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Tag: Boeing 747

  • Relic: Boeing 747

    Relic: Boeing 747

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    If you’ve been watching the news lately, Boeing has gone from a respected airline manufacturer to a pariah in the media, attracting international attention in the media lately. While the root causes for this transformation go back many years and can even be its own article, some of the headlines include substandard airplane manufacturing by various contractors and subcontractors, trading safety and quality for profits and stock value, and even the death of John Barnett, a former Boeing employee turned whistleblower in suspicious circumstances. But what about when Boeing had a stellar reputation? The Boeing 747 represented a quantum leap in air travel and transportation in general. What made this model so unique, and why is it considered one of the most iconic airplane models in the history of commercial air travel?

    First, we must remember that building commercial jets is a multi-year project. Planes can’t just roll off the assembly line and straight into commercial use—the plane must undergo rigorous testing and safety checks before being delivered to airlines. In a typical commercial jet, various companies create airplane parts, which are then sent to the airplane manufacturer for final assembly and delivery to airlines around the world. The Boeing 707, one of the first popular commercial jets, took about four years to go from a prototype to regular service. The 707 was first flown in 1954 and Pan Am started regular service with the Boeing 707 in 1958. The 707 was wildly successful and is credited with beginning the Jet Age of travel. By the mid-1960s, like all things, newer, better, and faster commercial airplanes were in demand, and Boeing stepped up to the plate to deliver.

    Building off the “Golden Age” of air travel, Joe Sutter, a U.S. Navy veteran and longtime Boeing employee who also helped develop the 367-80 (Dash 80), 707, 727, and 737, was placed in charge of the 747 project as chief engineer and design manager under Malcolm T. Stamper, the head of the 747 project. Sutter was also known as the “father of the 747” as he spent about four years bringing the 747 from conception in 1965 to completion in 1969. The 747, also nicknamed the “Queen of the Skies,” had four engines and could carry up to 366 passengers in three travel classes (usually Economy, Business, and First), and a partial double-deck raised cockpit. At the time, supersonic jets like the Concorde were also in development, so the Boeing 747 was initially intended to be a stepping stone to supersonic jets. The 747 was also designed so that it could also be converted into a freighter airplane. Many variants of the 747 were developed over the years. The 747 and its variants had a maximum takeoff weight of ~377,842.44 kg (833,000 lb), a Mach 0.85 (900 kph or 559.23 mph) cruise speed, and flight ranges up to 12,150 km (7,550 mi or 6,560 nautical miles).

    During the final push to deliver the 747 to Pan Am in 1969, Sutter and his team were given only 28 months to design the plane before the end of the year, earning Sutter’s team the nickname “The Incredibles.” There were even reports that Boeing had “bet the company” on the 747’s success to the point where Boeing had to build an entirely new plant to assemble the 747 in Everett, Washington in the United States. This plant is also the biggest building in the world by volume at 13.4 million m³ (472 million ft³). The Boeing 747 project cost USD1 billion (~USD8.46 billion in 2024) and then-US First Lady Pat Nixon christened the first Boeing 747 at Dulles International Airport in 1970. The aircraft became so popular that Australian airline Qantas became the first airline to use only Boeing 747s by 1979.

    There were several incidents involving the 747, including four especially infamous incidents. The first was the Tenerife airport disaster in 1977, which involved two colliding 747s in dense fog. This resulted in 583 fatalities, still the most in aviation history to this day. The Soviet Union shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007 in 1983 when it strayed into its airspace, which also had the effect of United States President Ronald Reagan authorizing GPS, then strictly only for military use, for civilian use. The terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in December 1988 resulted in the loss of a 747 and hastened the decline of Pan Am. TWA Flight 800 exploded mid-air in 1996 due to a design flaw.

    The iconic 747 is still in use today, although many airlines have phased it out in favor of newer aircraft. Joe Sutter passed away in August 2016, and the main engineering building for Boeing Commercial Airplanes division was renamed in his honor. In fact, the final 747 was delivered only last year for cargo use to United States-based Atlas Air. While Boeing today is a shadow of its former self due to numerous controversies involving plane quality and safety, the Boeing 747 is a look back at a time when quality, safety, and design made it one of the most iconic names in aviation history.

    Words by Jose Alvarez
    Also published in GADGETS MAGAZINE April 2024 Issue

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  • United flight rolls off runway and onto grass at Houston airport

    United flight rolls off runway and onto grass at Houston airport

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    United flight rolls off runway and onto grass at Houston airport – CBS News


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    Nearly 170 people on board a United Airlines flight were forced to evacuate when their plane veered off the runway after landing at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston and got stuck in grass while heading to the gate. Roxana Saberi reports.

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  • Final Boeing 747 rolls off assembly line: “It’s not just another airplane”

    Final Boeing 747 rolls off assembly line: “It’s not just another airplane”

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    The Boeing 747 once carried the space shuttle and is credited with making air travel more accessible to the general public. Now, after more than five decades, the last brand-new 747 has been built.

    Among those paying tribute to the aircraft was actor John Travolta, who attended a Boeing tribute to the 747 last week in Everett, Washington.

