teddybear99

I remember a little about my first flight in a 747. I was aboard a flight out of JFK, either flying to Denver, CO or San Diego, CA and it was in the early 70's. I believe it was Continental Airlines, but I am not sure. The point I remember is being taken upstairs to a lounge area and being exposed to a "video" game for the first time, PONG. It was before 1975, as my family moved to South Florida in October, 1975. Can someone help me out with a possible memory kick?

jlemon

I believe my shortest jet flight was also 11 miles. However, I'm not completely sure of the actual distance as the airport serving Fort Worth, Texas I flew out of is no longer in existence: Greater Southwest International Airport (GSW), which was located just south of DFW. It appears DFW is located about 11 miles from Dallas Love Field (DAL) which was the first stop made by the flight I was on board that departed from GSW. So there's my basis for the flight from GSW to DAL being 11 miles.

It was the summer of 1967 and I was a teenager. I had been visiting family friends in the Fort Worth area. My destination was Huntsville, Alabama (HSV) where our family lived at the time before moving to the Houston area. Being an avid reader of the OAG, I figured out I could fly on Eastern Airlines from GSW to New Orleans and then connect via another Eastern flight to HSV. So I boarded an Eastern B727-100 in coach at GSW for the very short flight to Dallas Love Field. We then flew nonstop to New Orleans. I had a layover of several hours at MSY (which suited me just fine - I loved hanging out in airports back then and one could also have a fine lunch of New Orleans-style red beans and rice with sausage courtesy of great restaurant located inside the terminal) before boarding an Eastern Lockheed L-188 Electra for the nonstop flight in coach to Huntsville.

When the current DFW airport was built, Greater Southwest International Airport was closed and demolished due to its close proximity to DFW. Other airlines operating jet service from GSW over the years included American with the Boeing 707 and 727, Braniff International with the BAC One-Eleven, Continental with the Douglas DC-9-10 and Delta with the Convair 880. Braniff also operated L-188 Electra service while Continental also operated the Vickers Viscount into GSW.

Bluehen1

Shortest flight was LAX-SNA...

Seat 2A

In Continental's first go-round with the 747 (It operated 4 747-124s) it only operated them until January of 1974. During that time CO did not serve either JFK or SAN. Aside from being taken upstairs, the aircraft you describe sounds more like Continental's DC-10-10 which did offer the Pong video game mounted in tables in its mid-cabin Polynesian Pubs. Pong was never offered on Continental's early 747s.


Note the mention of Pub Pong in the lower right side

As to your memories of being "taken upstairs to a lounge", only one plane fits that bill in the early 1970s. The problem for an inveterate OAG reader like me is that while JFK saw plenty of 747 flights, SAN did not. Domestically, the only 747 service in SAN that comes to mind is a United flight in the late 70s that was a tag-on coming down from LA. Any chance you might have flown upon a chartered flight?

kochleffel

That, in 1988 or so, would also have been my shortest jet flight. My next shortest was CAK-CLE, 40 miles, in a UA DC-10. Both were legs of longer itineraries: ITH-ELM-PIT and ORD-CAK-CLE.

YVR Cockroach

Indeed, I was going on to PIT. Next shorttest jet flight was PI SYR-ITH on a F28.

My shortest 747 flight was probably on a SQ 747-100 (had to be a -100) back in the early/mid '70s. A family friend was the SQ station manager in LHR and he made sure our bags got on the LHR-AMS leg. You wonder why payload would be an issue. What happened was that a spare engine (IIRC) needed to be transported from LHR to AMS. Flight got to AMS where everyone was booted off for several hours as the engine needed to be unloaded, and a fair number of people had delayed bags as the engine took up enough payload. I seem to remember the station manager not being impressed about how the engine was secured in the hold.

jrl767

Mar 1972 on a Mohawk BAC 1-11, JFK-ELM-ITH; May 1972 on Allegheny BAC 1-11s, ITH-ELM-EWR returning JFK-ELM-ITH ...14 additional trips in one or the other direction on Mohawk FH-227Bs and Allegheny Convair 580s, most originating or terminating DCA, between Aug 1971 and Jun 1976, with one more northbound 580 in Sep 1977

jlemon

Besides my aforementioned flight of 11 miles or so from Greater Southwest International Airport (GSW) serving Fort Worth over to Dallas Love Field (DAL) on board an Eastern 727, I also have a runner up: Houston Hobby (HOU) to Houston Bush Intercontinental (IAH) on board a Continental B737-300. I believe the distance between HOU and IAH is around 23 miles. There were so few passengers on this flight that we were all moved up to the first class cabin.

