on the Boeing 707.

    • #3
  4. She Member
    She
    @She

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    Cool! I especially like your little log book of flights. I couldn’t help wishing you had displayed all the different currencies in one photo. Often they are so colorful and creative. Just a thought . . .

    A preliminary look at some of it:

    As you can see, I’m not terribly organized about it.  Basically, I just stuff whatever’s in my wallet after a trip into the bag, and the next time I go there, I see if the money is still viable.  Perhaps I should iron it all, and sort it out.  I do agree with you though that foreign currency is often much more colorful and attractive than that of the good old US of A.

    • #4
  5. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    She (View Comment):
    As you can see, I’m not terribly organized about it.  Basically, I just stuff whatever’s in my wallet after a trip into the bag, and the next time I go there, I see if the money is still viable.  Perhaps I should iron it all, and sort it out.  I do agree with you though that foreign currency is often much more colorful and attractive than that of the good old US of A.

    Woo-hoo! I love the collage! Thanks for sharing them with us. It sure brings back memories of many of the trips we made. Sigh.

    • #5
  6. She Member
    She
    @She

    She (View Comment):

    That sounds about right.  Don’t know if you noticed, but the last entry on the Junior Jet Club page image was of a flight on the Stratocruiser “Coriolanus.”  Looked her up.  Here she is:

    Stock Photo: BOAC Stratocruiser “Coriolanus” joined the fleet in 1954 flying the transatlantic route. In 1959 “Coriolanus” flew the final scheduled Stratocruiser service.

    Link is here: https://www.agefotostock.com/age/en/details-photo/boac-stratocruiser-coriolanus-joined-the-fleet-in-1954-flying-the-transatlantic-route-in-1959-coriolanus-flew-the-final-scheduled-stratocruiser-service/MEV-10823073.  The notation is that the last flight was in 1959.

    Uh-oh.  I realize I may have committed the mortal sin of misgendering the above aircraft.  Clearly, if zir name was “Coriolanus” they was not a “she.”

    Apologies, whatever you were.

    • #6
  7. BDB Inactive
    BDB
    @BDB

    She (View Comment):

    She (View Comment):

    That sounds about right. Don’t know if you noticed, but the last entry on the Junior Jet Club page image was of a flight on the Stratocruiser “Coriolanus.” Looked her up. Here she is:

    Stock Photo: BOAC Stratocruiser “Coriolanus” joined the fleet in 1954 flying the transatlantic route. In 1959 “Coriolanus” flew the final scheduled Stratocruiser service.

    Link is here: https://www.agefotostock.com/age/en/details-photo/boac-stratocruiser-coriolanus-joined-the-fleet-in-1954-flying-the-transatlantic-route-in-1959-coriolanus-flew-the-final-scheduled-stratocruiser-service/MEV-10823073. The notation is that the last flight was in 1959.

    Uh-oh. I realize I may have committed the mortal sin of misgendering the above aircraft. Clearly, if zir name was “Coriolanus” they was not a “she.”

    Apologies, whatever you were.

    Vessels remain feminine even when named for males.

    Mother nature is not so easily fooled.

    • #7
  8. She Member
    She
    @She

    BDB (View Comment):
    Vessels remain feminine even when named for males.

    I can’t help thinking that’s only because the SJWs haven’t tackled the issue yet.

    • #8
  9. JoelB Member
    JoelB
    @JoelB

    I had a professor at CMU around 1970 who taught a Transportation Science course. He had done a great deal of study on types of transportation from pipelines to supersonic aircraft. He had a graph plotting fuel usage, payload and velocity. His graph covered pipelines, ships, barges, rail, STOL, VTOL, fixed wing aircraft, and probably airships, though I don’t recall for sure. 

    Based upon this graph, he said that one could predict the likelihood of success of various types of systems. He was a big critic of the Supersonic Transport (SST) being developed in the USA at the time. It used too much fuel for too little payload and too little time advantage. The Concorde was a little better, but he did not have high hopes for it in the long run. He predicted that the 747 would be a winner.

    He was also very proud of his participation in the development of the Greyhound Sceni-cruiser bus. He did not like the “Skybus” scheme being floated in Pittsburgh.

    His graph was based upon technologies available at that time, so he did allow that more efficient engines and the like could change things a bit, as they have in the case of the 747. I wish I still had those graphs now. I would be very interested in seeing where some of the dream technologies of today would line up within them.

