travel 747

Boeing is delivering its last iconic 747 jumbo jet today, ending the era of a plane that revolutionized travel

Boeing bids farewell to an icon on Tuesday: It’s delivering its final 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 revolutionized travel, connecting international cities that had never before had direct routes and helping democratize passenger flight.

But over about 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. The final plane is the 1,574th built by Boeing in the Puget Sound region of Washington state.

A big crowd of current and former Boeing workers is expected for the final send-off. The last one is being delivered to cargo carrier Atlas Air.

“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.”

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 farther 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.

The plane’s fuselage was 225 feet (68.5 meters) 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.

“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 specializes in aviation and mobility. “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, 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. The “Boeing bust” was infamously marked by a billboard near the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport that read, “Will the last person leaving SEATTLE — Turn out the lights.”

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, Aboulafia said. He recalled taking a Cathay Pacific 747 from Los Angeles to Hong Kong as a twentysomething backpacker in 1991.

“Even people like me could go see Asia,” 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 U.S. 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.

Boeing’s roots are in the Seattle area, and it has assembly plants in Washington state and South Carolina. The company announced in May that it would move its headquarters from Chicago to Arlington, Virginia, putting its executives closer to key federal government officials and the Federal Aviation Administration, which certifies Boeing passenger and cargo planes.

Boeing’s relationship with the FAA has been strained since deadly crashes of its best-selling plane, the 737 Max, in 2018 and 2019. The FAA took nearly two years — far longer than Boeing expected — to approve design changes and allow the plane back in the air.

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How Boeing’s 747 Revolutionized Air Travel

Pan Am was the driving force behind the launch of the Boeing 747.

On Feb. 9, 1969, the captain of a Scandinavian Airlines DC-8 on approach to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport addressed the passengers, asking them to look out the window. “That is the 747 on its first flight,” he said. Among those eyeing the skies was Juergen Weber, a young aerospace engineer who later became CEO of Lufthansa: “It was something I will never forget,” Weber said.

What he witnessed was not only a milestone in aircraft manufacturing, but also one of the most important events for the development of long-haul air travel. The Boeing 747 gave a much bigger client base access to flying because of its size—it was 2.5 times bigger than the McDonnell Douglas DC-8 or Boeing ’s own 707, and that changed the economics of widebody operations. Over time, lower unit costs for intercontinental trips translated into more affordable air fares, enabling a larger portion of the middle class to fly, a key factor that laid the foundation for what is called globalization.

• The 747 changed the economics of widebody operations
• Airbus’ answer, the A380, ultimately Failed
• The 747-400 became the most successful version

For decades, the 747 was the standard widebody aircraft for the big global carriers. Weber’s Lufthansa once operated 30 Boeing 747-400s, one of the largest European fleets. At its peak, British Airways had 57 -400s based at its London-Heathrow Airport hub, a huge force, particularly for transatlantic travel. Qantas operated an all-747 fleet for six years (1979-85) after it retired its last Boeing 707. The rise of industry icons such as Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines would have been unthinkable without the 747. In Japan, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways used large 747 fleets for short domestic flights for many years.

It has been an ironic twist to the story that, apart from the early years and Pan Am, the 747 never really played the same important role for the major U.S. carriers. United Airlines and Northwest Airlines (now part of Delta Air Lines) long ago retired the last of their aircraft. Pan American World Airways and Trans World Airlines are long gone.

In the beginning, it was different, though. Pan Am in particular drove Boeing to develop the 747. “If you build it, I will buy it,” then-Pan Am boss Juan Trippe famously told then- Boeing CEO Bill Allen in 1965. “If you buy it, I will build it,” Allen replied in Trippe’s office. The 747 was the symbol of Pan Am’s global ambitions. One could argue that the carrier’s purchase of so many was one reason for its long financial decline, but that was not obvious at the beginning of the 1970s, let alone in the technology-enthusiastic 1960s.