Several airlines offered "cross-town" service between Hobby and Intercontinental at various times over the years. The first was Houston Metro operating DHC-6 Twin Otter shuttle service with around 14 round trip flights on weekdays. I believe Houston Metro was the first air carrier to resume service at Hobby in 1970 following the opening of Intercontinental in 1969 when all scheduled airline service into Houston moved from HOU to IAH (Southwest did not begin serving Hobby until 1971 and, of course, they did not operate nonstop service between the two airports). Houston Metro then dropped the route while continuing to operate Twin Otter shuttle service between the Clear Lake City STOLport (CLC) located near the NASA Johnson Space Center and IAH. Commutair, a local commuter air carrier, then began flying a HOU-IAH shuttle service with the Beechcraft 99.

In the mid 1980's, Continental contracted with Austin-based Emerald Air to operate DC-9-10 flights between HOU and IAH with this jet shuttle service being named the "Houston Proud Express". The Emerald Air DC9 aircraft featured a modified livery that resembled Continental's. However, Emerald Air then went out of business and CO subsequently began operating their mainline jet equipment between HOU and IAH for a short time before switching the service over to Continental Express which operated their flights with ATR-42, Beechcraft 1900D and Embraer EMB-120 commuter turboprops at various times over the years. I remember flying on the B1900D from IAH to HOU and being able to look forward through the cockpit windscreen from the passenger compartment. Continental Express later operated "cross-town" service in the Houston area between Ellington Field (EFD, formerly Ellington Air Force Base) located near the NASA Johnson Space Center and IAH, first with the ATR-42 and then with the Embraer ERJ-135 regional jet. I flew on the ERJ-135 service between EFD and IAH as well which is a distance of around 28 miles.

jrl767

747s can be equipped with a "Spare Engine Ferry Kit" which uses a hard point between the #2 engine and the fuselage to attach a specially-configured engine ... not sure when Boeing first offered this capability, but one was in flight test at BFI in early 1979

the main deck side cargo door on the -200 Combi was probably big enough to accommodate a JT3D engine (for a 707) on a transport trailer that could be secured to the pallet rails in the floor; iirc the first -200s went into service ~1971

YVR Cockroach

I remember seeing photos of the ferry kit in my youth and thought that was what would have been used (though my memory is foggy about whether I saw the photo of the ferry pod or took the afore-mentioned flight first), but I don't ever remember seeing the engine slung in that position. Mind you, it was an evening flight and it was a very dark (probably December) at AMS.

Boeing 747-212B - Singapore Airlines | Aviation Photo
#0340405 | Airliners.net

So the -200s (uprated engines?) came into service only a few years after the first -100 flights? I guess the BOAC flight may have been my only ride on a -100 (unless PA was still operating -100s in 1989). I don't think SQ ever operated any combis, or any -100s (I have a few ML and later SQ 707 flights in the earlier half of the '70s).

jrl767

my last Pan Am flight was on N737PA (line #13) in Nov 1987, so I suspect they were still around two years later

YVR Cockroach

Would the -100 have had enough range to fly SEA-LGW (assuming PA had sold its LHR authority to AA at that time - just checked; it was Jan.'90)? I flew the SFO-SEA portion of that flight.

jrl767

WHBM

The -100 had range for more than this. Both Pan Am and tWA ran them on LHR to LAX/SFO from pretty much the start of 747 service. But I believe Pan Am never ran to Gatwick from Seattle, as the sale of the Heathrow routes to United included both route and Heathrow authority. They did start some odd Gatwick routes separately, for a short while.

Having said that, such operations were not without their operational challenges, particularly westbound against the prevailing winds. BA refused to put the -100 on these routes, as for their calculations it was beyond range; they were the very first operation that their -200B were put on when they started to come in the late 1970s (I was on the first week's operation), and in the interim they had set up the daily lease of the Air New Zealand DC-10-30 for the Los Angeles route, which we have discussed before. These westbound California 747-100 departures were a notable concern for Heathrow ATC, who knew with their fuel loads they were right up against Max Take Off Weight, departing at midday on hot summer days, and with the early JT9D engines' reliability issues. Even with all four engines running normally they would make decidedly flat departures, allegedly with the flight engineer's fingers poised over the fuel dump valves so in the event of any engine issue they could instantly staert dumping weight - straight onto the houses of Hounslow a short distance below if on easterly departures.

Such minimalist climb rates for the Pan Am, flight got it known as the "Hedge Clipper", while TWA easterly departures were similarly known as "Departing via the Piccadilly Line".

There was a very near thing at Gatwick in 1988 with a Continental JT9D-powered early 747 taking off for Miami, with an engine failure on departure it nearly brushed trees several miles after liftoff. Good thing it happened in February rather than August.

https://www.flightglobal.com/FlightP...20-%200330.PDF

YVR Cockroach

Forgot it was UA which bought PA's route authority and AA that bought TW's. That SEA-LHR flight was in its final year (1990) as UA announced the purchase later that year.