What could go wrong with Air Force One having originally been in the hands of the Russians? No microphones here!
I hope they inspect the plane down to every rivet.
For me, because I flew the 747 back when it was less crowded than a DC3 or a Fokker Frendship, when I was small enough to fit into the seat pitch anyway, when they used to let you fly with your shades open to see the dawn, the food in economy was decent, the airplane was fitted with electric razors that you could walk down the aisles to use at the back – and quieter than the airbus planes that replaced it.
I’m pretty sure that was a joke, but I’ll answer seriously anyway. The planes were never in the hands of any Russian entity. The were originally ordered by a Russian airline, but they were never actually delivered to them. They were in Boeing’s possession the entire time before the Air Force bought them.
The only time I flew in an uncrowded one, it caught on fire. 
Most of my experience with 747s comes from the late 80s, when airflight was deregulated, and cheap oversold flights were the norm, and I flew in a lot of 747s that had not a single empty seat. They were crowded even before you got on the jet, because the airport lounge wasn’t designed for such a large plane, so there weren’t as many seats as there were passengers milling around waiting for their flight.
(Have I mentioned that I’m a fan of the little turbo-props? Easy on, easy off, no middle seats, and you fly a little lower, so you get a great view of the countryside.)
The first time I ever flew was on a 747. I think I was five years old and my parents were taking me to Disney Land.
I remember crying because I was scared. The plane rumbled down the runway and my anxiety increased and then the wheels left the ground and the ride got smooth and I stopped crying on the spot…one second crying, the next dead silent looking out the window (doubtless to the relief of everyone but I was oblivious to anyone else).
Later I found the stairway to the upper deck to be pretty neat and the pilots let me in the cockpit to check that out (it was a different time back then).
And it is such a beautiful plane. Very majestic. Especially as it comes in to land and sorta just seems to hang in the air.
I was 12. I’d flown a lot, mostly 727s, starting as a babe in arms, and later as an unaccompanied minor. So I wasn’t at all frightened. Until I looked out the window and saw thick black smoke coiling out of one of the engines. I was frightened from then until after we made an emergency landing, and my father finally emerged from the plane (long after everyone else – long story.) I will say that the emergency slide was then, and remains, the most exciting slide I had ever been on. Those things are HIGH off the ground. The surface of the slide is very rough, so your momentum doesn’t kill you at the bottom. I was wearing jeans, but a lot of passengers had minor abrasions from going down the slide.
Around 1997, I flew one from Mexico City to Guatemala City (on KLM) — that’s like from, say, Chicago to Denver!
(Insert Turkish prison joke here)
Some updates from the winter of Covid
Wow, that was quick. Glad I got to ride one, about eight years ago (yes, I realize they’ll be flying for at least another decade).
I fly a lot more than any normal person should. I suspect I have been on a 747 twice (Manila to Delhi, I think). I have never been on an A380. I suppose the big boys are (or were) on more mainstream routes.
I too have flown a lot, but for me, for some reason, riding in a B747 was not as common as I would have thought. For sure I was on a KAL 747 between Seattle and Tokyo a number of times, and I suppose it might have been a Sabena 747 from Chicago to Brussels in about 1980. But aside from about 3 to 5 instances of international travel, all other trips (many dozens) were aboard other aircraft such as L1011’s, DC-10’s (or MD11 as it was renamed) or even B767 / 777.
I think whether or not you were a frequent B747 flier largely boiled down to choice of airline. I worked for a Xerox spinoff located in Palo Alto. I typically flew from San Jose to Tokyo, about once every two months, using American Airlines, who had MD11’s. However some of my coworkers preferred to fly to Tokyo using United Airlines from SFO, and I believe they used B747’s.
Oh, and while I’ve flown on pretty much every airliner imaginable, I never once flew on an A380. They came out (and have largely been retired) after my flying days were over. (Career change leading to far fewer long distance trips, not because of a health related issue thankfully.)
The MD-11 was a subsequent derivative of the DC-10. Most of the differences were internal, so from the outside they looked similar enough to think it was a simple marketing renaming ploy. Not so.
AA did have DC-10s, but never any MD-11s.
This. Definitely this.
Back in the 747’s heyday only the largest carrier(s) on a route could fill a 747; the lesser carriers plying the same route with less feed available had to settle for a smaller machine. As well, as with your San Jose versus San Francisco cite, 747s only fit into certain airports. Flights to/from second tier cities with smaller, but still good-sized, airports simply didn’t see them.
I remember when 747s first went into service. Hard to believe they’ve gone away.
I’ve made five transoceanic flights: Japan-Frisco and NYC-London in the late '80s, and NYC(?)-Rome, Spain-Norfolk, and NYC-Bahrain in the '90s. Spain-Norfolk was aboard a C-141, but I have no idea what kind of aircraft was being used for any of the others.
Aand … I screwed that up. AA did indeed have 19 of the things at one time. I’d never known that.
DC-10’s and MD11’s…they’re not THAT different, are they? 
It’s not just a new paint job.
Sure, yes, nice article. The point I’m trying to make is that the differences between the MD-11 and the DC-10 are more evolutionary and developmental, and within the boundaries of the changes made to the B747 itself, as it evolved from the 1966 747-100 to the dash 8, as summarized here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_747#747-400
What does the MD-11 have in common with the DC-10?
- Basically, same manufacturer
- Same basic configuration of engines, landing gear, “heavy” and similar interior layout
- Lots of legacy design stuff from DC-10, it’s largely a refinement of the DC-10 according to the article linked to by Telemark:
… “Limited company resources resulting in the MD-11 being developed as a refinement of the existing DC-10, in contrast to rivals Airbus and Boeing who during this time period developed all-new aircraft designs that would become the Airbus A330/A340 and Boeing 777.”
This is what I mean when I say “they’re not that different.”
True, it was an extension of the previous plane model, it’s not going to deviate much from the overall layout and design. But stretching the fuselage, new engines, and increased use of composite materials aren’t just cosmetic changes.
It seems similar to the evolution of the DC-9 to the MD-80, MD-90, and finally the MD-95 (Boeing 717). All the MD-8x models are listed as variants of the MD-80, the MD-9x models as variants for the MD-90 and the MD-95/B717 is typically called out as a different plane with its own variants. At some point enough changes are made that it’s a different entity even though it strongly resembles its predecessor. There’s an obvious family resemblance in all of them.
Do pilots need to be certified on different variants of the same plane type?