Today marks ten years since the British Airways Boeing 757 took its last flight. The popular aircraft flew in BA colours from 1983 to 2010, utilised on both domestic and long-haul services.
Eastern Airlines and British Airways launched the Boeing 757 programme with orders placed on 31 August 1978. At the time, the plane was still called the 7N7, until the orders were signed the following year.
British Airways Boeing 757 Video
The video runs for about two minutes and is a segment from a television production called Wish You Were Here? It is extremely good, being both factual and accurate, along with explaining some of the new technology in an easy to understand manner.
There are exterior shots of the plane, along with plenty in the cabin and even on the flight deck. Not too sure how pilots would feel about what the host says about the computerised systems though!
The British Airways Boeing 757 operated in a 195 seat Shuttle configuration for domestic services, and with 180 seats for European flights. A little known fact is that they also briefly operated international services.
In the 1990s, BA tried using the jet from Birmingham to New York JFK and on to Toronto, as well as Glasgow to New York JFK and on to Boston. Unfortunately these were not a success and the services were short lived.
Overall Thoughts
Before the 757, the Hawker Siddeley Trident was the mainstay of the BA fleet in Europe. These aircraft were extremely noisy and all had to be phased out before new regulations came into force in 1986. This is why the British Airways Boeing 757 order took place.
Everyone seems to have fond memories of the Boeing 757. It is quite a powerful aircraft for its size and has now found a niche serving long-haul transatlantic routes as well as domestic routes. Even so it is old technology so it won’t be around too much longer.
Have you flown on board a BA 757 before? What was it like? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image by Eduard Marmet on Airliners.net via Wikimedia Commons.
With thanks to London Air Travel.
