747
31/01/23 02:14
I remember standing at the windows of the terminal of Billings, MT Logan airport and straining my eyes to see the huge jet as it descended for a landing. Becoming a pilot was a really big part of my life in those days. I flew with our father every chance I got, carefully adding hours to my logbook and anticipating the day when I would be able to take my private pilot’s check ride. The airplane coming in to land was the largest airplane I had ever seen. It came from the west and circled around the field a couple of miles to the south and entered a long final approach. It appeared to be going very slowly. My father said that was an illusion caused by its size. Smoke rose from the massive banks of tires as it touched down. It ran the entire length of the runway before turning off onto a taxiway, where its wings extended off of the edges as it came back towards the terminal. As the nose pulled up to the building, the ground crew prepared the longest stairway, mounted on the top and back of a truck.
I felt a bit of pride seeing the plane, painted in the colors of Northwest Orient Airlines. The pilot was the chief pilot of the airline, and had been a student of our father years before. The Boeing 747 with its cockpit raised in a bulb above the nose of the plane was massive. Later we got to climb that long truck-based stairway and go inside the plane. There was a spiral staircase inside the plane leading to the upper deck where there was a lounge and behind it crew quarters with bunks for sleeping on long flights.
Over the years I got to fly on 747 aircraft several times. One flight was a short hop from Chicago to Minneapolis in the middle of the night. That flight was not very full at all and we had room to stretch out on empty seats. Another time we boarded a flight in Calgary that made a stop in Edmonton before taking a great circle route to Amsterdam. It was, at the time, the longest flight I’d ever taken on an airplane.
The first production 747, after Boeing had gone through a lengthy certification process that tested every aspect of the “triple redundant” flight systems, was painted in the color of Pan American Airlines and began scheduled service flying between New York and London. By the time the plane was delivered, Boeing had orders for several years worth of production. Parts for the airplane were made in many different places. Final assembly took place in a building that was build as the plane was designed. The Everett, Washington building is the largest building under a single roof in the world. Inside giant cranes can lift sections of the airplane up and over other parts being assembled on the production floor. Visiting the building, and looking down from the viewing levels, workers seem tiny in comparison to the giant airplanes being assembled. Boeing has since used the facility for the production of other large aircraft, but none quite as massive as the 747.
At the time we first saw the 747, we expected that it would be a rare bird. Not many were expected to be built because Boeing already had a supersonic airplane on the drawing boards. It was felt that higher speed airplanes would soon replace the massive airliners. The story of the brief time of supersonic airline travel is another story at all, but it proved too expensive for any company to make a profit. A couple of spectacular accidents and the airline companies turned back to jumbo jets for their overseas flights.
The cargo versions of the 747 were very popular as well. Specially shaped containers made loading large pieces of cargo easy. Everything was handled with machines and the ability of the plane to lift and deliver heavy loads made it a regular part of international commerce.
Today the last production 747 will be delivered at the Everett facility. It is number 1,574. The building of the airplane started in September and it was, from the beginning, designed as a cargo hauler. It has already made its maiden voyages. The final paint was applied after initial test flights in Portland, OR, where the Atlas Air Worldwide colors were applied. The plane then flew back to Everett, and rolled back into a bay in the giant building with doors several stories high to allow the tail to enter and wider than the plane’s 225-foot wingspan. This morning there will be a ceremonial roll out of the plane. No more 747s will be built. It is the end of an era. The planes will be replaced by more efficient aircraft over a period of years.
The end of production doesn’t mark the end of the useful life of an airplane. The last Douglas DC-3 rolled off the assembly line in early 1943. Other DC-3s have newer dates on their serial number plates as hundreds of military C-47s went through a certified conversation process and were given DC-3 nameplates. All DC-3s entered service before I was born. There are still about 165 DC-3s flying on a regular basis today. I expect that there will be 747s in service throughout the lives of my great grandchildren, even after technologies have changed and new forms of airplanes have taken flight.
It has been a good long run for 747 production. The advance of technology in the 50+ year production run has resulted in many changes. The instrument panels of today’s jets are filled with glass screens instead of the analogue gauges that were sported by earlier planes. Navigation systems are much more precise and far more reliable than the ones in the first variants of the type.
