Retirement of an icon By Dave Meggs (retired Captain with BA) With its instantly recognisable shape, the Boeing 747 is something of an icon in the aviation industry. Recently, however, came the sad news that British Airways is considering retiring the type – so this seems like an appropriate time to look back on both the aircraft itself and some of my personal experiences of flying the ‘Queen of the Skies’.
of Trident. I became cabin crew on 747s until my return to Tridents in April 1984. In January 1985 I transferred to British Airtours, based at Gatwick, and flew Tristar 1/50/200 and 500 series on a variety of long and short-haul routes.
The Boeing 747 has been a part of British Airways for half of its 100-year history, starting way back in 1970 when BOAC (which later merged with BEA to form the airline that we know today) took delivery of its very first Boeing 747100. The 747-400 is the British Airways 747 that most people know today. It’s the only type still in service with the airline. As far as my personal experience goes, my career as a pilot began in April 1971, when I started at the College of Air Training in Hamble, which was run by BEA and BOAC. I graduated in March 1973.
Next, I moved onto the 747 136/236 as co-pilot in January 1988 – three weeks ground school, four weeks in the simulator and base training at Shannon, including ‘Circuits and Bumps’. (This is a training manoeuvre that involves landing and taking off again without coming to a full stop, circling the airport and repeating the process; it allows pilots to practise many landings in a short space of time.) I was deemed to be acceptable to fly with passengers while undergoing route training on both the 100 and 200 series aircraft. My training online took me to Toronto, Washington DC, Pittsburgh, Anchorage, Narita (Tokyo), Osaka and Bombay. I was passed to fly with line captains and I spent the next two years flying to Africa, Asia, Australia and both North and South America. In 1989 I transferred to the 747-400 which, with its tail tank for fuel (10,000 kg), had a much increased range and load, helped by its Rolls Royce RB211524F engines. In 1996 I left the fleet to get my command on the 100/200 fleet. It was nearly four years before I returned, during which time the 100 series 747s were slowly being retired, having done
I joined BEA in August 1973 and was put on Trident 1s and 2s. We spent three months in the classroom learning about the systems, then had three weeks in the simulator – some 60 hours of training. We were sent to Cyprus to do our base training over Christmas and New Year and started flying on line with passengers under the watchful eyes of a training captain. Over the course of the next decade, until April 1983 when I was ‘laid off’ due to a surplus of flight crew, I flew all three marks 32
