(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The last 747 [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-01-31 Model of an early version of the iconic airliner, "the Queen of the Skies" From The NY Times: More than a half-century ago, Boeing unveiled the 747, a massive and striking airplane that captured the public imagination and brought air travel to the masses. The jet has been a workhorse since, ferrying passengers and cargo around the world. But its days are numbered: On Tuesday, Boeing plans to hand over the last 747 it will ever make. With a distinctive hump, the 747, nicknamed the “Queen of the Skies,” is perhaps the most widely recognizable commercial airplane ever built. The plane transformed air travel and became a symbol of American ingenuity. It could still be flying decades from now, a longevity that aviation historians said was testament to the work that engineers, designers and others put into repeatedly remaking the airplane. “It’s one of the great ones,” said Shea Oakley, who runs an aviation history consulting firm and is a former executive director of the Aviation Hall of Fame and Museum of New Jersey. “If you had to make a list of the 10 most important airplanes ever built since the Wright Flyer, the 747 needs to be on that list. It was a quantum leap.” It even had its own movie, with a big name co-star The 747 is one of the most iconic aircraft ever built, right up there with the DC-3 and the Concorde. Others tried to follow its lead in the dawning Jumbo Jet era, but the DC-10 and the Lockheed 1011 never came close to the popularity of the Big Boeing. Airlines have been moving away from the 747 In recent years for a basic reason. As The NY Times article notes: Smaller, more efficient two-engine airplanes could now fly longer distances. Their smaller size meant airlines could offer direct international routes between smaller cities, such as St. Louis and Frankfurt. In the mid-90s, Boeing also introduced the 777, which was about as big as the 747. With only two engines, it was more advanced and efficient. A decade later, Boeing’s main rival, Airbus, debuted the A380, which can carry more passengers than the 747. But Airbus struggled to sell the plane and announced the end of production in 2019. The A-380 and the 747 share one element: they both have 4 engines. It’s cheaper to operate an airplane with only two engines to maintain. Read The NY Times article — it has lots of great photos showing how they were built. (The link should allow passage through the paywall.) It covers the early history of the aircraft, including some things that might have derailed it. At the time the 747 was being developed, the Concorde program was catching a lot of attention because the speed of supersonic transport (SST) airliners promised to drastically cut travel time on international flights (where sonic booms wouldn’t be an issue over the oceans.) SSTs looked like the future of international air travel. Boeing was also developing an SST — an ambitious design with swing wings in an early version — but the program eventually ended up being canceled. While the Concorde did make it into production, it proved to be too expensive to operate for the number of passengers it could carry, and had range limitations. If it had been able to cross the Pacific non-stop, things might have been different. Sales never materialized in the numbers needed to make it truly viable. (Russia beat the Concorde into the air with the Tupolev Tu-144, but its career was problematic to say the least.) SST’s might yet stage a comeback. NASA is exploring ways to to turn the sonic boom into more of a thump. Lockheed Martin is building the X-59 for NASA to test the concept. Boom Supersonic isn’t waiting on NASA — they are in the process of coming up with their own design. Their XB-1 test vehicle was supposed to fly in 2021, but I haven’t found any info on how far it has gotten. The Spike S-512 is being promoted as a supersonic business jet — but again it’s not clear how far it has gotten. It’s also not clear how these aircraft will fare in a world trying to cut carbon emissions. For the present, subsonic aircraft are still the way to fly if you’re not in the military. Boeing gave up on its SST which was just as well. It and 747 development costs had put Boeing’s future at risk. If the 747 had failed to attract customers, Boeing might have gone bankrupt. Happily for Boeing and millions of passengers who have flown on a 747, it turned out well and changed commercial aviation. One of the more amazing stories about the 747 is the account Len Morgan wrote about flying Braniff International Airways first 747. Appearing in Flying Magazine March 1983, Morgan recounts how #100 off the assembly line went to work in 1967 flying from Texas to Honolulu and back, 7 days a week, in the air 16 hours out of 24. (The article is here, assuming the link to Google Books works.) ...Eventually it dawned that the big ship was making history. A check of the records revealed that N601BN had logged 24,650:00 during its first five years. That is to say it had spent 56% of its life in the air (The 99 sister Jumbos rolled out before 601 averaged 35%). It was 90 days ahead of its closest competitor, Lufthansa’s D-ABYA. Never before had any aircraft anywhere logged hours at such a rate. It was a record for Guinness and surely still is. Here’s a couple of images of two of the most famous 747s out there. Air Force One flying out of Albany, NY after a visit by President Obama The specially modified 747 that was used to ferry Space Shuttles around, AKA “The World’s Biggest Biplane.” NASA also used modified 747s as airborne observatories, lifting telescopes above most of the atmosphere. SOFIA has just been retired. 747s will be disappearing from passenger service as the airlines transition away from them, but they will still be flying for years to come in freight service. As The NY Times article notes, Boeing made a key decision early on. Putting the cockpit on top of the fuselage allowed them to build 747s with a nose that could be swung open, to make loading cargo easier. Open wide! The Big Boeing “Queen of the Skies” will be with us for a while yet. 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