I could still get a ride in a 747 for years to come, but I’ve already had a long flight in a 777 and would love to get a trip in a 787. Who knows what trips lie in my future, but I’m pretty sure we’ll be up for a few more long flights.
I’m not going to drive down to Everett for the delivery ceremonies. I doubt that I could get close enough for much of a glimpse of the plane, but it marks a significant milestone and gives me another story that I’ll tell my grandchildren about how it was “in my day.”
I felt a bit of pride seeing the plane, painted in the colors of Northwest Orient Airlines. The pilot was the chief pilot of the airline, and had been a student of our father years before. The Boeing 747 with its cockpit raised in a bulb above the nose of the plane was massive. Later we got to climb that long truck-based stairway and go inside the plane. There was a spiral staircase inside the plane leading to the upper deck where there was a lounge and behind it crew quarters with bunks for sleeping on long flights.
Over the years I got to fly on 747 aircraft several times. One flight was a short hop from Chicago to Minneapolis in the middle of the night. That flight was not very full at all and we had room to stretch out on empty seats. Another time we boarded a flight in Calgary that made a stop in Edmonton before taking a great circle route to Amsterdam. It was, at the time, the longest flight I’d ever taken on an airplane.
The first production 747, after Boeing had gone through a lengthy certification process that tested every aspect of the “triple redundant” flight systems, was painted in the color of Pan American Airlines and began scheduled service flying between New York and London. By the time the plane was delivered, Boeing had orders for several years worth of production. Parts for the airplane were made in many different places. Final assembly took place in a building that was build as the plane was designed. The Everett, Washington building is the largest building under a single roof in the world. Inside giant cranes can lift sections of the airplane up and over other parts being assembled on the production floor. Visiting the building, and looking down from the viewing levels, workers seem tiny in comparison to the giant airplanes being assembled. Boeing has since used the facility for the production of other large aircraft, but none quite as massive as the 747.
At the time we first saw the 747, we expected that it would be a rare bird. Not many were expected to be built because Boeing already had a supersonic airplane on the drawing boards. It was felt that higher speed airplanes would soon replace the massive airliners. The story of the brief time of supersonic airline travel is another story at all, but it proved too expensive for any company to make a profit. A couple of spectacular accidents and the airline companies turned back to jumbo jets for their overseas flights.
The cargo versions of the 747 were very popular as well. Specially shaped containers made loading large pieces of cargo easy. Everything was handled with machines and the ability of the plane to lift and deliver heavy loads made it a regular part of international commerce.
Today the last production 747 will be delivered at the Everett facility. It is number 1,574. The building of the airplane started in September and it was, from the beginning, designed as a cargo hauler. It has already made its maiden voyages. The final paint was applied after initial test flights in Portland, OR, where the Atlas Air Worldwide colors were applied. The plane then flew back to Everett, and rolled back into a bay in the giant building with doors several stories high to allow the tail to enter and wider than the plane’s 225-foot wingspan. This morning there will be a ceremonial roll out of the plane. No more 747s will be built. It is the end of an era. The planes will be replaced by more efficient aircraft over a period of years.
The end of production doesn’t mark the end of the useful life of an airplane. The last Douglas DC-3 rolled off the assembly line in early 1943. Other DC-3s have newer dates on their serial number plates as hundreds of military C-47s went through a certified conversation process and were given DC-3 nameplates. All DC-3s entered service before I was born. There are still about 165 DC-3s flying on a regular basis today. I expect that there will be 747s in service throughout the lives of my great grandchildren, even after technologies have changed and new forms of airplanes have taken flight.
It has been a good long run for 747 production. The advance of technology in the 50+ year production run has resulted in many changes. The instrument panels of today’s jets are filled with glass screens instead of the analogue gauges that were sported by earlier planes. Navigation systems are much more precise and far more reliable than the ones in the first variants of the type.
I could still get a ride in a 747 for years to come, but I’ve already had a long flight in a 777 and would love to get a trip in a 787. Who knows what trips lie in my future, but I’m pretty sure we’ll be up for a few more long flights.
I’m not going to drive down to Everett for the delivery ceremonies. I doubt that I could get close enough for much of a glimpse of the plane, but it marks a significant milestone and gives me another story that I’ll tell my grandchildren about how it was “in my day.”
