The Boeing 747 Begins Its Final Descent
June 15, 2026 at 09:30PMFor The Atlantic, Ian Bogost writes an ode to the 747, the Boeing Company’s over 50-year-old queen of the skies. After kicking off the era of mass intercontinental travel upon launch in 1970, Boeing ceased production in 2023, as airlines turned to a hub and spoke model of travel that flourished with more frequent flights using smaller, more fuel-efficient aircraft.
Thomas Gray, who joined Boeing in 1961 as an electrical engineer, calls himself the “first passenger on the first 747,” responsible for in-flight testing. “Whether it was strain, arrows, airspeed, whatever,” he told me, “we had to measure all that data onto a tape machine.” Gray, a lanky man with a gray mustache, volunteers as a docent at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, just across from Boeing Field. For 17 years, the 747 served as his office. This was the Wild West of commercial aviation, after planes had been proven but when the Jet Age was still new and exciting.
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2026/06/15/boeing-747-retires-the-atlantic/
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