A ll right, airplane geeks — this is a sight which is rarely seen: photographs of a Boeing 747-451 aircraft next to a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-51 aircraft…
…and I mean right next to each other — far too close to each other if they were still in service on the tarmac at an airport — for a comparison of their sizes.
All of the media had already left after a historic Boeing 747-451 aircraft was moved by Delta Air Lines from the tarmac of the international airport which serves the greater metropolitan Atlanta area — in this article posted on Monday, May 2, 2016, Thom Patterson of CNN pretty much copied the headline I used the day before for this article — towards its final resting place in front of the Delta Flight Museum at the world headquarters of Delta Air Lines to eventually be on display. Most of the crowd who witnessed this unusual event had already left…
…but I stayed; and I was unexpectedly treated to a comparison of a Boeing 747-451 aircraft next to a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-51 aircraft — something in which few people are probably interested anyway; but I am one of those few people.
Photographs of a Boeing 747-451 Next to a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-51
I have literally hundreds of photographs to sort through — I have several videos as well — which I would like to include in at least one article to share with you pertaining to the move of the Boeing 747-451 aircraft…
…but in the meantime, forget about the size comparisons of the airplanes you see in the back of Sky magazine found aboard airplanes operated by Delta Air Lines. I will let the photographs do much of the talking.
Although the Boeing 747-451 aircraft is forward and not yet exactly right at the side of the McDonnell Douglas DC-9-51 aircraft — it was still being pushed backwards when this photograph was taken — the size comparison is still noteworthy.
People talk about engine cowlings of the Boeing 747-400 aircraft being approximately the entire width of the fuselage of other aircraft. Forget the talk. Here is the photograph to prove it. Note how the shadow of the wing of the Boeing 747-451 aircraft is enshrouding the front of the McDonnell Douglas DC-9-51 aircraft.
Here is another perspective of both aircraft next to each other.
The demarcations of the parking spaces in the parking lot give some perspective to the sizes of these two airplanes.
Here is the view from the rear of both aircraft facing west.
Vehicles assist with giving more perspective as to the sizes of both airplanes.
Here is yet another perspective…
…and here is yet even another perspective.
Summary
It is not as easy to photograph two airplanes of such divergent sizes together as one might think. I wish I had one more perspective of the airplanes — and that would have been from above — to see just how they compare in size.
Even so, it was amazing being dwarfed by both airplanes in an encounter which could not have been more up-close and personal.
Look for at least another article pertaining to the Boeing 747-451 aircraft — now retired by Delta Air Lines — in the future…
All photographs ©2016 by Brian Cohen.
