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The final days of a Boeing 747 - from king of the skies to a pile of rubbish
The Daily Mail has an interesting article on the final resting place of a Boeing 747. The Jumbo had been in service for 35 years and covered over 55 million miles but took its final trip to Cotswald airport in the UK.
In just two days, experts from Air Salvage International turned the mighty beast into a pile of twisted metal. The owners of the jet (Dubai Air Wing) first made sure that anything of value was removed from the plane, and all parts taken out will be tested to see if they are in good enough condition to be resold as spares.
The final job of this 747 was probably its most interesting one - transporting horses around the world. The plane was one of just a few dedicated horse carriers, flying the four footers to major equestrian events. In the final photo of the article, you see the small pile of debris which was once a 747 - and once flew British Airways passengers around the world.
Filed under: Europe, United Kingdom, Airlines
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
nzm Apr 18th 2010 6:22PM
Dubai Air Wing is listed as the VIP service for the Dubai Government but, in essence, it belongs to Dubai's ruling royals - the Al Maktoum family.
The family is horse-crazy - endurance, track racing, show-jumping - you name it, they are into it. This 747 was used to transfer their horses between their studs in Australia, Dubai, the UK and the USA, and to events around the world.
Having lived in Dubai, I always used to get a thrill out of seeing the DAW planes at Heathrow. They would park them at the VIP reception area away from the main terminals, and it wasn't unusual to see not only horses being offloaded, but also luxury cars of all kinds.
Scott Carmichael Apr 18th 2010 8:36PM
Very interesting - thanks for the extra information! Amazing that they'd have their own 747 just to shuttle their horses around!