End of production line for 747-400 passenger jet

Seattle Post-Ingelligencer ^ | March 15, 2007 5:55 p.m. PT | JAMES WALLACE

[skeptoid]

After a production run of more than 450 planes, The Boeing Co. has built its final 747-400 passenger jet.

The last four planes still on the company's order books have been removed in a hush-hush deal that saw Philippine Airlines switch its order to the 777.

Those two 777-300ERs for Philippine Airlines were among 46 new jetliners that Boeing added to its 2007 order tally Thursday, including 26 787 Dreamliners. At list prices, those 47 planes are worth about $9 billion. But customers typically get discounts of 25 percent or more off the sticker price.

Although Boeing will not build any more 747-400 passenger planes, it's hardly the end of the line for the 747.

[skeptoid]

And even before Boeing begins building the 747-8, it still has another 36 747-400 freighter orders to fill.

I'm just reading Joe Sutter's 747 again.

What a legacy!

[COEXERJ145]

As someone put it on another forum, "PAL had those four 747-400's on order since the Pleistocene Era."

[llevrok]

747 was a great innovation and is a legendary air frame.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

the 747 frame will still go on, in the line of the 747-8I.... but, this will be the last 747 of that frame size since Boeing is going to stretch the baseline fuselage 747-400 to the 747-8I.

[skeptoid]

Design to revenue flight in under four years using pencil and paper.
And the early ones had 'steam guages' in the panel.

[tanuki]

There aren't many things that you can say changed the world. The B747 is the American Caravel.

[skeptoid]

And then, ....this Wiki reference:

On 24 May 1991 an El Al Boeing 747 airlifted a record-breaking 1,087 passengers – Ethiopian Jews flying from Addis Ababa to Israel as part of Operation Solomon. The passenger count became 1,088 when a baby was born in-flight.[citation needed]

...and Wiki says this is a -200 cockpit:

[RayChuang88]

The reasons why Boeing is selling the 777-300ER in place of the 747-400 are 1) you get almost as much seating capacity and 2) the range of the 777-300ER is actually a little bit more than than the 747-400. With the 777-300ER likely to get way beyond ETOPS 180 certification, it means the plane can fly most of the world's transoceanic routes safely.

[mdefranc]

"The last four planes still on the company's order books have been removed in a hush-hush deal that saw Philippine Airlines switch its order to the 777....But until Thursday, Boeing had continued to carry four remaining 747-400 passenger jets on its books. Boeing would not confirm that the four jets were among seven ordered by Philippine Airlines in 1993, but people with knowledge of the matter said those were the same planes." - article

1993? Does the Boeing balance sheet reflect these orders immediately or does Boeing wait until it is building the plane for the specific customer?

[skeptoid]

With the 777-300ER likely to get way beyond ETOPS 180 certification, it means the plane can fly most of the world's transoceanic routes safely.

Here's a recent article about FAA changes that allow the latest generation of long-range jets can fly virtually any route in the world, including over the South Pole., and Baseler says ...all commercial passenger airplanes, no matter how many engines, will operate under the same standards.....

It looks as though ETOPS is a thing of the past.

Sadly, Randy says he's retiring soon.

[Fractal Trader]

aerospace ping

[skeptoid]

I'm totally clueless (and almost criminally negligent about finacial matters) but PAL is aparently still considered more quick than dead.

[JSteff]

"Boeing has 84 firm orders for the 747-8, including 20 Intercontinentals ordered by Lufthansa."

What? Isn't Lufthansa going to support cult Aerobus and buy the 380's? See even the Germans don't trust it.

[tanuki]

Do today's pilots even know what half those knobs and gauges are? My God, now that's a cockpit!

[llevrok]

now that's a cockpit

Lots of vacuum tubes too, I bet. Woof !

[kylaka]

They know what all of them are for. Actually an entire 747 flight is flown (in most cases) from the controls on the upper lip of the dashboard (instrument panel). The airplane is only flown for the takeoff roll to 200 feet off the ground, when the autopilot is turned on, and during the last 200 feet before touchdown, until parked. The level of automation, even down to 10 passenger commuterjet and turboprop aircraft, is amazing though. GPS systems, are taking easy to an even higher level. Most of the dials and guages in a airplane instrument panel today are just monitors, or secondary systems to doublecheck on what is supposed to be happening.

[Central Scrutiniser]

I love the -400, flew it all over the world, a great plane.

But, every great plane meets its end, we lost the 717 and 757 recently.

I got to fly the 100, 200, 300, 400 and SP, but never the SR.

[Central Scrutiniser]

Lufthansa is one of the launch operators for the A380.

In fact, on March 19, the A380 makes dual landings in JFK and LAX, the first time the A380 is on US soil. One Singapore jet and one Lufthansa.

On the 20th, the LH plane goes to O'Hare.

Plenty of room for Airbus and Boeing, they each make each other better.

[tanuki]

Wow! Thanks for that description. It makes me appreciate what modern aircraft can do even more. Now if only my car could go on automatic after I left the driveway.

[tanuki]

Ah, the good old days. Software, what's that?