It's best to stay away from aeroplane politics - so many beautiful and graceful machines over the years, everyone has a personal favourite to love or hate!

I remember when the 747's were first introduced - "Ugly", "Ungainly", "Flying Pig" were some of the descriptions coined by the pundits who were used to seeing long, thin, graceful fuselages. Now that the 747's are getting close to ending their days, they have acquired the epithets "Graceful", "Queen of the Skies" etc.

Mind you, of course, the new 747's with extended upper decks should be in the air in a few years time, assuming any airlines decide to actually place any orders for such a leviathan with Boeing. European carriers all seem to be siding with Airbus, and US carriers seem to have abandoned the quest for super-capacity aircraft.