    It was one of the most enjoyable courses I ever took.

    • #9
  10. She Member
    She
    @She

    JoelB (View Comment):

    I had a professor at CMU around 1970 who taught a Transportation Science course. He had done a great deal of study on types of transportation from pipelines to supersonic aircraft. He had a graph plotting fuel usage, payload and velocity. His graph covered pipelines, ships, barges, rail, STOL, VTOL, fixed wing aircraft, and probably airships, though I don’t recall for sure.

    Based upon this graph, he said that one could predict the likelihood of success of various types of systems. He was a big critic of the Supersonic Transport (SST) being developed in the USA at the time. It used too much fuel for too little payload and too little time advantage. The Concorde was a little better, but he did not have high hopes for it in the long run. He predicted that the 747 would be a winner.

    He was also very proud of his participation in the development of the Greyhound Sceni-cruiser bus. He did not like the “Skybus” scheme being floated in Pittsburgh.

    His graph was based upon technologies available at that time, so he did allow that more efficient engines and the like could change things a bit, as they have in the case of the 747. I wish I still had those graphs now. I would be very interested in seeing where some of the dream technologies of today would line up within them.

    It was one of the most enjoyable courses I ever took.

    It sounds like great fun, and that your professor was pretty smart.

    I remember Skybus.  It became the focus of attention a year or two after we moved to a suburb of Pittsburgh in the mid 1960s, just a few miles from its demonstration track. After several years, and  I-dunno-how-much wasted public money, the project was abandoned somewhere in the mid-to-late 1970s. 

    I wish I had a dollar for every time this sort of thing happens in Western PA.  I’d be quite well off, although probably not as well off as the well-connected shysters for whom I think these sorts of gravy-trains exist.) The kindest thing one can say about them is that they are exemplars of abysmal planning: Can you say, “Bridge to Nowhere?”  Or, “The Foundry?”

    The last is particularly close to my heart, as it involved the taking, by ’eminent domain’ of hundreds of acres of really nice, productive, farmland near the intersections of Interstates 70 and 79, about ten miles down the road from me, in order to build a huge shopping/working/living/entertainment complex.  A number of national chains and constructors signed up, and work got underway, in spite of local opposition and warnings from people who knew things that the land was  above an old coal mine, and that–even with the massive amounts of leveling fill that was brought in–serious subsidence was likely as a side-effect of the construction.  So it transpired.  The place was left abandoned for years, before it was razed, and a much smaller strip mall was built at the end where the ground was stable.  (There were several other knock-on effects from the mess, including the closure of a hitherto thriving nearby local mall whose tenants were thrown out in anticipation of the bigger site opening about 1/4 mile away, and the physical property of which is still standing, with the roof falling in and parts of it condemned.  Several of the businesses couldn’t afford to move, or couldn’t find, alternate locations, and several went under (including a lovely cake shop, Grrr.) Many were sued, at least one involved in the development committed suicide, some (not nearly enough) went to jail, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find that many public officials got rich.  I suspect the last, at least, was true of Skybus, as well.

    • #10
  11. JoelB Member
    JoelB
    @JoelB

    She: Of the sense of belonging, and feeling “special.”

    Ah, yes. That is a rare quality today. I can’t say that even for all the “How are we doing?” questionaires that bombard us today that few really do that well. The endless surveys seem more self-serving than customer-satisfying.

    • #11
  12. She Member
    She
    @She

    JoelB (View Comment):

    She: Of the sense of belonging, and feeling “special.”

    Ah, yes. That is a rare quality today. I can’t say that even for all the “How are we doing?” questionaires that bombard us today that few really do that well. The endless surveys seem more self-serving than customer-satisfying.

    Oh, I agree.  Just the other day, after a nice telephone experience with my doctor’s office, I agreed to a “short survey” following the call.  After about Question#7, which was simply a rewording of the other six, all of which were of what the late Mr. She would have dubbed the “smell me” variety, I hung up.  I’d have liked to have given the nice young woman who did a good job an “attagirl!” But not at the risk of my losing the will to live.

     

    • #12
  13. David Foster Member
    David Foster
    @DavidFoster

    Recently read Life Takes Wings, by the first female 747 pilot, Lynn Rippelmeyer.  She began as a flight attendant before transitioning to the cockpit…not a common career path.  Interesting book which has several really funny anectotes.

