This Boeing 747-8F will be the last produced by Boeing, 54 years after the first, at same plant, same building.
The 1,574th — and last — 747 will later be flown by a Boeing test pilot, painted and handed over to cargo and charter carrier Atlas early next year.
The lone 747, covered in a green protective coating, had been sitting inside the company’s massive assembly plant in Everett — the largest building in the world by volume, according to Boeing. The building was constructed specifically for the jumbo jet’s start of production in 1967.
Boeing 747 aircraft become rare in commercial fleets. United and Delta said goodbye to theirs years before the Covid pandemic, while Qantas and British Airways landed their 747s for good in 2020 during a worldwide travel slump.
The first flight took place on February 9, 1969, and the 747 was certified in December of that year. It entered service with Pan Am on January 22, 1970. The 747 was the first airplane dubbed “Jumbo Jet”, the first wide-body airliner.