    “As a pilot, I know how great this plane is to fly,” Travolta said. “There is nothing like seeing a 747 take flight, to remind you that there’s also magic here.”

    CBS News’ Kris Van Cleave visited Boeing’s Everett plant as the plane was in final assembly, just days before it rolled off the line, made its first test flight and was bathed in about 120 gallons of paint.

    Sherri Mui built 747s for the last 15 years, her father started working on the same line 43 years ago.

    “Every time you finish a job, you know that it’s going to be the last time you do it. And it just kind of tugs at your heartstrings,” Mui said. “My favorite thing about the 747 would just be that it’s so iconic that you see it in the sky, you see it at the airport, and you know exactly what that is. And it brings a lot of pride knowing that, hey, yes, I helped build that.”

    “It’s not just another airplane,” Mui told Van Cleave.

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    The final 747 in assembly

    The 747 was the world’s first jumbo jet. Twice as big as any other airliner when it first flew back in 1969. Pan-Am welcomed the first passengers on board a year later.

    With its spiral staircase, first-class lounge and iconic hump, it was an instant hit.

    “This airplane marks the point in history, the first time that any person on planet Earth could get on an airplane and fly,” Boeing historian Michael Lombardi told Van Cleave.

    “It democratized air travel,” Van Cleave said.

    Lombardi agreed.

    “Because of its size, its range, its economy. Now, flight was affordable.”

    Over more than 118 million flight hours and counting, the 747’s four engines have carried millions of passengers, six U.S. presidents and even the space shuttle across the country and around the world.

    After 1,574 of the 747s were built, this marks the end of the line for the Queen of the Skies at Boeing. But for the thousands of people in the Everett plant who work on the airplane, it really marks the beginning of a new chapter. They’re all going onto new jobs on other lines, building new planes that will fly for decades to come.

    While those newer more fuel-efficient planes are bringing about the end of this queen’s reign, especially as a passenger plane, the final 747, a freighter, will likely be delivering goods for years.

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  • Boeing bids farewell to an icon, delivers last 747 jumbo jet | Long Island Business News

    Boeing bids farewell to an icon, delivers last 747 jumbo jet | Long Island Business News

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    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. 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 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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    The Associated Press

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  • Boeing 747, the

    Boeing 747, the

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    Even before Boeing’s 747 flew its first passengers back in 1970, the world knew this was something special. And from day one, the Anderson family has quite literally had their hands on nearly every single 747 built, working on the production line in Everett, Washington.

    Kelvin  “Andy” Anderson was a supervisor on the prototype; his son, Vic, is now a lead mechanic on the last one (and about 875 before it).

    “He turned them on, and I’ll be turning them off. Means a lot to our family,” Vic said.

    “CBS Mornings” was there in December as Vic Anderson took his dad to see the final assembly of the last “Queen of the Skies,” just days before it rolled off the line.

    The last 747, at Boeing's assembly plant in Everett, Washington.
    The last 747, at Boeing’s assembly plant in Everett, Washington.

    CBS News


    It took its first test flight, and got bathed in about 120 gallons of paint ahead of its final delivery Tuesday.

    atlas-air-747-test-flight.jpg
    The last 747 off of Boeing’s assembly line will be delivered to Atlas Air for use as a freighter.  

    Boeing


    “I’m going to miss it,” said Andy. “I already miss it.”

    Back in 1969, Andy Anderson was in the same plant as they built the world’s first jumbo jet, twice the size of the largest airliner to date. “It crossed everyone’s mind whether it was going to get off the ground or not,” he said.

    Asked what went through his mind when he saw the first one fly, Andy smiled and said, “It gave me goosebumps! Everybody wanted to fly a ’47. They still do, right?”

    And for more than five decades, its four engines have carried millions of travelers, six presidents, and even a space shuttle across the country, and around the world. 

    Boeing's 747, the "queen of the skies"


    Boeing’s 747, the “queen of the skies”

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    But newer, more fuel-efficient planes with two engines are bringing about the end of the 747.

    Boeing historian Mike Lombardi said, “This airplane marks the point in history, the first time that any person on planet Earth could get on an airplane and fly … You could say that it shrunk the world.”

    Boeing engineers thought this mid-century engineering marvel would only fly passengers for a decade before supersonic planes like the Concorde became the norm. They designed the 747 to live on as a freighter, which is how it got that iconic hump – allowing for a nose that could open to load cargo.

    So it’s fitting the final 747 is a freighter that’ll be delivering for years to come.

    After building 1,574 747s, Boeing will deliver the very last one on Tuesday to Atlas Air, for use as a cargo plane. Vic Anderson said, “I never thought I would outlast her.”

    747-wheels.jpg
    Vic and Andy Anderson on the floor of the Boeing assembly plant. 

    CBS News


    As Andy Anderson put it, “She’s still the queen.”

    See also:


    The 747’s final approach

    05:35

    Kris Van Cleave


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    Kris Van Cleave is a congressional correspondent for CBS News based in Washington, D.C.

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