    • #13
  14. Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patriot) Member
    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patriot)
    @ArizonaPatriot

    As a Beatles fan, I was hoping to see a trip from Miami Beach to Moscow in your BOAC log book.  :)

    • #14
  15. She Member
    She
    @She

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    As a Beatles fan, I was hoping to see a trip from Miami Beach to Moscow in your BOAC log book. :)

    Hate to break it to you, but I think the flight itself, as it related to BOAC, was imaginary.   As far as the Beatles/Beach Boy issues go, not my circus, not my Monkees.

    Not surprised by your comment, though.

    • #15
  16. She Member
    She
    @She

    Arden products in a powder room of a BOAC Comet

    For the link, go to https://www.cosmeticsandskin.com/fgf/speedbird.php, and search for “BOAC.”

    BOAC Monarch service

    Gosh.  It was fun.

     

    • #16
  17. Seawriter Contributor
    Seawriter
    @Seawriter

    The 747 was designed by Boeing’s third string team. The first string was working on the SST. The next-best set of engineers and designers were busy on the 737.

    Then Juan Trippe asked Boeing to design a double-decker airliner. Boeing put the team together from whoever was left or not absolutely necessary for the other two projects. The scratch team’s result was a work of genius.

    • #17
  18. David Foster Member
    David Foster
    @DavidFoster

    And once upon a time, of course, there were that Pan Am flying boats.  Here’s a whole website devoted to them.

    See also my Rero-Reading post inspired by a 1939 issue of Aviation magazine.

     

    • #18
  19. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    JoelB (View Comment):

    She: Of the sense of belonging, and feeling “special.”

    Ah, yes. That is a rare quality today. I can’t say that even for all the “How are we doing?” questionaires that bombard us today that few really do that well. The endless surveys seem more self-serving than customer-satisfying.

    I had a medical appointment with a new provider today, and was handed a tablet with an app for providing my medical information and other stuff that wasn’t on my insurance cards.  The app wasn’t bad. With the addition of more options to answer the questions with an “I’m not sure,” it would have been great.  At the end I was asked to rate my experience with the app on a 1-5 scale. I couldn’t avoid that question, so I gave it the lowest rating possible.

    At least I wasn’t asked, “How likely are you to recommend…”  If that question had been there I might have resorted to violence.  

    • #19
  20. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    She: I see that the last Boeing 747 rolled off the production line just a week or so ago, some 55 years after the first. The “end of an era,” indeed.

    The first flight of the Douglas DC-3 was in 1936. 16,000+ were produced.

    The DC-3 Appreciation Society estimated last year that there are more than 160 still in regular use. No passenger service that I know of, but if you slip one of the pilots a few bucks …

    • #20
  21. Seawriter Contributor
    Seawriter
    @Seawriter

    Percival (View Comment):
    The DC-3 Appreciation Society estimated last year that there are more than 160 still in regular use. No passenger service that I know of, but if you slip one of the pilots a few bucks …

    My oldest son works for Raytheon in McKinney, TX. They use a DC-3 to flight test some of the electronics he works on. He had gotten rides on it. I am jealous. 

    • #21
  22. Mad Gerald Coolidge
    Mad Gerald
    @Jose

    She: We were treated like royalty, although we were nothing of the sort. The service was excellent. The meals were excellent. The seats were spacious and comfortable. The personnel were hard-working, kind, and meticulous.

    My number one complaint about flying now a days is the cramped and uncomfortable seats. I’ve been upgraded to 1st class a couple times, and enjoyed that.  Otherwise I am miserable.

    • #22
  23. Old Ned Lincoln
    Old Ned
    @OldNed

    Percival (View Comment):

    She: I see that the last Boeing 747 rolled off the production line just a week or so ago, some 55 years after the first. The “end of an era,” indeed.

    The first flight of the Douglas DC-3 was in 1936. 16,000+ were produced.

    The DC-3 Appreciation Society estimated last year that there are more than 160 still in regular use. No passenger service that I know of, but if you slip one of the pilots a few bucks …

    Does that number include all of the C47s produced during WWII?

    • #23
  24. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Mad Gerald (View Comment):

    She: We were treated like royalty, although we were nothing of the sort. The service was excellent. The meals were excellent. The seats were spacious and comfortable. The personnel were hard-working, kind, and meticulous.

