Fifty years ago today, ironically on another
cold, Blustery morning in 1969, Boeing's No. 1 747 made its Maiden Flight from
Everett's Paine Field, revolutionizing the world of Air Travel!
Presumably everyone's got a 747 story or
three to tell, Righto? Especially since reportedly nearly Six Billion
Passengers have been transported on various 747's over the past five decades.
As I still vividly recall as a Wee lad' being
granted brief access to view the cockpit during our 1970's flight to Hawaii
after climbing the Upper deck's Spiral staircase. As I believe that was on a
United flight? Pretty sure, as I can even still recall being given a "Pair
'O Wings" to affix to my T-shirt, when Y'all were Free to Roam about thou
Friendly skies.
Whilst my last flight upon these magnificent
Aeroplanes was Down Under, ironically flying Air New Zealand from LAX (Los
Angeles) to Auckland, before changing to a smaller aircraft for my final leg's
flight to Adelaide, en route to the 2011 Australian Grand Prix, after the
Calypso 500 V8 supercars race.
along with the "Fire Drill" we had
to do upon the return flight. Having had the 747 completely loaded and ready
for "Take Off," we were informed we'd need to Disembark due to the
Pilot's not being able to turn off the cabin lights which caused us a massive
Delay as another 747 had to be located & prepared whilst we sat in the
Boarding Area being given Potato Chips & apple Juice to keep us
entertained.
Although I felt most sorry for the Ground
Crew, who had to totally unload the Big 'Ol Jetliner' as Stevie
"Gee-tar" Miller once crooned. And then load it all back up again in
our new Monster 747's Belly...
Not to mention I recall being able to see a
Qantas 747-400 performing a Fly-over on Race-day morning in Bloody Melbourne,
along with Bob Varsha routinely calling out similar Qantas Fly-bys' during
various Aussie' GP race broadcasts.
Also having once scribbled here on No Fenders
'bout it taking seven 747-400F Freighters to transport the Formula 1 circus
Down Under...
Although Seattle's
currently under a Deluge of un-typical Snowfall, bringing the city to a Standstill,
along with causing the 50th Anniversary Celebrations to be postponed this
weekend...