Wednesday, January 10, 2018

항공기의 여왕, 보잉 747, 전미국항공사로부터 은퇴, 아리조나사막의 묘지(폐차장)로 퇴장. 곡예사 같이 살아온나의인생 같다.

인생을 살만큼 살고, 살아온 삶을 되돌아 볼때, 모든게 부질없다는 허무함과 회한이 엄습해 오는것을 가슴이 시리도록 느껴본적은, 나만이 아니라 같은 연배 또는 인생선배들께서도 많이 느꼈본적이 있으리라 생각된다.

지금으로 부터 정확히 7년전에, 신문기사가 나의 눈을 오래토록 눈을 떼지 못하게 했었던, 흥미있는내용을 잊지못하고있다. 미국의 Boeing사는 1969년도에 첫번째 점보기 747기를 생산하여, 시험용으로 하늘을 날았고, 그다음해인 1970년도부터 생산된 점보기는 전세계의 각항공사로 경쟁적으로 팔려가기 시작했었다.




당시 한국의 신문에 보잉 747기의 위용을 사진과 함께 기사를 실었던 기억이 지금도 머리속에 뚜렷히 남아 있는데, 그사진은 당시 세계 여러항공사의 주류 Fleet였던 보잉 707과 747점보기를 한장의 사진에 보여 주었는데, 마치 엄마 코끼리와 새끼 코끼리를 연상케 할정도로 엄청난 크기의 차이로 세간의 이목을 집중 했었다.

그후 몇년이 지난후 KAL에서 점보기를 도입하여 미주 노선에 투입했었던 것으로 기억하고 있다.  전세계적으로 약 1,500대의 점보기가 팔려 나갔는데, 그마지막으로 제작된 점보비행기는 독일항공 Lufthansa가 주문한 것으로 약 2년전 인도했었다는 기사를 본기억도 있다.  

그후로 점보기의 생산은 보잉의 Dream Liner에 집중되면서 단종되고, 현재는 아시아의 중국, 한국,그리고 유럽의 여러 항공사에서 현역으로 뛰고 있지만, 이곳 미국의 Delta Air lines에서 운영하던 Flight No.9771가 아틀란타로 부터 3시간 33분간 비행후 최후를 마치는 Marana, Arizona주의 사막으로 비행하여, 인간으로 치면, Cemetery로 안치됐다는 뉴스를 접하는 순간, 마음이 찡해왔었다. 이비행 을 끝으로 미국의 항공사에서는, 747점보기는 역사속으로 사라지게 된것이다.

보잉 점보기는 "하늘을 날으는 여왕"이라는 애칭을 얻기도 했었고, 기념우표로도 발행됐었고, 팝문화의 상징, 또 영화에도 자주 출연하는 비행기로, 현재도 미국대통령의 전용기, Air Force One으로 하늘을 날고 있다. 그외에 화물전용기로 현재도 332대가 현역으로 날고 있다고 한다.

상업용으로 첫번째 생산된 점보기가 은퇴후 미국에서 한국의 한 독지가에게 팔려와서, 경기도의 남양주군에 있는 한식당에 전시되고 있다는 조선일보 기사를 본 기억이 있다.  그기사를 보면서 미국의 경제적 융성이 석양을 향해 기울고 있는것은 아닐까?라는 성급한 상상도 해 봤었다.  큰 상업용 1호기는 역사적 의미가 큰것으로 생각되여, 미국에서 영원히 보존할것으로 이해하고 있었는데, 그상상과는 반대로 지구반대편에 있는 조그만 나라 한국으로 팔려와 식당앞 마당에서 도장된 페이트가 변색된채 전시되고 있는 사진을 보면서, 영원한 것은 없음을 그때 당시 어렴푸시 느겼었다.

이제는 미국의 항공사에서 보잉 747기를 타고 여행할수 있는 기회는 없어진 셈이다. 처음 상업용으로 승객들을 실어 날으면서 창공을 날기 시작한 이후 48년동안, 가장 안전한 비행기로서의 임무를 마치고, 영원한 안식처인 아리조나주 Marana 격납고에 들어간 셈이다.


http://lifemeansgo.blogspot.ca/2010/12/blog-post.html

오늘 CNN에서 장문의 점보기 퇴역 기사를 이례적으로 보도했다. 그내용을 아래에 옮겨 본다.



Marana, Ariz. (CNN) — For the first time in 48 years, you can't buy a ticket on a US airline to fly on a Boeing 747.
On Wednesday, Delta Air Lines Flight 9771 touched down in Marana, Arizona, an arid boneyard for stored and cannibalized jetliners. A three-hour-and-33-minute journey from Atlanta. 
The last of the airline's 16 jumbo Boeing 747-400s flew to a desert retirement, ending operations by passenger airlines in the United States
Both Delta and United Airlines have been saying goodbye to the jumbo for months. A final domestic revenue flight, a last international trip, a final charter. Those last trips became more of a farewell tour than a formal end. 
But Wednesday's departure on ship 6314 was the true grand finale.
Pan American Airways debuted the enormous two-deck airliner in January 1970, and flights by US passenger airlines have been flying uninterrupted ever since. The 747 was a marvel of engineering when it first flew months before the first moon landing in 1969. 
Earning the moniker "queen of the skies," the 747 was postage stamp famous, an icon of pop culture, and the backdrop of movies, television and a flying emblem of the US presidency as Air Force One.
"Everybody stands up at the terminal and goes to the glass and they go 'that's a 747'," said Capt. Stephen Hanlon, 62, Delta's chief 747 pilot, who was in command of the final flight.
Two retirements


