Farewell to the jumbo jet as final Boeing 747 takes to the skies
The final plane, delivered this week, is the 1,574th 747 built by Boeing
The final Boeing 747 lands at Paine Field following a test flight (Jennifer Buchanan/The Seattle Times/AP)
The first Aer Lingus Boeing 747 on arrival at Dublin Airport, circa March 1971. Part of the Independent Newspapers Ireland/NLI Collection
A KLM Boeing 747 on the approach at Saint Maarten. Princess Juliana International is renowned as one of the world's most spectacular landings.
A Boeing 747 long-range wide-body four engined commercial jet airliner, pictured in 1971 (British Airways)
Emergency vehicles attend to Flight VS43, a Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 at Gatwick airport on December 29, 2014 in London, England. Photo by Jordan Mansfield/Getty Images
1970: Crew on the first commercial flight of the Boeing 747 from New York to London for Pan American. Photo: AFP/Getty Images
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Boeing bid farewell to an aviation legend this week when it delivered its last 747 jumbo jet.
Since its first flight in 1969, the giant yet graceful 747 has served as a cargo plane, a commercial aircraft capable of carrying nearly 500 passengers, a transport for NASA’s space shuttles, and the Air Force One presidential aircraft.
It revolutionised travel, connecting international cities that had never before had direct routes and helping democratise passenger flight.
But over the past 15 years, Boeing and its European rival Airbus have introduced more profitable and fuel efficient wide-body planes, with only two engines to maintain instead of the 747′s four.
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Gallery: The world's most iconic aircraft in 20 amazing images Close
A KLM Boeing 747-400 approaches St. Martin's Princess Juliana International Airport (SXM). Over 1,500 of the iconic aircraft have been built and delivered since 1966.
A British Airways Concorde on a Christmas flight to Finland, December 24, 1987. Photo: Mohamed LOUNES/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
The first powered flight, made by Orville Wright on 17 December 1903 near Kill Devil Hill, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Wright can be seen lying on the lower wing of the 12 horse- power, chain-driven Flyer I. The flight lasted for about 12 seconds, covering a distance of 36.5 metres (120 feet) at an airspeed of 48 kilometres/ hour (30 miles/hour), a groundspeed of 10.9 kilometres/hour (6.8 miles/hour) and an altitude of 2.5-3.5 metres (8-12 feet). Photo: Getty Images/Science Photo Libra
An Aer Lingus Super Constellation, known as the Super Connie. The propeller-driven were built by Lockheed Corporation between 1943 and 1958 at Burbank, California.
The world's largest plane, Antonov An-225, which is paid a flying visit to Shannon Airport in 2015. Photo: Deposit
A Qantas A380 flies over Sydney, Australia
Foynes Flying Boat Museum: Home to the world's only replica B314 flying boat (produced from 1938-1941).
A Douglas DC-3. Photo: Getty
A Boeing 727 'trijet' with its distinctive third middle engine. Photo: Getty/Bettmann Archive
Iolar ('eagle'), the first Aer Lingus aircraft, a DH84 Dragon EI-ABI that flew from Baldonnel to Bristol on May 27, 1936.
Pictured with the Iolar at Bristol airport are Aer Lingus cabin crew Laura Mc Cabe and Catherine McDonnell, both wearing the very first Aer Lingus uniform worn by cabin crew in 1945. Photo: Dan Regan
Air Force One, the most iconic 747 of all?
Aeroflot's turboprop airliner IL-18. (Photo by Rykoff Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
A BOAC (British Overseas Airway Corporation) Vickers VC-10 photographed at London Heathrow. The narrow-body aircraft first flew in 1962. Photo: Ken Fielding/Wikimedia Commons.
A Boeing 787 Dreamliner takes off. The now-iconic aircraft first launched in 2007. Photo: Boeing.com
Chantilly- USA: A Boeing 307 Stratoliner Flying Cloud on Display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. The then-futuristic airliner first took to the skies in 1938.
A Fokker 100 at Aviodrome aerospace museum in the Netherlands. It was the largest jet airliner built by Fokker before its bankruptcy in 1996. Photo: Deposit
23rd January, 1975: A newer, longer Douglas DC9 takes off on its maiden flight. Photo: Alan Band/Keystone/Getty Images
A British Airways Concorde takes off from Heathrow airport in London, 2001. Photo: ODD ANDERSEN/AFP/Getty Images)
In 2014, Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary landed at Dublin airport with the first of Ryanair's new Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft from Seattle. The aircraft has become a staple for Irish travellers.
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The final plane is the 1,574th built by Boeing in the Puget Sound region of Washington state.
“If you love this business, you’ve been dreading this moment,” said longtime aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia.
“Nobody wants a four-engine airliner anymore, but that doesn’t erase the tremendous contribution the aircraft made to the development of the industry or its remarkable legacy.”
