On the sixth of December, the last Boeing 747, the queen of the skies, left the hallowed halls in Seattle and was handed over to its owner, Altas Air, a few days ago. We are particularly pleased to be able to offer you not only another beautiful tag and coaster, but in the meantime a piece of aviation history with the British Airways 747, G-BYGD.
British Airways is the flag carrier of the United Kingdom of England. Interestingly, it is only the second largest carrier by passenger numbers and fleet size after EasyJet, but maintains a much more diverse fleet.
British Airways is the flag carrier of the United Kingdom of England. Interestingly, it is only the second largest carrier by passenger numbers and fleet size after EasyJet, but maintains a much more diverse fleet. British Airways was also a founding member of the One-World Alliance, number three after SkyTeam and the Star Alliance.
Our G-BYGD, the Queen of the Skies, had her first flight on 15 January 1999 and was equipped with 4 powerful Rolls Royce engines. From start to finish, she was in service exclusively for British Airways around the world. After almost 20 years, G-BYGD was decommissioned in 2020 and dismantled in 2021.
A new Boeing 747 aircraft costs between 228 and 260 million dollars. The Beoing 747-400 was the successor to the Beoing 747-200 and was first delivered in 1985. Originally, the 747 series was planned to be two-storey along its entire length, just like the Airbus A380 today. Since the requirement to have the aircraft evacuated in 90 seconds in an emergency could not be met, this was scrapped.
The last commercial flight of a 747 by British Airways took place on 8 October 2020.
Some interesting records.
In 1991, a 747-400 flight carried 1087 passengers, Ethiopian Jews, to Israel.
British Airways was the first airline to exceed $1 billion in revenue on a single route. It achieved this between April 2017 and March 2018 on the New York London route, which was sometimes served by our Boeing 747-400s.
In total, 1573 747s of all variants were built and delivered. The most aircraft were ordered in 1990, 122, and the most deliveries happened in 1970, with 92. The most sought-after variant was the 400, with 694 delivered.
The operational area of our G-BYGD was practically the whole world and hopefully soon also your living room, where you set down your afternoon tea cup on one of our coasters.
The Boeing 747, an aircraft of records:
- First flight on 9 February 1969
- 6 December 2022 the last freighter leaves the production hall in Seattle
- How did the civilian version of the 747 get built in the first place: Pan Am boss Juan Trippe said to then Boeing boss William Allen, If you build it, I'll buy it, to which Allen replied, If you buy it, I'll build it.
- Until the A380 was built, it was the largest passenger aircraft in the world.
- The first prototype of the 747, the City of Everett, is on display at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.
- The Boeing plant in Everett was the largest building in the world in terms of enclosed space and is still number two today.
- The largest customer for the 747 was Japan Airlines with 108 aircraft.
- The list price for the 747 is between 230 and 308 million euros.
- UPS operates the most 747-800s, 28 of them
- To date, 1573 747s have been ordered in a wide range of variants.
- All engine failure on a British Airways 747: British Airways flight 009 was a scheduled flight from London to Auckland with stops in Bombay, Madras, Kuala Lumpur, Perth and Melbourne. On 24 June 1982, the City of Edinburgh, a Boeing 747-200, flew into a cloud of volcanic ash at night, all 4 engines failed. After a prolonged glide, the crew managed to restart the engines and eventually made an emergency landing at Jakarta airport with three engines running.
