On UK TV tonight....Jumbo

[Ray C]

I'm not particularly into passenger aircraft, But.....Il'e watch this tonight on BBC2.

Jumbo- The plane that changed the world.

[Spitfire]

At the age of 18 in 1970 I was lucky enough - as a student - to be selected 'out of the hat' to go on a student exchange with another young lad to West Coast of America for 5 weeks via Rotary International ... (my Dad was president of the local Rotary International - I can't think how my name came out of the hat )

At Heathrow we were booked on a Pan-Am Boeing 707 to JFK and then a transfer to Boston - when on the plane we taxied out and were put on hold for quite a while as there was a queue of planes in front of us - the pilot came on the intercom "Anyone interested to see one of the new Jumbo Jets - come up to the cockpit" ... I was the only person to stand up (Jumbos only went commercial at the beginning of 1970 and it was a VERY new concept)

I got to the cockpit and I looked out forward and all I could see was a huge undercarriage and our cockpit was all very dark like the sun had gone in ...The pilot said 'Look up' ... and damn me if we weren't parked UNDER the tail fin of the Jumbo in front of us and I thought a 707 was big .....

Quite an experience .. and as I was the only one who went up the pilot let me stay there till we were next in line and I saw the Jumbo take off right in front of us whilst we were at 90 degrees to the main runway... it seemed like the QE2 taking off size wise The engine roar was phenomenal ....

Anyway - I shall watch it ... for old times sake

Relative sizes ....

[Hihonyr8811]

I recorded it so only watched it the other day, but one thing that was said on it I related to, I've only flown 6 times (3 holidays) and the only aircraft I remember was VS45 which was LHR - JFK which was a 747, couldn't tell you what I flew on the other times, the second time I went to NYC, coming back, the pilot told us we were on an Airbus A3something or other, but I don't recall being interested It could have been because it was 00:45 and I'd been up since 7am, or it could have been because, as Ray said, I'm not really into passenger aircraft either, but I took note of the 747 for some reason.
(slightly off topic) On VS45 one of the flight crew asked me if I wouldn't mind moving to the seat by the emergency exit for take off and landing (no idea why though), but I had a great view of both London and the East coast of America (the wetlands around Long Island look really nice!), really enjoyed that flight Shame I have no photos as the memory card got corrupted took a nice one of a sister Virgin 747 on take off, but I never saved it to anything gutted but I learnt my lesson so I back everything up now!

[Spitfire]

It was a very interesting programme I thought - I liked that it was born out of a tiny afterthought team and it was expected to be dumped when the supersonic thing was developed ... only to be bumped up to prime slot when the supersonic one was shelved .... they did well to develop the Jumbo with the limited resources they were given ...

I didn't know that the cockpit 'bump' on the top was to allow the cargo version nose to open easily - of all the things Jumbo related it's that bulge on the top that identifies it and you KNOW when you've seen a Jumbo