Many airlines did not share Pan Am’s views about the 747. The aircraft’s sheer size was an obvious concern. Some carriers, including Lufthansa, accused Boeing of not advancing technology far enough. The German airline wanted a two-person cockpit for the 747-100 but only got it 20 years later on the -400. Its engineers wrote in internal memos that the 747 was “not the beginning of a new era but the end of an old one.” There was no way the carrier and many others could ignore the aircraft, however. Trippe’s ambitions forced many of his competitors to follow.

The 747’s success also was connected to the March 1971 decision by the U.S. Congress to stop funding development of the Boeing 2707 project, which killed the possibility that supersonic aircraft would be the vehicles for most long-haul travel. Instead, the 747 became the mainstay of the industry. With 694 deliveries, the 747-400 became the most successful version.

The year 1990 can be identified as the peak for the aircraft. Airlines ordered 122 that year, the highest number ever, and Boeing delivered 70. There were only a few years with higher production, though Boeing notably managed to deliver 92 747s in 1970 and another 69 a year later.

The success of the 747-400 also led Airbus to develop and launch the A380 in 2000, which caused the European manufacturer unheard-of losses. The lack of sales forced the early termination of the A380 only 22 years after its launch.

As it turned out, Airbus was chasing the wrong target. In the mid-1990s, the smaller two-engine 777—and later the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350—reached comparable or even better unit costs than the 747 or A380. Airlines could operate them with no economic disadvantage while avoiding the risk of operating with too many empty seats.

The 747 fell victim to the same trend. The latest version, the 747-8 Intercontinental, was launched in 2005, but with the exception of Lufthansa, Air China and Korean Air, passenger airlines also lost interest in the aircraft.

There were two more good years for orders, 2005 with 46 firm commitments and 2006 with 53. But by 2007, when the A380 was just about to enter service, demand dropped sharply. In all but three years since, annual orders have remained in the single digits. Many major airlines, such as British Airways, retired their remaining 747 fleets early in the COVID-19 pandemic, when demand for long-haul travel plummeted. But production has since continued, based on demand for the freighter version. 

Based in Frankfurt, Germany, Jens is executive editor and leads Aviation Week Network’s global team of journalists covering commercial aviation.

• Boeing 747-8
• Airbus A380

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The 'Last Queen of the Skies': Plane lovers reminisce as final Boeing 747 is delivered

SEATTLE — Boeing bids farewell to an icon on Tuesday: It’s delivering its final 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 revolutionized travel, connecting international cities that had never before had direct routes and helping democratize passenger flight.

But over about 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. The final plane is the 1,574th built by Boeing in the Puget Sound region of Washington state.

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A big crowd of current and former Boeing workers is expected for the final send-off. The last one is being delivered to cargo carrier Atlas Air.

“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.”

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 farther 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.

The plane's fuselage was 225 feet (68.5 meters) 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.

“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 specializes in aviation and mobility. “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, 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. The “Boeing bust” was infamously marked by a billboard near the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport that read, “Will the last person leaving SEATTLE -- Turn out the lights.”

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, Aboulafia said. He recalled taking a Cathay Pacific 747 from Los Angeles to Hong Kong as a twenty-something backpacker in 1991.

“Even people like me could go see Asia,” 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.”

Is Europe cheap to travel to now?: It can be with these low-cost airlines

Delta was the last U.S. 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.

Boeing’s roots are in the Seattle area, and it has assembly plants in Washington state and South Carolina. The company announced in May that it would move its headquarters from Chicago to Arlington, Virginia, putting its executives closer to key federal government officials and the Federal Aviation Administration, which certifies Boeing passenger and cargo planes.

Boeing’s relationship with the FAA has been strained since deadly crashes of its best-selling plane, the 737 Max , in 2018 and 2019. The FAA took nearly two years — far longer than Boeing expected — to approve design changes and allow the plane back in the air.

