January 31, 2023. Jumbo Finale.
Earlier this week in Everett, Washington, the final Boeing 747 was delivered.
I’d been invited to attend the ceremony, but a prior commitment kept me away. Which is maybe just as well, since I find the whole thing pretty depressing. Seems more like a funeral than anything to celebrate.
The 747 was Boeing’s greatest achievement — indeed it was one of the greatest achievements in the whole history of American industry. Boeing has long since lost its way, and there are those who doubt the planemaker will survive long term. To think, the company that conceived something as legendary as the 747 hasn’t designed a truly new airframe in thirty years, and is apparently content churning out 737 derivatives until the end of time.
The final plane was delivered to Atlas Air, a New York-based cargo carrier that is the world’s largest operator of 747s. The plane, registered N863GT, wears a decal near the nose honoring Joe Sutter, the Boeing engineer who ran the 747 design team.
There isn’t much I can say about the 747 that I didn’t say here, in 2018, when the jet celebrated its 50th birthday. It’s nothing if not the most influential and historically significant airliner of all time. And also one of the prettiest.
The 747 entered service with Pan American on January 21, 1970. The Atlas Air jet delivered on Monday was number 1,574 of a production run that spanned five decades. Of the 27 original customers, Lufthansa is the only one still flying them.
When it debuted, the 747 was more than double the size of any existing plane. Yet it was conceived (literally on the back of a napkin), designed, built, and flown, in a period of only two years. Of all its accomplishments, milestones and accolades, that one might be the most startling.
I flew aboard the 747s of Pan Am, El Al, British Airways, Air France, Northwest, United, Delta, South African, Royal Air Maroc, Singapore Airlines, Qantas, and Thai Airways. I’d like to add a few more to that list while I can.
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Photo credit: Paul Weatherman/Boeing
