LAST FLIGHT FOR QUEEN OF THE SKIES
A BOEING 747 aircraft has made its final journey over the Westcountry, landing in Newquay to be scrapped.
The flight from Cardiff to Cornwall Airport Newquay on Sunday marked the last journey for the 231ft British Airways aircraft after decades of service.
The Boeing 747 aircraft fleet, known as Queen of The Skies, has flown millions of miles around the globe since it was first introduced in 1989. It was announced on July 17 that the entire fleet would be retired with “immediate effect”.
The decision was made as a result of the devasting impact the
Covid-19 pandemic has had on the airline and the aviation sector. The sector is not predicted to recover to 2019 levels until 2023/24.
The then-British Overseas
Airways Corporation (Boac) operated its first 747 London to New York service on April 14, 1971, and in July 1989 the first British Airways 747-400, the aircraft type the airline still flies today, took to the skies.
Plane spotters who lined Heathrow’s perimeter fences would watch as the magnificent 747-400 would typically take off at 180mph, reaching cruising speeds in the sky of up to 565mph.
For the next decade the airline took delivery of 56 more of the aircraft, with its final plane delivered in April 1999.
At the time, it was the largest commercial aircraft in the world, and it remained so until the Airbus A380 first took to the skies in 2007.
At one point British Airways operated 57 of the 747-400 aircraft.
The original aircraft featured 27 First Class seats and 292 Economy seats. Initially the upper deck, widely described as the bubble, contained a lounge, with lounge chair seating.
It was known as the ‘club in the sky’ and the aircraft also played host to the world’s very first flat bed seat which British Airways pioneered in 1999.
The remaining 30 fuel-hungry aircraft were, however, already being slowly phased out by British Airways as they reached the end of their working life in order to help meet the company’s commitment to net zero by 2050.
The airline has invested in new, modern and more fuel-efficient long-haul aircraft.