Boeing celebrated its 100th birthday this week, and put on a big display of it, both at the Farnborough Airshow in England, and at Seattle’s Museum of Flight.
The Seattle end of the celebration included a line-up at the Museum, of all 9 of its commercial airliners, starting with the 707, and running all the way up to the newest 787.
Four of the 9 models are still in production. The oldest, the 1969-introduced 737, is in full-stream production of its newest models, the 737MAX, and is the world’s most popular plane. The 747 is in limited production; it’s been flying for over 45 years. The 777 and 787 are more recent models.
The discontinued models are still around, too: 707s fly in a few places as freighters, and there are still 3-engine 727s flying, but only the 757 and 767 are widely used. The 717, originally a McDonnel Douglas design, is still in use by Delta.
