After 53 years and more than 1,570 aircraft, the last version of the Boeing 747 rolled off the assembly line in Washington state on Tuesday, on its way to serving as a freighter.
And she was Boeing 747, the most famous and popular airliner ever built by BoeingIt was even big enough to be used to transport the space shuttle from the landing strips in California to the launch site in Florida, and was the choice of the rich and even royalty.
Several films, including the 1973 James Bond classic “Live and Let Die,” have appeared on board, or parts of the airframe assembled to look like a first-class lounge on the upper deck.
While the 747 is still operating as Air Force One, two aircraft that have already been assembled are in the works to convert them into the next generation of Air Force One, but these planes will not be delivered until at least 4 years later.
Other than that, the days of the 747 as a passenger plane are all but in the past, as airlines move away from the fuel-guzzling four-engine planes like the 747.
Boeing indicated in 2020 that it would discontinue the 747, even for use as freighters, as customers preferred to buy either the more fuel-efficient 777 Freighter or save money by refurbishing their previous 747 passenger planes and converting them into freighters.
Boeing has not built a copy of those planes since it last delivered the plane to Korean Air in 2017.
The last 747 will go to Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, which will operate the plane for the Swiss logistics company Kuehne + Nagel, according to CNN, and Al Arabiya.net reviewed it.
Currently, 44 of the 747s remain in service, according to flight analytics firm Cirium, which indicated that more than half of those planes (25 aircraft) are operated by Lufthansa.
This total decreased from more than 130 that were in service as passenger aircraft at the end of 2019, before the Corona epidemic hindered the demand for air travel, especially on international routes in which the 747 and other wide-body aircraft were mainly used.
But 314 of the 747’s are still in use as freighters, according to Cirium, with many initially used as passenger planes before being refurbished and converted into freighters.
Boeing delivered its first 747 in December 1969 to two defunct airlines: TWA and Pan Am.