Farewell to the 747, the Plane That Shrank the World

A Delta flight to a Boeing factory marks one of the last times passengers in the U.S. will travel on the “Queen of the Skies.”

When Boeing unveiled the 747, it was the world’s largest and longest-range jetliner. Photo by Roger Ressmeyer/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images

By Julie Johnsson

For a half-century, Boeing Co. mechanics in a sprawling factory north of Seattle have riveted together aluminum panels into the familiar hump-backed form of the 747 jumbo jet. Test pilots then put each new plane through its paces on an adjacent air strip before sending it off to roam the globe.

This airplane, more than any other, made long-range travel into a mass-market phenomenon. And on Monday, one of the jets born here returned home.

Delta Air Lines Inc. flew a 747 filled with employees and customers from its Detroit hub to Boeing’s plant in Everett, Washington. It was the first in a series of farewell flights to Delta hubs this week, marking the end of the airliner’s U.S. passenger service. For those aboard, it was a rare opportunity to touch down on the same runway from which the first 747 lifted skyward on Feb. 9, 1969.

The jumbo prototype, RA001, rolled out of Boeing’s Everett factory on Sept. 30, 1968. It lives on at the Museum of Flight, south of Seattle. Photographer: SSPL/Getty Images/SSPL