Boeing 747 retirement: Farewell to the 'Queen of the Skies'
For the first time in 48 years, you can't buy a ticket on a US airline to fly on a Boeing 747. On January 3, Delta Flight 9771 touched down in Marana, Arizona, an arid boneyard for stored and cannibalized jetliners. The last of the airline's 16 jumbo Boeing 747-400s flew to a desert retirement, ending travel operations by passenger airlines in the US. Both Delta and United have been saying goodbye to the jumbo for months. A final domestic revenue flight, a last international trip, a final charter. Those last trips became more of a farewell tour than a formal end. But this departure on ship 6314 was the true grand finale. Pan American Airways debuted the enormous two-deck airliner in January 1970, and flights by US passenger airlines have been flying uninterrupted ever since. The 747 was a marvel of engineering when it first flew months before the first moon landing in 1969. Earning the moniker "queen of the skies," the 747 was postage stamp famous, an icon of pop culture, and the backdrop of movies, television and a flying emblem of the US presidency as Air Force One. "Everybody stands up at the terminal and goes to the glass and they go 'that's a 747'," said Capt. Stephen Hanlon, 62, Delta's chief 747 pilot, who was in command of the final flight. While the sheer size of the 747 is its most famous attribute, that wasn't primarily why the 747 that attracted many of the world's airlines. Many bought jumbo 747s because of their incredible endurance. The iconic jumbo jet has been fading since the late 1990s. The global 747 fleet peaked at more than 1,000 in 1998. That's when smaller twin-engine jets like the Boeing 777 really began filling fleets. It could fly just as far, and airlines didn't have to worry about filling all the seats.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2018-02-19/general/boeing-747-retirement-farewell-to-the-queen-of-the-skies
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Boeing 747 retirement: Farewell to the 'Queen of the Skies'
For the first time in 48 years, you can't buy a ticket on a US airline to fly on a Boeing 747. On January 3, Delta Flight 9771 touched down in Marana, Arizona, an arid boneyard for stored and cannibalized jetliners. The last of the airline's 16 jumbo Boeing 747-400s flew to a desert retirement, ending travel operations by passenger airlines in the US. Both Delta and United have been saying goodbye to the jumbo for months. A final domestic revenue flight, a last international trip, a final charter. Those last trips became more of a farewell tour than a formal end. But this departure on ship 6314 was the true grand finale. Pan American Airways debuted the enormous two-deck airliner in January 1970, and flights by US passenger airlines have been flying uninterrupted ever since. The 747 was a marvel of engineering when it first flew months before the first moon landing in 1969. Earning the moniker "queen of the skies," the 747 was postage stamp famous, an icon of pop culture, and the backdrop of movies, television and a flying emblem of the US presidency as Air Force One. "Everybody stands up at the terminal and goes to the glass and they go 'that's a 747'," said Capt. Stephen Hanlon, 62, Delta's chief 747 pilot, who was in command of the final flight. While the sheer size of the 747 is its most famous attribute, that wasn't primarily why the 747 that attracted many of the world's airlines. Many bought jumbo 747s because of their incredible endurance. The iconic jumbo jet has been fading since the late 1990s. The global 747 fleet peaked at more than 1,000 in 1998. That's when smaller twin-engine jets like the Boeing 777 really began filling fleets. It could fly just as far, and airlines didn't have to worry about filling all the seats.<br/>
