Some things don't change - a rain-dampened Le Bourget apron, the packed crowds that mark the Salon's public days and a major presence from Boeing.
Crowds gather round the Boeing 747-100 at the 1969 Paris show for a look at the machine that changed the shape of air travel and remains, for the man in the street, the image that most readily comes to mind when the subject is raised in conversation.
Perhaps only Concorde rivals it in distinctiveness - but a relatively tiny number of people have travelled on the supersonic ogival delta, in comparison with the huge contingents who daily make their way around the globe on 747s.
Thirty years on from its Paris debut, it is easy to forget the impact the 747 had on airlines, the airports that had to cater for it and the public. A glance at the picture and the size of the crowds inching forward for a glimpse of what at the time seemed a positively cavernous interior reminds one of how it caught the imagination.
The aircraft's upstairs deck, initially used as a bar by some airlines and reached by a distinctive spiral staircase, was a major attraction and appeared in many airline's publicity material.
"While today's 747 might look like the first 747 that arrived in Paris 30 years ago, the resemblance ends there," says Randy Baseler, Boeing Commercial Airplanes Group vice-president - marketing.
Improved aerodynamics, digital avionics, a new flight deck and 3,000 miles more range than the roughly 5,000nm of the 747-100, make the modern 747-400 a very different creature to the 'Classic'.
Source: Flight Daily News
