Thomas Lee of California may be about to make history when he boards the first official commercial flight of the Airbus A380 with Singapore Airlines later this month.
What makes Lee worthy of entering the history books is that in 1970, at the impressionable age of 17, he flew on the inaugural commercial passenger flight of Pan Am's Boeing 747.
Lee says that it was this journey on 21 January 1970 from New York to London, that inspired him to work in the aviation industry.
"I fell in love with aviation and chose a career in aerospace. I developed equipment that is now used on thousands of commercial aircraft including the Singapore Airlines A380."
Singapore Airlines has invited Lee to be their guest onboard the first flight of the A380 from Singapore to Sydney on 25 October, 2007.
He says: "I suspect I will be the only person on the planet who will have flown on both commercial inaugurals of the only two wide body, double decker, commercial aircraft in history."
Singapore Airlines has also invited Lee to the formal delivery ceremony in Toulouse, France on 15 October when Airbus "turns over the keys" to the first A380.
Lee is director business development for Monogram Systems, a firm that developed a vacuum toilet waste system and water system for the A380 and the galley waste disposal unit (GWDU) on Singapore Airlines' Boeing 777-300ER and A380 fleets.
Lee bought two tickets on eBay for his family to accompany him on the upcoming inuagural flight.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
