Boeing Co is winding down production of the 747 jumbo jet
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Chief Executive Dave Calhoun told staff on Wednesday that Boeing will stop building the iconic jet in 2022.
The prototype 747 was first displayed to the public on Sept. 30, 1968
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Photo- Wikimedia Commons
On Sept. 30, 1968, the first Boeing 747 rolled out of its custom-built assembly plant in Everett, Washington. From the beginning, everything about the plane once known as the “queen of the skies†was big.
It allowed more affordable air travel due to its size and range
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The 747 had its maiden flight on Feb. 9, 1969, and entered service with Pan American World Airways in January 1970. A British Airways 747 boosted by strong tailwinds broke the subsonic speed record for a transatlantic crossing between New York and London in February, completing the trip in just under five hours, according to Flightradar24.
Dreamlifter- modified variant which transports sections of the 787 Dreamliner between factories in Everett, Washington and Charleston, South Carolina
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Dubbed “the Incredibles”, some 50,000 mechanics and engineers built what was then the world’s largest civilian airplane in roughly 16 months.
The 747 is the world’s most easily recognized jetliner with its humped fuselage and four engines
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The current version is the 747-8, a 410-seater with a range of 8,000 nautical miles (14,815 km), launched in 2005.
The last order came in 2017, when the U.S. govt asked Boeing to repurpose two 747-8 jetliners for use as the U.S. president’s Air Force One transport plane
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After customisation and installation of classified systems, the two aircraft are due to be delivered by December 2024, painted red, white and blue