Last Boeing 747 leaves factory
EVERETT, Wash. — More than a half-century ago, Boeing unveiled the 747, a massive and striking airplane that captured the public imagination and brought air travel to the masses. The jet has been a workhorse since, ferrying passengers and cargo around the world.
But its days are numbered: On Tuesday, Boeing handed over the last 747 it will ever make.
With a distinctive hump, the 747, nicknamed the “Queen of the Skies,” is perhaps the most widely recognizable commercial airplane ever built. The plane transformed air travel and became a symbol of American ingenuity. It could still be flying decades from now, a longevity that aviation historians said is testament to the work that engineers, designers and others put into repeatedly remaking the airplane.
The 747 is composed of about 6 million parts produced all over the world. But the final, awe-inspiring work of assembling them into an airplane was completed at a factory in Everett, Washington. That plant, generally regarded as the world’s largest building by volume, was built for the 747 in the 1960s. The plant has been used to make other planes, but it has remained home to the 747 down to the final one: No. 1,574.
Boeing began designing the airplane in the mid-1960s at the request of Pan American World Airways, a leading airline that filed for bankruptcy protection in 1991. But even then, many people within Boeing were expecting the 747 to soon be supplanted by a supersonic jet the company was developing.
As a result, and to justify their investment, Boeing and Pan Am decided that the plan should be designed with passengers and freight in mind, a choice that would be crucial to its success and determine its unique shape. The designers wanted the nose to lift up so cargo could be loaded more easily. To make that possible, they placed the flight deck above the main cabin, rather than at the front of the plane, creating
the 747’s unusual hump.
By the time the first 747 was shown to the public more than two dozen airlines were already committed to buying the aircraft. In 1970, the 747 took its debut commercial flight, ferrying more than 300 Pan Am passengers to London from New York.
It became an instant public sensation. The four-engine airplane was much larger than any other and could fit hundreds of people in rows with up to 10 seats across. The upper deck, reachable by a spiral staircase, hosted a luxurious lounge. American Airlines had a piano bar installed in the main cabin.
Orders started to flow
in, bringing Boeing muchneeded revenue. Owning a 747 became a status symbol for airlines. Some companies bought the airplane even though it didn’t quite suit their needs.
The most important reason airlines bought the plane was that the 747 helped them cut costs. Because the airplane could carry so many more passengers in a single trip, airlines could sell tickets more cheaply, making air travel affordable to the masses.
Boeing produced several versions of the airplane in the 1970s and ’80s for different uses and to improve how much it could carry and how
far it could fly. In 1989, the company unveiled a major upgrade, the 747-400, which became the plane’s bestselling model. Boeing sold more 747s in the 1990s than in any other decade.
But as popular as the airplane had become, the world was starting to move on.
Smaller, more efficient two-engine airplanes could now fly longer distances. Their smaller size meant airlines could offer direct international routes between smaller cities, such as St. Louis and Frankfurt, Germany.
In the mid-90s, Boeing also introduced the 777, which was about as big as the 747. With only two engines, it was more advanced and efficient. In the early 2010s, Boeing introduced the last model, the 747-8, delivering about 50 passenger versions and more than 100 versions for carrying goods.
The last of the airplanes produced were all 747-8 freighters for Atlas Air, which operates the largest 747 fleet in the world and leases out airplanes and crews for cargo or passenger operations. The final 747 will be chartered by an Atlas customer, Kuehne+nagel, one of the world’s largest transport companies, for use by its subsidiary, Apex Logistics.