FILE – Military personnel watch as Air Force One, with President Donald Trump aboard, prepares to depart at Andrews Air Force Base in Md., on Feb. 17, 2017. Boeing bids farewell to an icon on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023, when it delivers the jumbo jet to cargo carrier Atlas Air. Since it debuted in 1969, the 747 has served as a cargo plane, a commercial aircraft capable of carrying nearly 500 passengers, and the Air Force One presidential aircraft, but it has been rendered obsolete by more profitable and fuel-efficient models. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
Boeing set out to build the 747 after losing a contract for a huge military transport, the C-5A.
The idea was to take advantage of the new engines developed for the transport – high-bypass turbofan engines, which burned less fuel by passing air around the engine core, enabling a longer flight range – and to use them for a newly imagined civilian aircraft.
It took more than 50,000 Boeing workers less than 16 months to churn out the first 747 – a Herculean effort that earned them the nickname, “The Incredibles”.
The jumbo jet’s production required the construction of a massive factory in Everett, north of Seattle – the world’s largest building by volume.
Among those in attendance on Tuesday was Desi Evans, 92, who joined Boeing at its factory in Renton, south of Seattle, in 1957 and went on to spend 38 years at the company before retiring.
One day in 1967, his boss told him he’d be joining the 747 program in Everett – the next morning.
“They told me, ‘wear rubber boots, a hard hat and dress warm, because it’s a sea of mud.'” Mr Evans recalled. “And it was – they were getting ready for the erection of the factory.”
He was assigned as a supervisor to help discover how the interior of the passenger cabin would be installed and later oversaw crews that worked on sealing and painting the planes.
FILE – The crew of a Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet pose in front of the nose of the plane at London’s Heathrow Airport in England on Jan. 12, 1970. The 360 seat jet was the first of its kind to complete a transatlantic crossing. Boeing bids farewell to an icon on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023, when it delivers the jumbo jet to cargo carrier Atlas Air. Since it debuted in 1969, the 747 has served as a cargo plane, a commercial aircraft capable of carrying nearly 500 passengers, and the Air Force One presidential aircraft, but it has been rendered obsolete by more profitable and fuel-efficient models. (AP Photo, File)
“When that very first 747 rolled out, it was an incredible time,” he said as he stood before the last plane, parked outside the factory.
“You felt elated – like you’re making history. You’re part of something big, and it’s still big, even if this is the last one.”
The plane’s fuselage was 225 feet (68.5 metres) long and the tail stood as tall as a six-story building.
The plane’s design included a second deck extending from the cockpit back over the first third of the plane, giving it a distinctive hump and inspiring a nickname, the Whale. More romantically, the 747 became known as the Queen of the Skies.
Some airlines turned the second deck into a first-class cocktail lounge, while even the lower deck sometimes featured lounges or even a piano bar.
One decommissioned 747, originally built for Singapore Airlines in 1976, has been converted into a 33-room hotel near the airport in Stockholm.
“It was the first big carrier, the first widebody, so it set a new standard for airlines to figure out what to do with it, and how to fill it,” said Guillaume de Syon, a history professor at Pennsylvania’s Albright College who specialises in aviation and mobility.
FILE – A Boeing 747 takes off from Seattle in January 1970. Boeing bids farewell to an icon on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023, when it delivers the jumbo jet to cargo carrier Atlas Air. Since it debuted in 1969, the 747 has served as a cargo plane, a commercial aircraft capable of carrying nearly 500 passengers, and the Air Force One presidential aircraft, but it has been rendered obsolete by more profitable and fuel-efficient models. (AP Photo, File)
“It became the essence of mass air travel: You couldn’t fill it with people paying full price, so you need to lower prices to get people onboard. It contributed to what happened in the late 1970s with the deregulation of air travel.”
The first 747 entered service in 1970 on Pan Am’s New York-London route, and its timing was terrible, Mr Aboulafia said.
It debuted shortly before the oil crisis of 1973, amid a recession that saw Boeing’s employment fall from 100,800 employees in 1967 to a low of 38,690 in April 1971.
An updated model — the 747-400 series — arrived in the late 1980s and had much better timing, coinciding with the Asian economic boom of the early 1990s, Mr Aboulafia said. He recalled taking a Cathay Pacific 747 from Los Angeles to Hong Kong as a twenty-something backpacker in 1991.
A KLM Boeing 747 on the approach at Saint Maarten. Princess Juliana International is renowned as one of the world's most spectacular landings.
“Even people like me could go see Asia,” Mr Aboulafia said. “Before, you had to stop for fuel in Alaska or Hawaii and it cost a lot more. This was a straight shot — and reasonably priced.”
Delta was the last US airline to use the 747 for passenger flights, which ended in 2017, although some other international carriers continue to fly it, including the German airline Lufthansa.
Atlas Air ordered four 747-8 freighters early last year, with the final one leaving the factory Tuesday.
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