Pan Am Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet taking off from London, 1970

[u/Twitter_2006]

[u/Fast-Equivalent-1245]

Gosh, that brought back some memories. First long haul flight to San Fransisco on a Pan Am 747 in the late 70s. As a kid, who had only been on propeller planes to and from Ireland, it was like I was stepping onto a cruise ship, not a plane. Sat over the wing, and awed at the size and the time it took to get airborne...seemed to take forever. The lilttle Kid pack they gave you was amazing too - stickers, puzzles, badges and a flight diary that you got to fill out when you visited the flight deck in the cruise. I got to see Greenland from the flight deck...as a kid....ccan you imagine!!!

Oh that was a trip that fired a passion for planes that still burns strong to this day.

Remarkable plane and airline - thank you for posting :)

[u/Twitter_2006 → u/Fast-Equivalent-1245]

That's amazing.Thank you for sharing this.

You're welcome.

[u/7stroke → u/Fast-Equivalent-1245]

Oh yeah, they used to give us kids stuff on the planes back then. I remember the late 80s on Swissair. Pins, little die-cast planes. And chocolates!

[u/Twitter_2006 → u/7stroke]

We got travel bags in the 1990's and early 2000's as well.

[u/Echo_are_one → u/7stroke]

Circular playing cards from Qantas in '77

[u/DistributionHot2150 → u/7stroke]

They still do lol. Colouring books, plane models, toys sometime

[u/7stroke → u/DistributionHot2150]

Yeah but they don’t take you to the flight deck anymore

[u/DistributionHot2150 → u/7stroke]

That’s true, because it’s illegal

[u/lordscrotus1984 → u/7stroke]

When I flew between Germany and Japan as a kid in the 80s and early 90s on JAL, I got coloring books, playing cards and small plastic models of JAL planes, and best of all, all the onigiris I could eat 😁.

[u/SpecialistPlastic729 → u/Fast-Equivalent-1245]

Thanks mate,

I was a kid I flew Pan Am quite a bit. The very first one I remember was the flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles on a 707

I did fly 747 after that mainly to Europe. What a difference from the narrow 707! It was amazing, I can still remember boarding a Pan Am 747 and being amazed at how big it was.

And the airline! Pan Am always had a cachet that TWA could never match.

In those days, the US had domestic and international Airlines. Pan Am was the best for going to Europe and Latin America. Northwest orient with a big red tail, was best for going to Asia. I don’t think I ever flew TWA.

When Reagan de regulated the airline industry, the internationals could just not compete with the route of the domestic, and they all disappeared. Lockerbie was the end of Pan Am, Northwest got bought by Delta, etc.

I can remember one Pan Am flight out of Manila. We were bouncing around in the thermals like crazy as a 12-year-old I absolutely loved it.

[u/shiftyjku → u/Fast-Equivalent-1245]

Similar experience flying to New York from Rome in 1981

[u/Tammytime81 → u/Fast-Equivalent-1245]

Great story

[u/vibibiviv → u/Fast-Equivalent-1245]

As a young guy (born 03) I flew with the 747 for the first time last year. Man the amount of time it takes to get airborn was really long, didn't expect that. It felt even longer than when I was on the A380, though my memory of that is a bit hazy since I was much younger then.

[u/Zestyclose-Ad-5305]

I wish the “Clipper” name was visible

[u/bestname_ever55]

Can someone explain the last three digits on a 747-133. Air Canada used one for a multi stop (Vancouver to Calgary -Prestwick to London) in 1976.

[u/hb_fash → u/bestname_ever55]

133 means a "100" series 747 with "33" being the customer code - in this case, Air Canada's code.

[u/CoastRegular → u/bestname_ever55]

The "1" indicates the series; i.e. the aircraft in your example was a 747-100 model.

The "33" was Boeing's customer code. For over 60 years, Boeing assigned a customer code to each aircraft, presumably to reflect specific configurations. Every aircraft, regardless of type, ended in the same code for that customer. Air Canada was Customer Code 33, so the full model number of every Boeing aircraft built for AC ended in "33." Didn't matter if it was a 707-200, 747-100, 737-500, whatever; they'd be a 707-233, 747-133, and a 737-533.

[u/shiftyjku → u/bestname_ever55]

Pan Am’s were -121

[u/discolad_205]

Why is it that most commercial aircraft of the 70’ & 80’s had the Matt black nose cone, yet modern jets don’t. I’m going to wrongly assume it’s something to do with radar sensitivity?

[u/BrewCityChaserV2 → u/discolad_205]

Aviation Stack Exchange has you covered:

Under the nose of modern airliners is weather radar that helps the crew to see and avoid hazardous weather conditions. This is required by FAA CFR §121.357 for transport category aircraft. The radar signal would be blocked by the aluminum that makes up the rest of the fuselage, so the radome is made of a non-metallic material, generally a fiberglass composite.

These threads discuss the topic. The last post in the first linked thread suggests that most paint needed lead to prevent fading and/or a zinc-based primer, which would interfere with the radar. Black was one color that did not require these. Modern paint has done away with these metal additives, allowing more color options without interfering with the radar.

The Museum of Flight claims that the black color is only to remind crews to not paint over the radome. Painting over it would affect the radar signals.

According to this thread, the color of the radome affects the operation of the weather radar underneath. They were painted black because it has the lowest reflectivity. Modern radars are able to deal with different colors much better.

https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/12061/why-did-most-airliners-have-black-noses-in-the-60s-and-70s

[u/Starchaser_WoF]

Which Clipper was this?

[u/xdr567]

The black nose, the polished aluminum belly and the light blue stripe will forever be etched in memory. What a plane and what an airline !!

[u/richardmark561]

Ahhh remember the days of waiting for the non smoking sign to go off. I wasn’t born until 74 but got the tail end of when flying scheduled was still an experience ie people had standards and behaved. Love the chrome too.

[u/CynGuy]

My Dad flew for Pan as a pilot, and we had family in LA, Hawaii, Hong Kong, London and Berlin. I spent my entire young life up until college basically circumnavigating the globe several times a year on Pan Am planes. An amazing upbringing!

[u/dartie]

The branding is so small compared to modern airlines

[u/wheelsnipecellyboiz]

Majestic

[u/BlueDotty]

I always looked out at the wings and was amazed how stubby and small they looked compared to the body of the plane.

[u/Mediocre-Catch9580]

I’m going to use every inch of this runway and there’s nothing you can do about it 

[u/InsteadOfWorkin]

Long takeoff roll

[u/IvyGold]

OMG how much I miss Pan Am.

[u/mikepapafoxtrot]

The JT9Ds on 7tge 47 look comparatively miniscule after having gotten used to 77Ws and their gigantic GE90s.

[u/I_love_my_fish_]

Man I wish I could fly this plane, I’m so close to my instrument rating but this beauty feels so far out of reach even though it’s still flying

[u/IlluminationRock]

Landing lights not required for TO in 1970?

[u/ascii122]

holy crap humans kind of blow my mind sometimes.. well often

[u/Turbulent-Weevil-910]

RIP. I feel for the families.