An era ends shortly after the turn of the year. In January, Boeing will deliver the last Boeing 747-8 ever built – and with it the very last jumbo jet. In 54 years, the aircraft manufacturer built 1,574 examples of the legendary double-decker.
When a small group of invited guests celebrates the handover of the brand-new and last Boeing 747 in Everett near Seattle, workers 2570 kilometers to the south-east are busy eviscerating another specimen. Just ten years after it was delivered, the Boeing 747-8 with serial number 40065 and American registration N458BJ is being dismantled at Pinal Airpark.
Flashback: In October 2011, Cargolux became the first airline in the world to receive a Boeing 747-8. Seven months later it was Lufthansa’s turn and received the first Boeing 747-8 in the passenger version. “We’ve been looking forward to this moment for years,” said the then CEO Christoph Franz on May 2, 2012 when the plane arrived in Frankfurt.
And the Lufthansa boss added that the 747-8 is the “modern, new queen of the skies,” as noted by Spiegel magazine. Saudi Arabia also opted for this new queen. In 2008, the government ordered a brand-new Boeing 747-8 that would one day fly Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz around the world. But the designated heir to the throne died unexpectedly in 2011.
Despite this, the VVIP jet was flown to Basel/Mulhouse/Freiburg five months after delivery at the end of 2012. He should have gotten a luxury cabin there. But it never came to that. The Boeing 747-8 BBJ with white livery was therefore parked at Euro Airport.
The hardly used machine without interior should be sold. In the documents, the only 29 flight hours and only 16 flights were highlighted as a big plus in the last attempt. But attempts to sell the Boeing 747-8 for $95 million failed due to a lack of interest.
And so the VIP jet stood around unused at the Swiss airport for almost ten years. Until last spring. On April 15, the ghost jumbo left the Swiss airport. From there he was flown to Pinal Airpark, one of the largest aircraft graveyards in the world.
It is now clear that the Boeing 747-8 will never fly again. In the Arizona desert, the first parts have started to be dismantled from the Boeing 747-8 with the American license plate N458BJ in the last few days. The rudder and elevator, flaps on the wings, parts of the tail cone and fuselage panels are already missing. The engines – the most valuable parts of an airplane – have already been dismantled.
The 747-8 – also launched as a disruptive maneuver against Airbus with the A380 – was not a success. Boeing only built 155 of the new version of the jumbo jet. The largest operator is UPS with 28 units, the largest operator of the passenger version is Lufthansa with 19 units. The manufacturer had some success with governments. Egypt, Qatar, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman and Turkey rely on a Boeing 747-8 to transport their heads of state.
This article was written by Stefan Eiselin
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The original to this post “He flew less than 20 times! Ghost jumbo worth millions must be scrapped” comes from aeroTelegraph.
