40 years ago...

[Miss Neecerie]

Not -quite- Golden Era...so I will put it out here...but its worth noting....

Today marks the anniversary of the 747's first commercial flight

a photo gallery and the article:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-22jumbojet-pictures,0,1757098.photogallery

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-jumbojet21-2010jan21,0,5054273.story

 

[dhermann1]

Pan Am, now that's Golden Era. I remember the first time I saw a 747 fly over. I was living in Boston at the time (1970). I was totally wowed. The one time I flew on one was 6 years ago, when I went to Europe.
I also remember seeing the first Space Shuttle non-powered version, the Enterprise, flying low over Central Park in New York, on its way to being permamently retired after test flights. Super wow.

 

[Foofoogal]

Wow.. I so wanted to be a stewardess when I grew up when I was about 12.
A new airport opened in Houston and someone took me to it.
There were tours and no kidding when I say this person talked to a stewardess and she took us into an empty plane and gave us a coke and showed us the cockpit and all.
Can you imagine that now. How luxurious air travel was back then. How it is not so much now..

 

[dhermann1]

Mickey Mouse Club

Oh, wow. Do you remember the first season of Mickey Mouse Club (1955) when they had an on going piece about a little boy and girl, the little boy aspiring to be an airline pilot, and of course the little girl aspiring to be a stewardess? DC-7's!

 

[Diamondback]

And there are still some of those old -100-series models racking up revenue miles, but they're few and far between--IIRC, JAL and Qantas are some of the last operators of the "Classic" line (which is the 100, 200 and 300-models, the later I believe erroneously because it's a lot easier to bring a 300 up to 400 spec than a 200 up to 300--mainly because 300 introduced the longer upper deck).

The oldest still flying in the US is N747GE, an October '69-vintage Pan Am aircraft now used by GE as an engine testbed, with a grand total between owners of 88,000 flight hours.

http://www.aviationnews.eu/2009/10/30/ges-747-flying-testbed-celebrates-40-years-of-flight/
The oldest in US-flagged revenue service are likely to be freighters in the UPS fleet.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

JAL retired a 35 year old one just recently...iirc...

 

[Diamondback]

If you really wanna see the oldest, though, we still have N7470, "City of Everett", and occasionally Boeing re-leases the old girl for the odd test--her certificate still lists her as active and airworthy, which is probably why she's almost never open for touring.

EDIT: I'll try to keep an ear to the ground for the next chance and post it if interest warrants, the only one I remember was October 2 '09 and I missed it.