Quote Originally Posted by Sir C View Post
I'm not a spotter, honest!

747s will all be gone within a few years, b. It's sad, really. There have been few airliners quite as elegant as the 'Queen of the Skies' as she is often dubbed. Now all airliners look the same. I can barely tell one form another.

When I started going to Heathrow as a child you'd see 747s, VC10s, 707s, DC10s, TriStars, Tridents, BAC 1-11s, Caravelles... all distinctive and individual. Now the aircraft, like the passengers, are dull, dull, dull.
Oddly enough, you only appreciate how elegant the 747 is now it's being replaced by much uglier, more utilitarian efforts. The A380 is an ugly lump of a thing and the Dreamliner just looks fat.

The BAC 1-11 was the first aeroplane I ever flew on. I seem to remember that the DC-10 went through an unfortunate period in the late 70s/early 80s when it kept crashing. Or am I imagining that?