![]() This time, it happened at a dinner at Seattle’s upscale Fairmont Hotel in the mid-2000s where Deutsche Lufthansa AG executives were pressing their Boeing counterparts to upgrade the 747 with technology being created for its most advanced jet, the 787 Dreamliner. The last iteration of the 747 also owed its existence to a handshake. Over the past decade, the giant aircraft was eclipsed by smaller, more nimble models like Boeing’s own 777 or Airbus SE’s A350 that only have two engines but still manage to fly the same routes, albeit at much lower operating costs. In total, Boeing built 1,574 of the 747 model, from passenger versions to freighters to special editions like a NASA-commissioned version that carried the Space Shuttle or the Air Force One for US presidents. 1, the curtain will fall on the four-engine era, after Airbus already gave up its ill-fated attempt at a rival jetliner. When the last of the jets flies away from its Seattle-area factory on Feb. Now, following a 54-year run, Boeing has ended production of the 747. Early models redefined luxury travel with a spiral staircase to a swanky upper-deck lounge. They trailblazed concepts that forever changed long-distance travel: from the 747’s twin-aisle layout to overhead bins and inflight entertainment. The 747 was an emblem of an era when US innovation was defined by pushing technical boundaries with moonshot projects like the Saturn V rocket - another Boeing effort.Ī team led by Boeing engineer Joe Sutter designed and built the jumbo in less than two-and-a-half years, an unimaginable feat by today’s standards. ![]() No other airplane captured the public imagination quite like the hump-backed jumbo jet, nor illustrated the rewards that can flow from breathtaking risk on developing a new aircraft from the ground up.
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