Rubénerd!

It's sure been a month of anniversaries and milestones, for better or worse. Here's one that I feel compelled (and able) to discuss in more detail, the last revenue passenger flights of the Singapore Airlines 747.

Photo by Terence Ong on Wikimedia Commons.

No more SIA 747s

From Asian Skies on Flight Global:

After nearly four decades of successful operations, Singapore Airlines is about to retire its last remaining Boeing 747s from passenger service. The Boeing 747 has been an icon of Singapore Airlines’ fleet since a pair Boeing 747-200s first landed at Paya Lebar Airport on the 3rd of September of 1973.

Since that date the Singaporean flag carrier has operated several variants of the Jumbo jet, adding its first Boeing 747-300 in May 1983 and later on the 747-400. Its first international Boeing 747-400 service, from Singapore to London, was flown on 31st May of 1989.

According to the site, the type's final scheduled flight will be from Singapore to Melborune and back on the 25th and 26th of March, and that cargo 747 operations will continue. In other worse, unless we're crew on a freighter, no more SIA 747 service for us!

Photo of Singapore in 1998 from here, of all places. It's sure changed a lot since! :O

Nostalgia time!

With the possible exception of Concorde, few airframes are as instantly recognisable to the general public as the Boeing 747. With its forward upper deck (FUD, to you non-IT people) and large wings, it was the first commercial widebody passenger jetliner, and became a household name. We started referring to things by comparing them to the size of a 747.

For my sister and I though, the Singapore Airlines 747 fleet will always hold a special place in our hearts and minds, as it were. Boarding our flight from Brisbane in the mid 1990s, it was the first part of Singapore we saw having been told our father's job was transferring us there.

Aside from transferring us away from Australia and forever changing our perceptions of life, the universe and everything (as well as firmly cementing my obsession with Asian culture, food, history, language, people and living!), at the time what we were most excited about were our seats. My father's company had shouted us business class tickets, which meant we got to sit "upstairs"! Compared to the gigantic cabin downstairs with its rows of cattle class seats and noise, the top section felt cozy. It was small, had few seats, and was tiny!

As my sister said:

That's one of the few flights I do remember... which is weird!

Ironically enough, with my father being transferred back to Australia recently and my sister and I being accepted into UTS, our last flight back from Singapore to Sydney on Singapore Airlines was on one of their brand new A380s, the very plane that most likely lead to the retirement of their 747s. Funny how the world works like that.

Anyway, another aspect of our childhoods flying away. Which reminds me, something else from our childhoods had a massive anniversary recently, I'll need to blog about that soon too!

Despite WordPress assigning this post as p1166, this is in fact the 747th post! Yes, it's time for another one of our really hated loved Useless Rubenerd Blog milestones!

Given the fact I'm in the 700+ range of posts, there are some posts which have the same number as famous Boeing airliners. Being a huge fan of commercial aviation, I figured I'd create some small posts about these planes. I missed the boat on the 707/720 and 727 (no, I'm sorry the 717 was the MD-95!) but I did do one on the Boeing 737.

The first things

The Boeing 747 is perhaps the most recognisable and well known commercial airliner (aside from the Concorde and the Spruce Goose!). It was the world's first wide-bodied airliner and one of the earlist to use huge, high bypass turbofan engines which were much quieter and more fuel efficient than the slimmer but much more noisy and smoke producing turbojets of earlier planes.

Why the 747 has that "hump"

The placement of the cockpit on a deck above the primary seating area (on the "hump" as it were) was not done initially to allow for a second deck of passengers, but purely for helping with the transport of cargo.

Having the cockpit in a second level allowed the main nose area of the 747 to open up like a hinge: this meant large cargo containers could easily be loaded and offloaded. It also helped to protect the pilots from containers crushing them from behind if the plane went into free-fall or crashed. Ouch!

Future proofing for SSTs

The 747 was deliberately designed to be future proof for airlines that purchased them. At the time, Boeing theorised that most people would be flying in supersonic airliners from the 1970s onwards, so they designed the 747 with cargo friendly features so that passenger versions could easily be converted into freighters in the future. Therefore they could sell more planes to airlines with the assurance they'd still be useful when SSTs (super sonic transports, like Concorde) took over.

Of course, we all know that SSTs were a colossal flop, but at the time they seemed like the future.

Versions

The initial 747-100 (1970) was designed with a very small "hump" which was used as a passenger relaxation area and bar; according to Wikipedia Boeing simply didn't know what to do with that small amount of space! The 747-200 (1971) replaced the lounge with regular passenger seating, and the 747SP (1976) (for special performance) was created with a shorter fuselage to increase range.

The 747-300 (1980) was the first of the next generation of 747s which had a SUD (stretched upper deck) as default which allowed for more seating on the top deck; it also had more efficient engines and a greater range. The 747-400 (1989) was radically redesigned with more advanced electronics, a glass cockpit (replacing mechanical dials with computer screens) and winglets to improve fuel efficiency and range.

The 747-8 is the intended successor expected to enter service in 2010 to compete with the Airbus A380. Given industry delays, we can expect it sometime in 2094.