“Godspeed, My Beloved Jumbo”: Pilot Says “Goodbye” To Boeing 747 Used By Air India

The final four Boeing 747-400s that Air India sold were acquired by AerSale, an aftermarket aircraft reseller with headquarters in the United States, earlier this month, marking the end of an era for aviation aficionados and pilots. In 1971, the national flag airline purchased its first Boeing 747, which it called Agra. The aircraft was in service until March 2021. On April 22, it took off from Mumbai for Plainfield, California, where it would be disassembled and its components recycled and repurposed.

Now, pilots, aviation fans, and those with memories of flying in Air India’s Boeing 474 fleet are saying goodbye to the enormous aircraft known as the “Queen of the skies.” A pilot posted a photo of himself in the Air India Boeing 474 cockpit on social media on Monday. “The pleasure and delight of flying the Queen was unparalleled,” he wrote. I hope that she and her new owners continue to fly. Godspeed, Jumbo, my dear one. More than 20,000 people saw and liked this post.

The pilot commented, “15 years of pure joy,” in a follow-up message. Left seat, right seat, observers’ seat! elegant handling and breathtaking beauty when flown by hand.

“My first foreign visit to England was on a Boeing Maharaja in 1985, and I fully enjoyed to and from Bengaluru,” someone reminisced in a comment on this page.

Someone else said, “What a boss! It is simply unsurpassed to be able to claim of have flown the Queen of the Skies.

The Boeing 474 pilot was questioned by an X user over the “dancing in the sky” technique that the aircraft used as it took off from Mumbai for its final destination. The pilot wrote, “It’s called a wing wave, sort of bye bye,” and characterized this action as a “wing wave.” On occasion, goodbyes and aircraft/pilot retirements are marked like this, although it is never unplanned or done while passengers are on board.

Depending on the design standards, the more than 400 seats on the double-decker Boeing 747 may be divided into business and economy class seats. Since maintaining a Boeing 747-400 fleet was becoming unfeasible, Air India made the decision to sell all of its aircraft. The aviation sector has switched to more fuel-efficient aircraft within the last ten years. After 53 years of production, Boeing also ceased making the wide-body 747-700 planes last year.