Do you remember a 707 takeoff??
 

As I listen to a video of an Airbus 319 (or maybe 320) sound of the engines, like an egg beater in the kitchen or maybe a vacuum cleaner, I wonder how many people remember the sound of a Boeing 707 taking off. The way airplanes use to sound before they got politically correct!! All that black smoke, ear deafening sound, vibration, and raw power?

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resi...nt=video%2cwmv

As a shareholder in one of the major oil companies, I really wish for these engines to make a comeback. Mmmmm gas guzzling ... :D :D

dayum .... 4 engines for a narrowbody plane ...

Do you remember how the 707 (or for that matter the 727) wing looked like during takeoff/landing?

Do youi remember looking at the 707 fuselage from the back of the plane and how it would flex/snake?

Classics!
 

The B720, was an even more impressive beast with its redesigned engines …

Seating behind the wing of the 737-200, I was always fascinated of the deployment of the reverse thrusters ...

No I do not.

The Canadian Forces had five 707s.

I have hundreds of hours flying across the pond as a pax. It was great to go back down memory lane.

Thanks for the llink.

737-200s I remember. Fun flying!

You can still fly them to Northern Canada.
http://www.canadiannorth.com/about/our-fleet

Old school planes had better noises...as long as you did not live near an airport, I guess. 707. DC-8. Even an L-1011.

My personal favourite was the Concord. A 12 hour layover at LHR many years back proved to me that you did not need to be looking outside to know that bird was taking off.

Relocated from Air Canada forum as this is a general flying topic rather than a specific Air Canada or Aeroplan topic.

Regards,

tcook052
Air Canada forum moderator

the stretch DC-8 was even a better example of this

lots of interesting reminiscing about these and other classics in the "Old Timers' Quiz and Discussion" thread :)

If you were flying in Canada, not many 707's. AC and CP used DC 8's. Only the Canadian airforces used them.

Do you remember a 707 takeoff??
 

What I remember most is that steep angle on climb out. I don't know what degree of climb it actually was but I recall feeling like we were climbing at a much steeper angle than flights today and for a much longer time.

Do you remember a 707 takeoff??

No.

Do you remember a 707 takeoff??
 

Nothing in the world like the sound of a DC-8 at takeoff.

I remember sitting at the end of the runway on nights with low visibility. You'd never see the aircraft however only the scream of the engines of the missed approach. We'd guess the plane by the sound of the engine. Great memories.

As a young boy, my dad often took me to the airport early on Saturday mornings for breakfast and to watch the planes take off. I was 7 when the first 707s were put in use by TWA in St. Louis. There was an open air observation deck, so you could hear as well as see. I vividly remember the first time I saw (and heard) one take off. I had no idea what I was about to experience, of course, and I was awestruck by the power of it. It looked to me like it was going straight up.

Thanks for the reminder!

Anybody remember sitting in one of the back rows on a DC-8 stretch looking down the aise and noticing the 'flex' of the fuselage on takeoff and in turbulence?

see my post #11 above

Oops. Missed that.

Sorry.

Carry on

Wardair used them. I fondly remember my first airline steak meal on one of those to Prestwick Scotland.

In the summer of 1967 I was to work on an AID project at a university in Srinagar, Kashmir. AID was to pay for my airfare but they were going to do it in India using rupees so I had to fly Pan Am or TWA. I live in Tucson which is almost half way around the world from New Delhi, the difference between a roundtrip fare and a round the world fare was $10 so I paid it and rode Pan Am 1 round the world, flying in 707's. That was the summer of the 6 day war and the Pan Am stop in Beirut was disrupted. We ate dinner in the restaurant in Terehran rather than in the air to accommodate a time delay. Because I had a round the world ticket I stopped in Amsterdam, Vienna on the way and Bangkok, Tokyo on the return. Pan Am made all my hotel reservations other than New Delhi and Srinagar. Because at that time Pan Am could not pickup or drop off domestic passengers I had to fly American from Tucson to JFK and Hughes from SFO to LAX and then to Tucson but all on the same ticket. We were delayed leaving JFK because a service truck accidentally bumped the plane before boarding, dinner in the restaurant instead of on the plane. There were so few on the plane that I had a whole row to myself, they gave me blankets and pillows (in economy class).

Close but no cigar. I was little but I think I flew a National Airlines DC8 from SFO to MSY in July 1972. Or would it have been a 727?

NATO still flies 707 as E-3A AWACS. Taking off daily from Geilenkirchen, Germany, although some hush-kits now installed on the engines. But still a great sound and a great airplane.

welcome to FT! that's a great first post :cool:

I agree.^
Wonderful first post, DEarlM Looking forward to your further contributions to FT
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

Oh yeah!!! Middle East Airlines (MEA) operated 707s well into the mid-90s and on the European routes, retrofitted the planes with "hush kits" to make them "less noisy" :) :)

My parents both worked for Douglas and I was at the inaugural takeoff of the first DC-8 in Long Beach. Like many of the 707s (which had entered service a year earlier) most of the DC-8s used water injection (and were called "water burners") as a means of increasing thrust at takeoff and also to cool the turbine blades at high RPMs. The upshot was that some of the fuel went unburnt, leading to the black smoke exhaust trails. But fuel was very cheap then.

Here's a cool 1959 UAL promo film covering a DC-8 transcon flight. Takeoff is around 5:40 in. Note the cabin amenities, also the ethnic makeup of the pax and crew.

