Boeing Ending Production of the 747

[Palmpilot]

Boeing Quietly Pulls Plug on the 747, Closing Era of Jumbo Jets

• End of 50-year run is said written between lines of financials
• Pandemic deals a final indignity to Boeing, Airbus leviathans

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...lls-plug-on-the-747-closing-era-of-jumbo-jets

 

[Cap'n Jack]

No surprise, when a 777 can do pretty much the same thing with lower operating costs.

 

[RyanB]

Hm, I thought for some reason they stopped 747 production years ago.

 

[GRG55]

A history making airplane.
That long outlived the SSTs that were supposed to make it obsolete.

 

[geezer]

Boeing stopped building the passenger version years ago, continued the freighter.

 

[Jim K]

Wonder how long they'll live on as freighters.

 

[Shawn]

Wonder how long they'll live on as freighters.

According to the article there are 15 order to fill over the next 24 months and 12 are going to UPS. One would imagine there is some for of iron clad agreement to continue support to keep them flying otherwise one would think UPS would be making every effort to cancel those orders knowing now that the the 747 is suddenly at the end of its time.

 

[Skip Miller]

Suddenly? This move is hardly sudden. The writing has been on the hangar wall for a long time.

-Skip

 

[EvilEagle]

They haven't made 757's/MD-88's/MD-11's/717's for years either but they are flying all over the world. The whale's that are out there will live on, just maybe not with the companies that have them now.

 

[Busflyer]

Our newest one was delivered a couple weeks ago.

 

[GRG55]

Wonder how long they'll live on as freighters.

There are still DC-3 airframes flying freight today.

 

[Jim K]

There are still DC-3 airframes flying freight today.

That's what I mean....I don't think they'll last as long as the dc3, but I would think maybe another 30 years at least. Im amazed by some of the antiques flying freight and firefighting, and that's not even getting into the buffalo airways' of the world.

 

[Stan Cooper]

The queen of the skies. In 1970 I was working in the flight test division at Hughes Aircraft Company in Culver City and had ridden my bicycle to the beach at Playa del Rey for lunch and to watch LAX departures while eating a sandwich and listening to LAX tower on a handheld.

Suddenly I heard incredibly loud takeoff noise and looked up; it was a 747 taking off and it was HUGE. I hadn't seen one before and my first impression was how majestic it looked. It's hard to believe that was fifty years ago.

 

[Dave Theisen]

I flew to Haiti after the earthquake. The ramp looked like a museum.

 

[GRG55]

According to the article there are 15 order to fill over the next 24 months and 12 are going to UPS. One would imagine there is some for of iron clad agreement to continue support to keep them flying otherwise one would think UPS would be making every effort to cancel those orders knowing now that the the 747 is suddenly at the end of its time.

They are ending production of new aircraft, not support for the type. If UPS ordered 12 more they may have kept the line open longer. Cancelling orders for something like a commercial airplane will come with some pretty hefty fees. And even if UPS wished to cancel, what would they replace those new 747 aircraft with? A bunch of used A380s? I doubt it.

They haven't made 757's/MD-88's/MD-11's/717's for years either but they are flying all over the world. The whale's that are out there will live on, just maybe not with the companies that have them now.

Speaking of 757s, here's a picture of a private 757 that flew in to KGPI for this July 4 weekend. I am constantly amazed at the collection of expensive private aluminum that litters the ramp at Glacier Jet on the long weekends and Christmas holidays. Sometimes I feel guilty that my ancient Aztec is lowering the property values around the joint. The only other places I've flown into with such a large collection of private jets, Avantis and such are Westchester and Teterboro.

The queen of the skies. In 1970 I was working in the flight test division at Hughes Aircraft Company in Culver City and had ridden my bicycle to the beach at Playa del Rey for lunch and to watch LAX departures while eating a sandwich and listening to LAX tower on a handheld.

Suddenly I heard incredibly loud takeoff noise and looked up; it was a 747 taking off and it was HUGE. I hadn't seen one before and my first impression was how majestic it looked. It's hard to believe that was fifty years ago.

My first airplane ride was in 1964 on a DC-8-40 from the west coast to Hong Kong, with refueling stops in Anchorage and Tokyo. 13 years later I was a mechanical engineering student and our class arranged a tour of the "new" 747 maintenance hangar of that same airline. Tucked under the tail, behind the wing of the behemoth was one of those diminutive DC-8s, stripped to bare aluminum awaiting new paint. It looked tiny.