It revolutionized aviation and is still an attraction in the sky with its distinctive hump: the Boeing 747 – once the largest passenger plane in the world, celebrated as the “Queen of the Skies”. But after more than 50 years, the American manufacturer is finally getting out of the legendary jumbo jet. The last newly built 747 was handed over to Atlas Air on Tuesday (local time) during a farewell ceremony at the Boeing plant in Everett, near Seattle.
Boeing had already announced in 2020 that it would end production of the 747. That came as no surprise: the group had long considered scrapping the classic devices due to lack of demand. The airlines now prefer smaller and more fuel efficient machines.
The gigantic aircraft had completed its first flight in 1969 and about a year later the first example entered service with the then American airline Pan Am. The first 747 was built in less than 28 months, according to Boeing, and the work of a total of more than 50,000 employees, who have since been called the “Incredibles”. The jumbo became a huge success, despite a troubled PanAm premiere in January 1970. The 747, biplane in the front, captivated the masses with its unique hump silhouette like almost no other jet and made longer flights affordable to the general public.
In total, Boeing has built 1,574 747 jumbo jets over approximately 55 years for more than 100 customers. One of the most important of these was Lufthansa, whose boss Carsten Spohr gave a speech at the farewell party. However, the 747 was long considered a discontinued model, most recently being built only as a freighter version. This is also the case with the last copy that has now been transferred to Atlas Air.
With the latest passenger variant 747-8, which has a longer upper deck, new wings and more fuel-efficient engines and can accommodate more than 600 people, Boeing was only able to score points with a few airlines. Most long-haul airlines now rely on models not as large as the Boeing 787 “Dreamliner” and 777 types and the Airbus A350.
Massive machines like the four-engine Boeing 747 are now considered too expensive by many airlines to operate. In addition, they can only be used for capacity on routes that are in high demand. The same problem also existed with the biplane Airbus A380, which after the turn of the millennium replaced Boeing’s jumbo with space for up to 853 passengers as the world’s largest passenger airliner. In early 2019, Airbus management decided to phase out production of the jet in 2021 due to lack of demand – only about 14 years after the first scheduled flight.
However, the A380, mothballed during the corona pandemic, made a surprising comeback last year.
That Boeing even took on the 747 Hercules project in the 1960s was thanks to a handshake deal between then-company president William Allen and his PanAm counterpart Juan Trippe. “If you buy it, I’ll build it,” Allen is said to have told Trippe.
Actually, Boeing had requested an order from the US military with the jumbo – but was surpassed by rival Lockheed. The unusual upper cockpit design that gave the 747 its cult character also stemmed from the misconception that smaller supersonic jets like the Concorde would shape passenger aviation. The 747 was therefore designed to also function as a cargo aircraft.
In the next five decades, Boeing’s jumbo served not only as a passenger and cargo jet – a special version transported the space shuttle for NASA, another is Air Force One, developed on behalf of the Pentagon. This flying high-tech fortress for American presidents is an important prestige project for Boeing, but it has caused a lot of trouble in recent years. Boeing had agreed with then-President Donald Trump in 2018 under ex-boss Dennis Muilenburg to build the new Air Force One, but the costs got out of hand. In April 2022, Muilenburg’s successor, Dave Calhoun, acknowledged that the deal generated billions in costs and that Boeing “probably” should not have entered into it.
Boeing manager Kim Smith described the latest delivery of the legendary jumbo in an interview with US broadcaster CNBC in Everett as “very surreal”. “For the first time in over 50 years, we will not have a 747 in this factory.”
The aircraft type will not disappear from the sky if production stops, but the 747 is also becoming rarer there. American airlines United and Delta removed them from their fleets years ago. After the corona pandemic paralyzed international air traffic in 2020, so did Qantas and British Airways. There was only a limited resurgence of the 747 in the cargo space due to the recovery from the Corona crisis and the resulting aircraft shortage – as experienced by the Airbus A380. (sda/dpa)
Soource :Watson
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