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Boeing bids farewell to an icon, delivers last 747 jumbo jet

Boeing bid farewell to an icon on Tuesday, delivering its final 747 jumbo jet as thousands of workers who helped build the planes over the past 55 years looked on. (Feb. 1) (AP Video by Manuel Valdes)

The final Boeing 747 sits on the tarmac outside of the factory at a ceremony for delivery, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023, in Everett, Wash. 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. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)

• Copy Link copied

Desi Evans, 92, laughs as he talks about working on the first 747 over 50-years ago before a ceremony for the delivery of the final Boeing 747 jumbo jet, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023, in Everett, Wash. 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. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)

The final Boeing 747 lands at Paine Field following a test flight, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023, in Everett, Wash. 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. (Jennifer Buchanan/The Seattle Times via AP)

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)

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)

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)

FILE - A Pan Am Boeing 747 sits at Heathrow Airport, London, after its maiden commercial trans Atlantic flight from New York, on Jan. 22, 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/Lawrence Harris, File)

Actor and pilot John Travolta speaks during a ceremony for the delivery of the final Boeing 747 jumbo jet, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023, in Everett, Wash. 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. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)

The final Boeing 747 jumbo jet is visible behind a a large screen as the doors of the assembly plant open during a ceremony for delivery, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023, in Everett, Wash. 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. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)

Boeing Co. CEO Dave Calhoun speaks during a ceremony for the delivery of the final Boeing 747 jumbo jet, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023, in Everett, Wash. 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. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)

An illustration on the side of the final Boeing 747 commemorates Joe Sutter, who was the chief engineer in creating the jumbo jet over 50 years ago, is seen during a ceremony for the delivery of the final Boeing 747 jumbo jet, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023, in Everett, Wash. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)

SEATTLE (AP) — Boeing bid farewell to an icon on Tuesday, delivering its final 747 jumbo jet as thousands of workers who helped build the planes over the past 55 years looked on.

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 revolutionized travel, connecting international cities that had never before had direct routes and helping democratize passenger flight.

But over about 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. The final plane is the 1,574th built by Boeing in the Puget Sound region of Washington state.

Thousands of workers joined Boeing and other industry executives from around the world — as well as actor and pilot John Travolta, who has flown 747s — Tuesday for a ceremony in the company’s massive factory north of Seattle, marking the delivery of the last one to cargo carrier Atlas Air.

“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.”

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 farther 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. The factory wasn’t even completed when the first planes were finished.

Among those in attendance 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,’” Evans recalled. “And it was — they were getting ready for the erection of the factory.”

He was assigned as a supervisor to help figure out how the interior of the passenger cabin would be installed and later oversaw crews that worked on sealing and painting the planes.

“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 meters) 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 specializes in aviation and mobility. “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, 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. The “Boeing bust” was infamously marked by a billboard near the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport that read, “Will the last person leaving SEATTLE -- Turn out the lights.”

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, Aboulafia said. He took a Cathay Pacific 747 from Los Angeles to Hong Kong as a twentysomething backpacker in 1991.

“Even people like me could go see Asia,” 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 U.S. 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.

Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr recalled traveling in a 747 as a young exchange student and said that when he realized he’d be traveling to the West Coast of the U.S. for Tuesday’s event, there was only one way to go: riding first-class in the nose of a Lufthansa 747 from Frankfurt to San Francisco. He promised the crowd Lufthansa would keep flying the 747 for many years to come.

“We just love the airplane,” he said.

Atlas Air ordered four 747-8 freighters early last year, with the final one — emblazoned with an image of Joe Sutter, the engineer who oversaw the 747’s original design team — delivered Tuesday. Atlas CEO John Dietrich called the 747 the greatest air freighter, thanks in part to its unique capacity to load through the nose cone.

Boeing delivers last 747, saying goodbye to 'Queen of the Skies'

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Reporting by Valerie Insinna; additional reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Josie Kao

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The Last Boeing 747 Leaves the Factory

The plane known as “Queen of the Skies” helped make air travel more affordable, but it has been supplanted by smaller, more efficient aircraft.

The first Boeing 747 at the plant in Washington State in September 1968. Credit... Agence France-Presse, via Getty Images

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By Niraj Chokshi

Photographs by Meron Tekie Menghistab ,  Jovelle Tamayo and Lindsey Wasson

Reporting from Everett, Wash.

• Jan. 31, 2023

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 was testament to the work that engineers, designers and others put into repeatedly remaking the airplane.

