Old BA flight #9
I’m a real geek for “old” aviation routes and some research on engines lead me to the BA flight #9 failure and was surprised to learn three things:
1) there were at least 5 stops (Bombay, Madras, Kuala Lumpur, Perth and Melbourne) before reaching Auckland, compared to say just 2 or 3 stops nowadays (Hong Kong/Singapore, Sydney). Is it just me or does anyone else consider this to be quite excessive?
2) from what I read the old LHR to AKL route was all on BA metal (747-200), which must have been one of, if not the longest BA service at the time, at least in terms of overall distance travelled on the one aircraft, or were there similar routes?
3) the shorter ‘hops’ i.e. Bombay to Madras would only have taken about 1 to 1.5 hours tops, which I always thought was impractical and inefficient on a 747 due to the large amount of energy used in getting it up in the air?
I was thinking maybe the large amount of stops was due to the limitations of the jet engines (range, fuel etc.). But then I think of the modern BA LHR to SIN route being served quite comfortably by a 747-400 with the same engines as the -200 variant – there can’t be that many differences (other than the engines) between the two variants to warrant so many stops on the traditional Auckland journey. I had always thought a fully loaded 747 could pretty much fly for at least 12 hours regardless of which variant it was and that this was what they were primarily made to do – i.e. high capacity longer routes? Airlines like Pan-Am and United apparently operated such routes regularly between the US and Asia, so why would be BA be any different?
With regards to the BA metal, the longest BA route now from what I can see is the LHR-SYD route served almost exclusively by the B777 – or are there others that would compare to the old LHR-AKL route? The last few stops on the London to Auckland journey seem to be dominated by likes of Qantas and Cathay Pacific, which says to me the last time BA aircraft were seen in New Zealand was the late 80’s/early 90’s – can anyone confirm?
Anyway sorry for the rant, this old time stuff just really interests me! I wasn’t born until late 1986, so well after the ‘golden era’ of flying.
Thanks,
R.