Nearly 50 years after the its debut, the 747 will take its final commercial flight with an American carrier Tuesday on Delta Air Lines’ Seoul-to-Detroit route. It “made flying available for everyone,” said Boeing chief company historian Michael Lombardi said of the iconic jet. “There is always a calculated risk launching a new commercial plane,” Lombardi said. As it began to phase out the 747, Boeing has downsized its aircraft. “Frankly we really don’t see much demand for really big airplanes,” Randy Tinseth, Boeing vice president of marketing, said in June.

Source: New Strait Times December 17, 2017 02:26 UTC