“It’s one of the great ones,” said Shea Oakley, who runs an aviation history consulting firm and is a former executive director of the Aviation Hall of Fame and Museum of New Jersey. “If you had to make a list of the 10 most important airplanes ever built since the Wright Flyer, the 747 needs to be on that list. It was a quantum leap.”

Assembling a goliath

The 747 is composed of about six 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, Wash. 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.

Seen from a distance, the specialists working on exposed sections of a 747 appear tiny, like miniature surgeons operating on parts of a blue whale. Often under bright, white lights and supported by lifts, rolling staircases and other structures, they install, arrange, assemble and test the guts and shell of the plane.

Production of the last 747 started in September and was typical of how its predecessors were made. In one bay of the factory, workers constructed the wings, starting with the spars that serve as the backbones and then added parts called the ribs and skin. In another bay, they build sections of the body, or fuselage, and then added wiring, plumbing and hydraulics, said Steve Kopecki, director of manufacturing for the 747.

Once the wings were ready, they were hoisted several stories high by a crane and moved into a bay sandwiched between where the wings and fuselage were built. There, they were attached to either side of a stub known as the center wing box. Next, the middle section of the fuselage was lowered and attached to the wings. Then, the front and back sections were lifted and moved into place on either side.

“That’s the place where the airplane actually finally becomes an airplane,” Mr. Kopecki said.

After the body sections were attached, the landing gear was installed and 14,000-pound counterweights were hung from the wings. Then, the plane was lowered from its supports and allowed to stand on its own, a major milestone.

“If you’ve done that, there are many, many important steps behind you already,” Mr. Kopecki said. “And you have a very clear path of what lies ahead.”

Soon after, flooring, lighting, walls, parts of the flight deck and other interior fixtures were installed. All of the airplane’s systems were tested. Near the end of assembly, the engines were added. Finally, the airplane was rolled out of the factory, through bay doors several stories high that could accommodate the airplane’s 225-foot wingspan.

Outside, fuel systems and other features were checked and the plane embarked on a test flight, landing in Portland for a paint job before flying back. The plane and its systems continued to be evaluated. On Tuesday, it will be handed over to Atlas Air Worldwide, a cargo and passenger airline that will use it to haul goods.

A troubled beginning

The 747’s long life is remarkable partly because its start was so uncertain.

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 plane 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.

Over the years, as engineers and designers worked on the plane, Boeing’s financial situation dimmed. Airline orders were slowing and costs for the 747 and the supersonic jet, which the company would abandon in 1971, were soaring. Then, a crisis arrived.

Even as parts of the wing were being made, testing revealed that the load on the outside of the wing was greater than its structure could support. “This was more than a problem; it had the potential to be a showstopper!” Joe Sutter, who led the design of the airplane, wrote in a book, “747: Creating the World’s First Jumbo Jet and Other Adventures From a Life in Aviation,” which was written with Jay Spenser.

Some within the company argued that the wings would need to be wholly redesigned, which Mr. Sutter feared would be so expensive that it would kill the plane. Eventually, his team arrived at a cheaper, simpler solution that involved twisting the outside of the wings to adjust the distribution of pressure in flight. That worked and the airplane rolled out for testing in 1968.

The rise and fall

More than two dozen airlines were already committed to buying the 747 when it was first shown to the public . In 1970, the 747 took its maiden 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 much-needed 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 best-selling 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 .

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. A decade later, Boeing’s main rival, Airbus, debuted the A380, which can carry more passengers than the 747. But Airbus struggled to sell the plane and announced the end of production in 2019.

Still, interest in the 747 lingered, particularly for cargo operations. 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.

A long farewell

For many of the people who worked on the airplane, the delivery of the final 747 is a bittersweet moment. They are proud of their ties to the jet and sad to see its production end.

“You have an airplane that’s kind of done its duty for 50 years,” said Scott Pettersen, who spent nearly four decades as a mechanic on the 747 before retiring in 2016.

Mr. Petterson estimated that he helped to build more than 1,200 747s. His work focused on the middle portion of the jet, known as the 44 section. And he said he was fortunate to spend the final decade of his career alongside his son, Tyler, who worked on the front section.

