This week brought both sad and happy news for avgeeks, the fans of everything aviation. Boeing announced it has taken its final order for its flagship 747 line, while Delta Airlines returned a classic DC-7 to service, at least as a museum exhibit.
The last four 747s, all -8 freight models, will go to Atlas Air, a worldwide cargo operator that is, with 55 of the planes, the world’s largest 747 operator. The final plane will be delivered in 2022. In recent years few passenger 747s have been built, and the production line has been kept open for orders by cargo operations like Atlas, UPS and Fedex
In Atlanta, meanwhile, Delta rolled out a classic of the past, one of the last generation of mainline propeller-driven airliners. The Douglas DC-7 had a short career, entering service in mid-1950s, just after Lockheed’s Super Constellation. Most left airline service by the late 1960s, replaced by jetliners such as the Boeing 707 and the Douglas DC-8.
Delta’s is coming back to the company as part of its museum at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport. Its interior is so far only partly restored after a post-airline career as a water tanker for firefighting. Once restored, and when the museum is re-opened post-Covid, the DC-7 will be ready to welcome visitors again.
