Looking at the graceful movement and the graceful shaping (lofting) of that airplane makes me believe that the Boeing aero guys have a feel for beautiful lines that seem to be absent in other companie's designs. The KC-135 and 707 (thanks to the 367-80) are still the prettiest airplanes and the -80 set the standard for jet transport configuration that has been copied (not always well) for decades.To me, the DC-8 looked clunky in some areas, especially in the nose, and lacked the crisp well balanced lines of the 707. I worked on the loft of the nose and the upper fuselage of the 777 and it was no slam dunk getting the airflow correct. The 777 wing went through something like 151 initial iterations. Sweep angles and taper ratios of the tail and wing went on and on until somebody was half way satisfied. Now, Boeing designed wing tip devices and nose configurations are popping up on everything.
Days like this are pretty rare. But these are the days most videos show. Strong SW winds in Narita can be a handful.
Here is one of the 747's Lou probably has flown. This is last Saturday taking off from 28R ORD. Image Unavailable, Please Login