    My number one complaint about flying now a days is the cramped and uncomfortable seats. I’ve been upgraded to 1st class a couple times, and enjoyed that. Otherwise I am miserable.

    I’ve never once been on a plane where the pilots asked if I could take the controls while they chatted up the flight attendants. 

    • #24
  25. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Old Ned (View Comment):

    Percival (View Comment):

    She: I see that the last Boeing 747 rolled off the production line just a week or so ago, some 55 years after the first. The “end of an era,” indeed.

    The first flight of the Douglas DC-3 was in 1936. 16,000+ were produced.

    The DC-3 Appreciation Society estimated last year that there are more than 160 still in regular use. No passenger service that I know of, but if you slip one of the pilots a few bucks …

    Does that number include all of the C47s produced during WWII?

    Yes. The Skytrains, Skytroopers, even the 487 Showa/Nakajima L2Ds that Japan produced before and during the war.

    • #25
  26. Miffed White Male Member
    Miffed White Male
    @MiffedWhiteMale

    She (View Comment):

    David Foster (View Comment):

    There was an interesting book by Joseph Sutter, who was Chief Engineer for the 747 project. When he first got to Boeing (late 1940s), everyone wanted to work on jets, which were the hot new technology at the time. Sutter was assigned to a prop-airliner development team (the Stratocruiser) and got a lot more early responsibility than he likely would have on one of the sexier projects. Similarly, when the development of the 747 was first mooted, the trendy thing was the supersonic transport. (The 747 was intended as a cargo airplane and a gap-filler for passenger service until all the SSTs were available. Had Sutter insisted on working in trendy areas, and been able to dragoon his management into going along with him, he would likely have never become the engineering manager for a large and successful airliner project.

    That sounds about right. Don’t know if you noticed, but the last entry on the Junior Jet Club page image was of a flight on the Stratocruiser “Coriolanus.” Looked her up. Here she is:

    Stock Photo: BOAC Stratocruiser “Coriolanus” joined the fleet in 1954 flying the transatlantic route. In 1959 “Coriolanus” flew the final scheduled Stratocruiser service.

    Link is here: https://www.agefotostock.com/age/en/details-photo/boac-stratocruiser-coriolanus-joined-the-fleet-in-1954-flying-the-transatlantic-route-in-1959-coriolanus-flew-the-final-scheduled-stratocruiser-service/MEV-10823073. The notation is that the last flight was in 1959.

    “Cordelia,” a couple of entries up, was also a Stratocruiser.

    I remember flying on the Bristol Britannia, and the Vickers VC-10 (in the early to mid 60s). Also, many flights on the Boeing 707.

    The Stratocruiser was an odd-looking duck of a plane – a derivative of a derivative of the B-29.

     

    My first flight in a 747 was a KLM flight from Chicago to Amsterdam in December 1978 on a High School trip to Paris.  The only time I ever got to sit in the upper deck.  Flew on a 747-400 to from LA to Sydney, and from London to Johannesburg, and several flights from Chicago to London.

    777’s are nice, but it’s just not the same experience as a 747.

     

     

     

     

     

    • #26
  27. She Member
    She
    @She

    The first flights recorded in my Junior Jet Club book, when I was about 2 1/2 show that I was on board something called a Canadair-C4, which BOAC referred to as an Argonaut.  This exact plane, in fact:

    I’ve no memory of the plane at all, so I looked it up.  Apparently, it was originally developed for Trans-Canada Airlines, but BOAC bought several of them, and ran them on various routes between 1947 and 1961. (They have a rather lengthy and disturbing crash record.)  55 passengers, 93′ long, cruise speed 325 mph. (The log book records it took six hours and fifteen minutes to fly the 1520 miles between London and Tripoli.)

    BOAC itself had a rather unfortunate series of incidents across several of its aircraft models in the 50s and 60s, including a dreadful crash at Kano airport 1n 1956), leading to a set of derisory nicknames among the colonial types such as my dad–who really had no other flight options for themselves and their families at the time**–such as  “Better Off on A Camel,” and “Blast Off And Crash.”

    **The only other government-sanctioned method of travel to the West-African colonies was via Elder-Dempster steamship, out of Liverpool, to Lagos, with a port of call at Las Palmas.  Those trips were fun for kids, too.

    • #27
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