Another senior Delta captain, Paul Gallaher, was making his final flight, too. Gallaher, 64, was retiring with the 747 fleet. 
He's flown with Delta and its merger predecessor, Northwest Airlines, since 1983 and was a captain on the 747 for 18 years. Gallaher's last command flight had been the day before, flying a charter with Hanlon to get the Clemson Tigers football team back home to South Carolina.

"Paul called me up, said 'hey, Steve, how about jerking gear for me? And I'll do the same for you going to the desert," said Hanlon. "Jerking gear" is a pilot euphemism for flying co-pilot and controlling the landing gear.
Gallaher, Hanlon's friend of more than 30 years, was a first officer on the first 747-400 delivered to Northwest Airlines in 1989. Gallaher made the first commercial landing of the 747-400 when it arrived at the airline's then-headquarters in Minneapolis after delivery from Boeing.

steve hanlon delta pilot

Delta Capt. Steve Hanlon, the airline's chief 747 Pilot, was in command of the flight.
Jon Ostrower/CNN
"He had the first landing and I'm going to have the last landing," said Hanlon, who has been a 747 captain since spring 2000, Gallaher was just a few months ahead.
Hanlon led the final walk-around inspection. Shaking hands with fuelers and ground handlers who had looked after the airplane. Many came out to bid the plane farewell, even on an unusually cold Atlanta winter morning. It took a full 15 minutes to walk around the 231-foot, 10-inch long jumbo.
Endurance is what airlines wanted
While the sheer size of the 747 is its most famous attribute, that wasn't primarily why the 747 that attracted many of the world's airlines. Many bought jumbo 747s because of their incredible endurance.
The iconic jumbo jet has been fading since the late 1990s. The global 747 fleet peaked at more than 1,000 in 1998. That's when smaller twin-engine jets like the Boeing 777 really began filling fleets. It could fly just as far, and airlines didn't have to worry about filling all the seats.
Those retirements accelerated as Boeing's 787 Dreamliner and Airbus's A350, which Hanlon will fly next, came along. Enormous four-engine jets like the 747 and the even larger Airbus A380 haven't sold in significant numbers in recent years.
There are still 185 flying paying passengers around the world, according to Flightglobal. Most are still in Europe at British Airways, Lufthansa, KLM and in Asia with Korean Air Lines and Air China. Another 332 are hauling cargo, VIPs, heads of state or flying a variety of unique missions.

A jet from another age


paul gallaher delta pilot

Capt. Paul Gallaher was retiring with the final flight of Delta's Boeing 747 fleet.
Jon Ostrower/CNN
Back in the cockpit, Gallaher was readying the jet to fly. Reviewing paperwork, programming the flight computers and ensuring the jumbo would perform just as it would on any normal flight.
The 747-400, a 1980s technology update to the jumbo, dates itself. Cathode ray tubes -- like old TVs -- were once state of the art displays for pilots. The analog settings on the autopilot bounce with each turn of the knob.
Flight computers with green type on black screens and blocks of backup gauges with spinning needles have long been obsolete. She is a craft from the dawn of the computer age.
Ship 6314 left the ground for the last time in Atlanta weighing a spritely 518,000 pounds, about 20% of which was jet fuel. 

A Navy landing

At around 6,800 feet, Marana's runway is an extremely tight fit for a 747. By comparison, one of the longest runways at Narita Airport in Tokyo is more than 13,000 feet long, while tiny LaGuardia Airport in New York City is 7,000 feet. 
"Eight thousand [feet] makes us pucker," said Hanlon. "This is going to be a Navy landing," said Hanlon, a reference to the hard landings required to stop a fighter jet on the small deck of an aircraft carrier. The 747 "stops on a dime. So once we get on the ground, you're going to feel the deceleration."
Before the final touchdown, the 747 would swoop low over the desert runway. Gallaher flew the jumbo down to 20 feet on its final pass over the runway. His final time at the controls of a Delta 747.
After the jumbo cleared end of then runway, Gallaher called "going around," the order to begin climbing again.
"There you go. Make it happen," said Hanlon. The four engines accelerated and the 747 climbed back in to the sky for one last circle. Six minutes later, the 18 wheels on the 747 touched the pavement on the runway and the half-million pound airliner rolled to a stop passing the long row of Delta 747s already in retirement. 
"We'd like to welcome you to the boneyard," said Stephanie Nelson the trip's lead flight attendant. "Now we say farewell, to the queen, the last queen, it's her last voyage, her last touch down."


Delta Air Lines Boeing 747-400s sit in the desert awaiting their fate after being retired from the airline's fleet.

Delta Air Lines Boeing 747-400s sit in the desert awaiting their fate after being retired from the airline's fleet.


http://www.cnn.com/travel/article/delta-boeing-747-retirement-flight/index.html

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