But despite all that time with the airplane, Mr. Petterson said he had never traveled on one. “I would like to fly in a 747,” he said. “I’m sure it’s a great feeling.”

Some airlines still use the plane for passenger flights, including Lufthansa, Korean Air and Air China. But the 747 has increasingly fallen out of favor with many airlines and will probably end its life carrying cargo.

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.

For Atlas, the 747 remains an ideal choice because of its reliability, capacity and ability to fly huge amounts of goods between major cargo hubs, said John Dietrich, the company’s president and chief executive. And at least one early decision in the design of the plane continues to pay off.

“That nose-loading capability is going to serve the market well for decades to come,” he said.

Do you work in aviation? The New York Times wants to hear your story. Please share your experiences with us below, and you can learn more about our reporting here . We especially want to hear from people who work for (or used to work for) airports or airlines, or who are part of government agencies that help keep the aviation sector running. We won’t publish any part of your submission without your permission.

Niraj Chokshi covers the business of transportation, with a focus on autonomous vehicles, airlines and logistics. More about Niraj Chokshi

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Lufthansa Boeing 747-8 Turns Back Over The Atlantic Following Electrical Odor

• Unusual odors on flights often lead to diversions, involving electrical issues or AC malfunctions.
• A Lufthansa flight experienced a diversion due to an unidentifiable electrical smell.
• Swift actions by flight crews minimize risks from minor issues causing cabin odors.

A Lufthansa Boeing 747-8, operating as flight LH 430 from Frankfurt Airport (FRA) to Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD), encountered an unexpected hurdle mid-flight, prompting its return to Germany.

The aircraft involved was a ten-year-old Boeing 747-8 registered D-ABYP, according to ch-aviation . It took off at 12:00 PM local time with 320 passengers and 19 crew members onboard. The flight was expected to last approximately eight hours and 20 minutes, according to Flightradar24.com.

According to The Aviation Herald, The incident occurred 1.5 hours into the flight while the airplane was cruising at an altitude of 35,000 feet (11,000 meters) over the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 220 nautical miles northwest of the coast of Ireland. Passengers complained of an unpleasant odor, prompting the flight crew to decide to return to Frankfurt two hours after take-off while maintaining its altitude.

The aircraft landed safely on runway 07R at FRA approximately 4.5 hours after its initial departure and 2.5 hours after the decision to return.

In response to the diversion, Lufthansa arranged for a replacement aircraft, a Boeing 747-400 with the registration D-ABVY, to transport the affected passengers to their original destination of Chicago O'Hare. The replacement flight arrived in Chicago 8.5 hours later than initially scheduled. A Lufthansa spokesperson told the German daily BILD :

"The reason for this [diversion] was an unidentifiable electrical smell in the cabin. The aircraft is currently being examined by technicians; the cause of the smell is currently unclear. There was never any smoke development onboard."

The airline also indicated that a bone marrow donation for a patient in the US was onboard the flight, although it could not confirm whether the transportation was ultimately successful.

What can cause unusual smells in an aircraft?

Unusual odors on commercial flights are among the most common incidents and often lead to a diversion.

For instance, on May 7, 2024, an Air France Boeing 787 Dreamliner was flying from Paris to Seattle when the flight crew and passengers noticed a burning odor in the aircraft's flight deck and cabin. As a result, the airplane had to make an emergency landing in Iqaluit, a remote location in northern Canada.

Just a day before, on May 6, 2024, a Lufthansa Airbus A320-200 was flying from Bologna, Italy, to Frankfurt, Germany, with 165 passengers and six crew members. While the airplane was about 60 nautical miles south of Stuttgart, Germany, the crew detected an unusual odor onboard and decided to divert to Stuttgart.

Flight crews and airline personnel often manage these incidents swiftly and effectively. While unsettling for passengers, they are typically the result of minor issues and pose minimal risk to the safety of the aircraft.

Electrical issues and malfunctions within the air conditioning system are among the most common culprits behind cabin odors on commercial flights. Electrical components onboard aircraft can occasionally generate odors due to overheating or faulty wiring. Similarly, the air conditioning and ventilation system may occasionally contribute to odors if malfunctions occur or foreign substances such as engine oil or hydraulic fluid enter and contaminate the system.

