The Last 747 and where to get your jumbo jet fix

The Boeing 747 is among the oldest commercial airframes still in production after completing its very first flight in 1968 — or perhaps I should now say, it was.

Yes, that sentence unfortunately no longer rings true, as the US planemaker has shut down its 747 production line for good after 55 years of continuous operation. In December, the final 747 to ever be built, a 747-8 freighter, rolled off the production line and flew away from Boeing’s Everett factory. The jumbo jet, registration N863GT, was to be delivered to Atlas Air on Tuesday, 31 January.

It marks the final chapter in a decades-long story that changed the face of air travel for the masses: truly the end of an era. Come to its conception in the 1960s, the sheer size of the Boeing 747 changed the economics of every international passenger airline and has been credited with ‘democratising’ international air travel for the everyday man. In Australia, of course, the 747 was operated in great number by our national carrier, Qantas.