British Airways Boeing 747-400 cockpits are marvels of complexity, where analog gauges coexist harmoniously with digital displays.
One part of the worn flight deck that is simpler to understand than others are its system switches and controls: four Rolls-Royce engines drive this massive 747 aircraft with wings that span about 211 feet–four ivory-colored thrust levers represent each engine in the cockpit.
As a journalist and not a pilot, I find myself sitting in the captain’s seat on the left side of a flight deck. Mark Vanhoenacker, senior first officer with British Airways and author of air travel books with The Financial Times as his primary publisher sits immediately to my right in my seat on this flight.
“This is as basic as it gets,” Vanhoenacker casually remarks before pushing forward four thrust levers with one hand and then back using his other. Push forward for faster progress; pull them back for slower going.”
At John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, our airliner is parked and its engines have been turned off, preventing any changes in speed. That morning it had flown in from London’s Heathrow, typically taking seven-plus hours; later that same day it will leave again for its return journey home.
Vanhoenacker recently published his new book, How to Land a Plane, but I was also there just for fun: to spend some time in his cockpit with an experienced aviator who showed me around some of its cavernous interior during an interview in late May. Being inside a 747 gave me an unprecedented glimpse into its iconic airframe – one which served as Air Force One itself and has helped make air travel more affordable while being the basis for Air Force One (though Vanhoenacker is no longer flying himself; other pilots controlled its flight path).
Sitting in the cockpit, some flight controls can be easily understood even for someone unfamiliar with aviation. Each seat features a control column with wheel on top; pulling back on this column causes the plane’s nose to pitch upward, pushing forward makes the opposite happen; turning left causes banking leftward; pedals at either feet control rudder steering.
