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Since its first flight in 1969, the giant jet has served both as a cargo plane and a commercial passenger plane. It was capable carrying nearly 500 passengers, while also serving as a transport for NASA’s space shuttles, and the Air Force One presidential aircraft.

However, over the last 15 years, Boeing has constructed a more profitable and fuel efficient wide-body planes, with only two engines to maintain instead of the 747's four. When Boeing confirmed in July 2020 that it would end 747 production, it was already only producing at a rate of half an aircraft a month – a pace that continued through the final years of the program, Reuters reported.

The last 747 rolled out on Dec. 7, capping the program at 1,574 total in its history. The plane has since completed inspections and flight tests, flying to Portland over the holidays to get a paint job.

Boeing delivered five 747s in 2022, while in 1990, the peak delivery year of the bestselling 747-400 version, Boeing delivered 70 747s. As different sections of the last 747 – the wings or fuselage structures, for example – were complete, the production line "just slowly started to shut down," said Kim Smith, Boeing's vice president and general manager for the 747 and 767 programs.

Thousands of Boeing employees – including some of the so-called "Incredibles" who developed the jet in the 1960s – were expected to watch the last delivery of the historic plane, which brought air travel to the masses and represented an indelible slice of Americana.

(With inputs from AP, Reuters)
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