TERRY SMITH looks at the last two British Airways 747s, which were retired from service earlier this month.
Like many other air travellers and aviation enthusiasts, I was saddened to see the retirement of the last two Boeing 747s from the British Airways fleet earlier in October 2020. I have been fortunate enough to have flown in these wonderful planes operated by our flag carrier, both across the Atlantic and to the Far East.
The two planes, both 400 versions of the iconic jet, made their last flights from Heathrow on the 8th of October, with the event being televised live by the BBC Breakfast Time news programme. The planes were originally planned to make simultaneous take-offs using both runways, but poor weather unfortunately stopped that. The two aircraft involved were the Negus (Historic) painted G-CIVB and G-CIVY, which was finished in BAs final Chatham Dockyard livery.
G-CIVB made the short trip to Cotswold Airport, formerly RAF Kemble, in Gloucestershire where it is hoped it will be put on display.
The aircraft entered service with BA in February 1994 and flew right up to this April, with a return trip from Miami International to Heathrow being her last commercial flight. In that time, it clocked up 118,000 hours of flying time, making over 13,000 flights and flew an incredible 59 million miles.
Her sister aircraft, also to be retired on that day, was G-CIVY which flew to the final destination of St Athen in Wales where it is due to be scrapped. In a poignant and almost defiant gesture, the aircraft was granted a final fly-by over Heathrow before it headed off west to her final resting place.
This plane first flew for BA in September 1998, with her last passenger flight being the trip from Chicago O’Hare in March this year. After flying 90,000 hours on 11,000 flights, and 45 million miles in total, the BA Jumbos were on the way out. British Airways had been cutting down their fleet of 747s due to carbon emissions, as well as more efficient planes like Boeings 787 Dreamliner entering service. The global slump in air travel due to Covid-19 forced BAs hand to bring their retirement forward.
At their peak, BA operated 57 Boeing 747-400s, the most by any airline in the world, and they were in use by the company to most destinations on their extensive long haul routes. In the final year of their service not only did BA paint one of their 747-400s in the Negus livery but they also had one finished in BOAC colours. I was lucky to see the latter plane as it was three planes ahead of me on a flight out of Heathrow in January. British Airways are of course not the only airline retiring their 747 fleet, although because of their size some we continue flying for the foreseeable future as cargo planes.
Herpa Wings have an extensive range of Boeing 747s in their range, in a variety of scales.