During the recent pandemic cut backs A380 and 747s were mothballed. The A380s have made a bit of a comeback but I thought the 747 were destined to be consigned to cargo.
A friend recently flew Lufthansa from Munich direct to San Diego in an A350 but surprisingly the return journey, different route but still Lufthansa was in a 747-8. If I recall only 6 or 8 years old too.
How quickly things change, from the end of the 4 engine era to a comeback. Guess, despite the apparent better fuel efficiency of the wide bodied twin engine jets there must still be a place for the 4 engine aircraft.
Must admit, to look up and see the colossal A380 or the sleeker 747 is a magnificent sight.
Especially Lufthansa decided at a very early stage to stop the usage of their A380 fleet, but keep the 747.
The newest ones are 747-8 and only a few years old.
Lufthansa operates 19 of them, in addition they have eight 747-4 and also 17 Airbus A340-600 where they agreed on extending their lifetime.
In a news paper in 10/2021 Lufthansa announced to use the four-engines 747 at least until mid of century.
But:
Recent news stated that LH will use the A380 again, but not before 2023 due to increased demands
In a news paper in 10/2021 Lufthansa announced to use the four-engines 747 at least until mid of century.
Really, if that happens then the 747 would have been in production or use for almost 80 years, that is incredible. Appreciate aircraft evolve and the current model is different from the one that flew in 1969 but still amazing evolution.
That’s always the way with “Teach yourself X” language courses on records, CDs or tapes: they teach you how to ask questions like “Where is the train station?” but not how to understand the answers, so they’re basically useless.
German is a difficult language for different reasons. I am working in an international team and my boss is from China. She was living in Spain for three years and then moved to Germany.
She confirmed that she is now after three years learning only at 30% of the level she achieved in spanish which she speaks pretty good.
I am forcing her from time to time speaking german (as excercise), but if it comes to more complex topics we still have to switch to english.
German is famous for long words which are combinations of single words. Or different meanings for the same word.
The most popular example:
“umfahren” vs. “umfahren”
See the difference? No? Sure you won’t because it only depends how you pronounce, sometimes it even depends on the context where it is used.
“Du musst das Schild umfahren” can be either “you have to drive around the sign” or “you have to run over the sign” (crashing it). It all depends on how i pronounce this single word.
I learned German starting in 2nd grade and I thought it wasn’t too bad. Probably fresh brain and all.
Then, on 5th grade they introduced English, and I was amazed! Felt to me like a simplified German, with all the stupid rules out of window!
The problem was that now English took over the brain and I couldn’t think properly in German anymore… they were too close together.
At an older age probably this “learning German” is even a harder proposal.
That happens pretty often. To really “speak” a language you have to think already in this language. If you still think german and then need to translate before speaking or writing, it becomes difficult.
My wife has this issue with english as she doesn’t need it on a daily basis.
This thread brought to mind several trips I took back in the day on the 747SP. Only 45 were ever made. I remember walking out on the tarmac to board via steps and laughing how small it seemed for a 747 as if it were a child’s toy version. Four are still around, but it looks like NASA is putting its testbed out to pasture in a few months.
Too sad for words and I hope my wife doesn’t see these - there would probably be floods of tears.
She loved those 'planes having spent years watching them fly over her parent’s house after leaving Heathrow and years more tracking them whenever they came near our house in case she could go outside and see one.
She won’t go near Kemble in case there’s any being dismantled there!
