Number 1500 ready to fly. What a run this plane has had. First produced in 1968!

http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/fl ... /11397925/

I flew the first 747 (N747PA) many times while I had the great pleasure to work for Pan American World Airways (gone but not forgotten). The 747 is such a fine airplane, so easy to fly, make good takeoffs and landings under all weather conditions and so well liked by the passengers and cargo shippers that I find it hard to fathom it will ever be dropped from production.

Of course ours were the "real 747" aircraft, 100, 200 and SP models. That is, round dials all over the place, no data base in the navigation system (insertion of lat/ lon in the three inertial units) and a flight engineer to keep the pilots out of trouble. "Those were the days my friend."

Regards, Lew Gage

Wow.. 1500...

I agree, as someone born in 71 with exposure to 60's, 70's, and 80's automobiles and other transportation "tech", it really does make things like the 747, NASA missions, SR-71, etc all that more amazing.....

And the fact that we can't get people to space without the Russians, never mind going back to the moon that more depressing.

Agreed. My how times have changed ...

Kennedy, 1962 on the role and goals of NASA:

“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.

Obama Administration 2010 on the role and goals of NASA:

"Reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science and engineering — science, math and engineering."

Feelings, whooa, whooa, whooa, feelings ....

Don't you guys know your history? We made it to the moon so fast because we had to figure out what was going on at the moon base where the Transformers crashed. I saw a documentary all about it on the the movie channel last week

The stagnant state of our space program is the direct result of decisions made during the Nixon administration, when they decided to stop exploring space and just make a glorious box truck to get us to orbit and back.

Its quite a change from this:



to this:



but the sheet metal is the same.

Flew last week on Lufthansa's 747-8; what a perfect airplane. I sat basically at the wing root and it was one of the quietest and smoothest rides I had ever experienced in an airliner.

Keep 'em flying!

Rode a 777 across the Atlantic a few years ago and watched a 747 pass us with a very healthy speed margin.

Lew that's a great story (and I thought you only knew everything about little planes ).

I clearly remember seeing a 747 for the first time. It was on approach to Love Field in Dallas, probably late 60's or early 70's. It looked like it was standing still.

Even today I'm fascinated when I see one. It has to be one of the most iconic machine ever created.

The Whale is fast but gawd does it SUCK the fuel. Can't wait to get my hands on the 747-8.

I flew 100's and 200's for 4 years. My first thought on some of my first flights were, "This thing handles like a giant Beechcraft"! I never flew it slower that mach.86. I used to love passing the 747-400's on the north pacific tracks.