747s were built for size - and they were also the most expensive to fly
(Picture: Tim Ockenden / PA)The final Boeing 747 has left a US factory in Washington state after more than 50 years of manufacturing.
The cargo company Atlas Air was the last customer, which ordered four 747-8 freighters early this year.
On Tuesday (December 6) evening, the last aircraft was hauled out of the enormous Boeing facility in Everett, Washington.
There she goes!
— Boeing Airplanes (@BoeingAirplanes) December 7, 2022
The last 747 has left our Everett factory ahead of delivery to Atlas Air in early 2023. #QueenOfTheSkies
Photos: Boeing/Paul Weatherman pic.twitter.com/duzgr6MzQl
The 747 programme was started in the late 1960s, when a Boeing crew known as “the Incredibles” was tasked with creating the largest commercial airplane in the world at the time in just 16 months.
The first 747 was produced over the course of 16 months by more than 50,000 Boeing workers. The company has completed 1,573 more since then.
The 747 jumbo jet has served in a variety of capacities throughout its history, including as a freight airliner, a passenger plane with a capacity of close to 500 people, and even the presidential transport Air Force One.
These aircraft are also considered the most expensive aircraft on Earth to fly — with a per-hour flight cost that has, at times, exceeded $200,000 (£163k).
NASA also modified a pair of 747-100s to become Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, hauling the orbiters around on the top of their fuselages.
The 747 had long relied on the maxim “bigger is better” but, at the start of the twenty-first century, operators were more interested in economy than they were in simply transporting the most passengers over the furthest distances while also being constrained to larger airport hubs.
Such big jets are designed to channel passengers via hub airports, but many customers prefer nonstop, shorter itineraries.
Airlines have now lost interest in large four-engine aircraft like the 747 and Airbus A380. Instead, a lot of people are starting to use twin-engine aircraft exclusively.
With Boeing and rival Airbus now having fully shifted to twin-engine wide-body airliner families, the age of the four-engine airliner has also come to an end.