Really enjoyed this video. Of course, I was only a youngster when this was made but enjoyed many pleasant flights on DC 8's over the years.

When viewing the video, I wondered how much has really IMPROVED over the years, beyond just what changed. I don't see many red carpet lounges in first class or lounges in couch now a days. As you noted, the demographic has changed dramatically (no backpackers on this flight), and the video referred to "the men who know.." --- the pilots and maintenance people who are all men, apparently. But the stewardesses are female!! And of course, the "gentlemen" were smoking on the plane. Maybe someone will start another thread on the real "improvements".

Couldn't help but notice the lack of desk computers in the office, no cell phones or ipads. How did they ever do it???

This video was over 55 years ago-- the stone age for many on FlyerTalk.

Thanks for the great memories!

I remember when the 747 and the L-1011 were the biggest planes on the runways! Loved them. I also remember when the Concorde came for a visit to my hometown, sometime in the mid-70s (I think they were trying to sell the concept, and were taking the plane on a goodwill tour of sorts). Loud. But, oh, what a lovely, lovely sight, especially to the eyes of a child. I will never forget that.

i flew a number of times on the convair 880. that was loud and smoky. the plane was flying a triangular route. JFK-fco-MIL-jfk. i do not recall any bend in that plane.

Pretty sure I flew a DC-8 at some point, but I don't think I've ever flown on a 707. I do remember seeing plenty of 707's landing in MIA in the late 80's / early 90's though (during family vacations.) The family we stayed with lived right under the approach path to MIA and those 707's were still quite popular with Central and South American airlines back then.

Do you remember a 707 takeoff??
 

Yes, and the (late) landing too!! Finish of a three week vacation, first TATL, in July, 1968, that had first started with a NY Airways helicopter from the Wall St. Heliport on the East River, then an Iberia DC-8 flight from JFK to Madrid. Returning from LHR to JFK on a TWA B707, during the ATC slowdown at JFK, we started circling over Boston on the way into NY, and after about an hour the captain came on to say that because of the ATC union's slowdown at JFK and the large backup of aircraft waiting to land there, if we did not get clearance within the next half hour to continue on to JFK, we'd have to land in Boston to refuel and then continue to NY. Finally got the go ahead, and made it into JFK almost two hours late.

First class on a Braniff DC-8 by way of a cancelled Eastern Airlines flight from Miami to NY, had me get a call from EA on the afternoon that I was supposed to fly back to NY, and I insisted that I had to get to NY that day, as I had to be back at work in NYC early the following morning. Nothing else available on EA for me, but they were able to get me on the late Braniff flight from South America (from the EA Y to Braniff F) that had made a scheduled stop in MIA before continuing on to NY. Remembered that it was a dark green DC-8 (Braniff had painted all their planes in different colors) and although I was in F, with big, comfortable seats, there was no full meal service for me as it was very late in the evening. But I really enjoyed that Coca-Cola in the large leather F seat for the two and a half hour flight.

bj-21.

Had a few takeoffs in 707s and a couple in KC-135s. Don't remember anything that unusual, but I wouldn't have known any better at the time. Did get to visit the boomer's position in the 135. With another ROTC cadet with his hand on the control, the boomer told him to move the refueling boom all the way to one side. Then told him to move it as fast as he could to the other side. I believe the next thing the boomer said was "You can hear the pilot cussing from here." This was a long time ago

Varig (Brazil) and Transbrasil flew the 707 on domestic flights such as Recife/Natal with some segments being as short 30 minutes.

It was amazing to feel the thrust of those engines as the 707 got high enough to start the descent.

the CV-880's typical operational range was about 2000-2500 miles, so it would not have appeared on either JFK-FCO or MIL-JFK (in the US, Delta's longest routes were LAX/LAS/SFO<-->ATL at approx 2000 miles; TWA ran LAX<-->CVG at about the same distance)

its fuselage was short enough that you probably wouldn't notice any torsional (twisting) flex when seated at the back

I remember the B727 takeoff! Slow to roll, loud, trailing smoke, and shallow climb to altitude. I also remember being at the parking lot underneath the departure path. You had to cover your ears and almost had to duck.

The Whisper Jet!

well, compared to its predecessors (707, DC-8, CV-880), it was much more like "whisper" inside since the engines were at the back rather than under the wings ... I think the advertising phrase was an attempt to convey that passengers in the front of the jet could actually carry on a conversation in a whisper

Hmm, the last time I definitely flew on a 707 was 38 years ago, an old BA example. Might have flown on another a year or two later but unsure. Last DC-8 was an AC one in 1982.

As far a 707s go, didn't the early ones have turbojets (exhaust looked somewhat like big star-shaped cookie cutters) and later ones have low-bypass turbofans? Same with DC-8s with the last UA examples having been re-engined with CFM56s? Never got to fly in one of those super-stretch DC-8s. Don't think I flew a turbojet-powered version of either.

Last civilian 707s I saw as in ASU around 1995-96. Sad examples rotting away...

yes, the initial 707s (model numbers -120, -220, and -320) were powered by the "straight-pipe" P&W JT3C and JT4A turbojets; the -420 had the Rolls-Royce Conway engines ... the JT3D turbofans came along a few years into production (model numbers with "B" and "C" suffixes); many early models were retrofitted

the DC-8-10, -20, and -30 also had the JT3C or JT4A engines; the -40 was a Conway-powered variant ... the -50 as well as the -60 stretch aircraft were delivered with JT3D turbofans; all the CFM56-powered -70 series were conversions