Indeed a sad day ! The Queen will not be made again as final Boeing 747, line No. 1,574, rolled out of the Boeing’s Everett factory on 6th December night. A Journey of 52 years of assembling the Jumbo comes to and End.
The Cargo aircraft was built for Atlas Air , which is scheduled to take delivery in the Q1 of 2023 , and good part is , one can see the Queen flying for sometime, before carriers decide to ground them permanently.
Manufacturing of B747 started in 1969 with CN20235 / LN1, a B747-121 aircraft (N7470), currently displayed in the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field and the first 747 entered service with Pan Am in January 1970.
The era of commercial jet flights and transportation by air, led by the enormous popularity of the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8, had revolutionized long-distance travel; Boeing grabbed the opportunity with a revolution, a twin aisle concept with double decks, answer was Jumbo Jet.
In the year 1971 , Boeing introduced the B747-200 variant of the model with more powerful engines for a heavier maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) of 833,000 pounds from the initial 735,000 pounds, increasing the maximum range from 4,620 to 6,560 nautical miles.
Later in 1976 , the aircraft was shortened for the longer-range variant B747SP , and in the year 1983, B747-300 came up with a stretched upper deck for up to 400 seats in three classes.
After Six years , in 1989 , the heavier B747-400 variant with improved RB211 and CF6 Turbofan engines or the new PW4000 engines, and a two-crew glass cockpit was introduced , making it one of the successful Variant and commonly found.
After 16 years and several design considerations, the stretched and latest B747-8 version was launched on November 14, 2005 , with new General Electric GEnx engines, and was first delivered in October 2011.
Joe Sutter was transferred from Boeing's 737 development team to manage the design studies for the new airliner in 1965, that was later known as B747. Sutter began a design study with Pan Am and other carriers of the time to better understand their requirements amid the technological challenges to build something phenomenal in the 1960s.
Among many first time features, one was the location of the cockpit, that was placed on a shortened upper deck so that a freight-loading door could be included in the nose cone; this design feature produced the B747's distinctive "hump".
Back to 1960s , as the Boeing did not have an assembly line large enough to accomodate a giant aircraft , they chose to build a new plant . The company considered locations in various cities , but decided to build the new plant some 30 miles north of Seattle on a site adjoining a military base at Paine Field near Everett, Washington. And today, we all witnessed the last one of the model coming out of the hangar in the Everett Assembly Line.
On this historic event , Leading German carrier Lufthansa said ,
After 55 years of production, the last 747 left the @BoeingAirplanes factory in #Everett this morning. Lufthansa has always been part of the development of the 747, we had over 80 #Jumbos in our fleet throughout the time! We are proud to continue to fly the Queen of the Skies!
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