When Boeing announced the end of the Queen of the Skies program, it was a sad day for AVgeeks and 747 aficionados. After more than 50 years in production, the final delivery of a Boeing 747 to Atlas Air was marked with a ceremony honoring the heritage of the Boeing 747.
Honoring Joe Sutter
The last Boeing 747 is a freighter, the 747-8F bearing registry N863GT. It is the 1,574th jumbo jet built, in which will take-off for its final delivery to Atlas Air. The plane bears a tribute to Joe Sutter, the “father of the 747” and the man responsible of turning this idea of a jumbo jet into a reality. The decal reads “forever incredible.” Sutter, considered a legend in the aviation industry, led a team of almost 4,500 engineers to create the jumbo jet.
Family members of Joe Sutter along with Charles Trippe, grandson of Pan Am’s founder Juan Trippe, were among the event’s many notable guests and prominent Boeing officials. And other “Incredibles” (Boeing personnel who worked on the first 747’s design and construction) were there, too, including final 747 program chief Kim Smith.
Atlas Air is also the world’s largest operator of the 747 with 51 in service,
“Whether it is Air Force One or another special-purpose airplane, we have seen how the 747 changes lives. We’ve read stories of families that flew to safety from war-torn countries onboard 747s to start a new life, people who were able to find new hope for their businesses because of international air freight carried onboard the 747, and deliveries of life-saving equipment and food supplies made available because of the 747,” said Elizabeth Lund, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Airplane Programs at Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
The pilots of Atlas Air have been given a unique flight plan that will allow them to draw a crown with “747” in the sky as a way of paying homage to the iconic aircraft, the “Queen of the Skies.”
The end of the quadjets?
The closing of the quadjet era coincides with the final delivery of the 747. Boeing will focus its widebody resources on the development and testing of the 777X and the continuing success of the 787 Dreamliner now that it has retired the 747.
Airbus stopped manufacturing the A380, another quadjet, in late 2021.
Even while the quadjets are no longer being manufactured, it doesn’t mean they’ll cease flying. For at least the next several decades, quadjets won’t go away. Lufthansa, Korean Air, and Air China are just a handful of the carriers that still fly passengers on the newest Boeing 747 models. There are still over a hundred Airbus A380s in operation today.
A new age of bigger, more fuel-efficient twin-jet aircraft has begun with the final delivery of the Boeing 747, marking the end of the era of the quadjets. In spite of the fact that aircraft technology will undoubtedly go further, quadjets will forever be regarded as the aircraft that really “shrunk the planet.”
First love never dies. I fell in love with airplanes and aviation when I was a kid. My dream was to become a pilot, but destiny led me to another path: to be an aviation digital media content creator and a small business owner. My passion for aviation inspires me to bring you quality content through my website and social accounts. Aviation is indeed in my blood and blog!
