A little homage to KLM's Boeing 747

One of the side-effects of the coronavirus epidemic is that some airlines have decided to bring forward the retirement of some of their older aircraft types.

Delta is retiring its MD-88s and American Airlines is doing the same with its veteran Boeing 767s. It is also within the realm of possibility that part of the A380 global fleet may not come back to service whenever the situation gets back to normal.

However, a very remarkable casualty have been two iconic airlines withdrawing their Boeing 747s, tow of its most iconic operators. Both KLM and Qantas planned phase-out their jumbos later this year, the forced groundings and service reductions have brought this forward in a sudden manner.

The withdrawal of KLM’s B747s, in particular, has quite an emotional meaning for me. The very first airliner scale model I got when I was a kid (many many years ago) was a KLM jumbo. And I had always admired the elegant blue lines of these aircraft wherever I saw them, either at Schiphol or elsewhere.

One such places was in the Dutch Caribbean island of Sint Maarten, one of the world’s favourite spots for aviation enthusiasts as it is the location of the very photogenic Maho Beach (as well as the venue of the interesting Caribavia conference).

So, what a better homage to this iconic aircraft than to delve into my planespotting archives and recover some of the pictures I took, from up close, of the mighty Queen!

This one is taken with the zoom, as KLM’s B747 from Amsterdam was on its final approach to Sint Maarten Princess Juliana Airport (SXM)

It’s getting closer…

Touch down!

Turn around and ready to face off the tiny turboprop as the latter prepared for a short island-hopping flight

And, while I never got quite as close to a Qantas Boeing 747, I recently got the chance to learn about one of the latest, and most special, missions that the Australian jumbos completed: an around-the-world air cruise.