Flight Attendant Hospitalized After Unusual Odor On QantasLink Boeing 717

In the event of an aircraft experiencing abnormal odors, pilots in the cockpit are instructed to put on pressurized oxygen masks to avoid inhaling potentially harmful pollutants. If the contaminant is irritating to the eyes, goggles are also available. Portable oxygen masks are also available to cabin crew members. If the situation is severe, the aircraft may need to descend to an altitude of 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) or lower, where depressurization can occur safely.

What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments section below.

Simple Flying

How fast does a boeing 747 go.

From the Boeing 747-100 to the 747-8, which is the fastest variant of the Queen of the Skies?

• The Boeing 747 variants had different top speeds, with the 747-100 hitting 600 mph and the 747-8 reaching 614 mph.
• The unique 747SP was introduced for long-haul flights, with a top speed over 621 mph for quicker journeys.
• The iconic Boeing 747 may not be the fastest, as it falls behind the Airbus A380 and Concorde in top speeds.

The Boeing 747 was, and still is, one of the most iconic aircraft to grace the skies. While its operational performance did not match the supersonic speeds of Concorde, the 747 was able to clock up surprisingly high speeds, and even broke a few records over the years. Each of the six main variants of the 747 has a slightly different performance and top speed, with one capable of flying at speeds of over 1,000 km/h.

The early Boeing 747 variants

The earliest variants of the 747, known as the 747-100 and 747-200, entered into service in 1970 and 1972, respectively. The 747-100 could reach top speeds of 600 mph (967 km/h), while the -200 variant was slightly quicker at 610 mph (981 km/h).

The unique Boeing 747SP entered into service in 1976 with launch customers Pan Am and Iran Air. The variant came about following a request from the two carriers to build an aircraft capable of flying non-stop between New York and the Middle East.

When Iran Air launched its New York to Tehran route with the 747SP, it became the longest non-stop commercial flight in the world at the time. With a top speed of over 621 mph (1,000 km/h), the aircraft was also able to make these long journeys quicker than previous variants.

When designing the Boeing 747-300, Boeing made a number of minor aerodynamic modifications to the aircraft, giving it a top speed of 619 mph (996 km/h).

40 Years Ago Today The Boeing 747-300 Made Its First Flight

Boeing 747-400 and 747-8.

By far the most popular 747 variant was the Boeing 747-400, distinguishable from the 747-300 by its wingtips. The aircraft had a top speed of 583 mph (939 km/h). However, in February 2020, a British Airways Boeing 747-400 broke the transatlantic subsonic speed record, reaching a top speed of 825 mph as it flew from New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to London Heathrow Airport (LHR) in just four hours and 56 minutes. This was possible thanks to unusually strong winds blowing eastbound across the Atlantic.

The newest 747 model, the 747-8, is operated by the likes of Lufthansa and Korean Air. This aircraft has a top speed of 614 mph (988 km/h), making it one of the fastest 747 variants.

How does the Boeing 747 compare to other iconic aircraft?

Despite its impressive capabilities, the Boeing 747 was not particularly well-known for its speed. How does it compare to other iconic aircraft? It comes in behind the mighty Airbus A380 which has a top speed of 634mph (1,020 kph), while Concorde, with its supersonic capabilities, takes the lead with a staggering 1,354 mph (2,179 km/h).

Rising fuel prices coupled with the development of more efficient, modern aircraft, meant that the Boeing 747 fell out of favor with airlines around the world in the early part of the 21st century. The pandemic was then largely considered to be the final nail in the coffin for the Queen of the Skies, with an ever-decreasing number of passenger 747s still flying today.

These 9 US Airports Have Passenger Boeing 747 Flights This Summer

Have you flown on a Boeing 747? Which airline and route did you travel on? Share your experiences by commenting below.

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Istra is famous for its New Jerusalem Monastery which was established to serve as a Russian version of the Holy Land. Today the monastery has been completely restored following the damage it suffered at the hands of the Nazis and Bolsheviks, and remains the main reason for visiting Istra. The city can easily be visited as a day trip from Moscow .

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