![]() ![]() Juan Trippe, the autocratic founder of Pan American World Airways who was then the most powerful person in aviation, wanted a single-aisle design with two decks. The blunt, sometimes fiery tempered Boeing engineer was known as the “Father of the 747” for his role in shepherding the plane to market in the 1960s against steep odds. The farewell tour for the Delta 747 also serves as an elegy for Sutter, who died last year at 95. “Joe Sutter would tell you the same thing.” That is the legacy of the 747,” Lombardi said. All told, 1,540 Boeing aircraft have been delivered since 1969. The peak year of the 747 came in 2002, when the airplane completed 33,000 flights hauling 10.5 million passengers on 50 airlines. “It was at that point in history where all of humanity had the ability to get on a flight.” “The range of the plane allowed it to go anywhere in the world,” said Michael Lombardi, Boeing’s corporate historian. The DC-3, the other iconic aircraft on Hamlin’s list, was a silver piston-engine made by Douglas that helped airlines evolve from mail carriers to people movers in the 1930s and 1940s.īut it was the long-haul capability-a 6,000-mile reach-that made the 747 transformational. “It’s one of two seminal airplanes,” said George Hamlin, an aerospace consultant, a former airline and aerospace executive and an aviation history buff. The design made it literally a wide-body, which became a moniker for long-range aircraft. The planes could hold 370 passengers, including 66 in first class and six in those penthouse seats up the stairs. Delta’s 747s, introduced on a maiden voyage in 1970 from Atlanta to Dallas to Los Angeles, brought the first overhead luggage bins to the airline, as well as the first in-flight audio channels, dubbed “Deltasonic,” which featured the Beatles, Burt Bacharach and Beethoven. The 747 was the first twin-aisle airplane, with more than double the capacity of the largest commercial craft at the time. “When you were away from home, this was your family.” She recalled Thanksgivings spent at 35,000 feet, with the traditional meal cooked in ovens large enough to fit a turkey. “I get all choked up,’’ said Christine L’Allier, who has spent most of her 32 years at Delta and Northwest as a flight attendant aboard the jumbos. (Sample question: How many miles of wiring are on a 747-400? Answer: 171.) There was a throwback meal service-hot breakfast followed by a light lunch-and a 747-centric trivia quiz. The four-and-a-half-hour journey provided many on board a chance to relive old times, especially for those who had plied trans-Pacific routes for Northwest Airlines prior to the merger. The celebration on board was low-key, more a reunion of old friends than the boisterous parties that sometimes mark commemorative flights. To win a seat on Monday’s charter flight, Delta customers bid frequent flyer miles, while employees and retirees entered an internal lottery, with selection based in part on seniority and personal connection to the 747 fleet. The aircraft will ferry NFL and college football teams in late December before making a final ferry flight to the desert in January. on Monday in Detroit, the first flight on a farewell tour this week, with stops planned at Delta strongholds in Seattle, Atlanta, Minneapolis and Los Angeles. YouTube: See landing in Atlanta on Ship 9880 in 2012.Delta Flight 9771 rumbled down the runway and lifted into the air at 7:47 a.m. YouTube: See Ship 9880 take-off from Detroit (DTW) in 2013. ![]() Museum Blog: See photos of Ship 9880 and Boeing 757 Ship 608 arriving at the Delta Flight Museum on April 27, 2014.įlickr: See photos of Ship 9880 in Eastern, Northwest and Delta liveries. Delta used a total of 177 DC-9s as part of its fleet. airline to fly scheduled DC-9 commercial flights. Ship 9880 was one of 97 DC-9s that came to Delta from Northwest Airlines.ĭelta was the first and the last U.S. Delta DC-9sĭelta had inaugurated the world's first DC-9 service in 1965, and flew DC-9s until 1993. After almost a 16-year absence, the DC-9 rejoined Delta's fleet during the Northwest merger in 2008, and flew until January 2014. The DC-9 was the first American-built jet to meet the requirements of smaller and intermediate sized cities. passenger traffic was on routes of 500 miles or less-distances usually served by propeller aircraft such as the Douglas DC-6, DC-7 and Convair 440. The DC-9 filled a different and very important niche at a time when 60% of all U.S. Prior to 1965, Delta acquired two jets, the Douglas DC-8 and the Convair 880, for long distance flights between larger cities. ![]()
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