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Featured Map for 20 December 2022:
The Last 747 "Queen of the Skies"

 

The last of 1,574 Boeing 747 aircraft rolled out of the factory in Everett, Washington, two weeks ago. Registered N863GT, it made its first test flight on Sunday, returning to Paine Field after an hour and 16 minutes in the air. It will fly to Portland before Christmas for painting, then return to Everett prior to delivery at Atlas Air in early 2023.

This aircraft will join seven examples of the Boeing 747-8F already in Atlas Air's fleet (plus four others currently operated by Atlas subsidiary Polar Air Cargo).

Today's Featured Map shows where Atlas Air has used their existing 747-8F fleet over the past three months.

As noted in an earlier Featured Map about UPS 747s, cargo operations are unlike most passenger operations in that cargo flying is often asymmetric. For example, Atlas often flies from Shanghai to Anchorage to DFW to Rockford, Illinois, then returns non-stop to Seoul and on to Shanghai. (See map of this loop.) Atlas also flies non-stop from Los Angeles to Seoul, but eastbound trans-Pacific fligths, even benefitting from tailwinds, always stop in Anchorage. This makes sense when you consider that eastbound flights are likely heavy with loads from China to the Americas, with relatively light return flights. The map illustrates westbound-only routes in red and eastbound-only routes in green. Navy blue routes are operated in both directions.

With charter operations in addition to scheduled operations, Atlas Air's 747s also fly a fair number of routes only once or twice. The map only includes routes which were flown at least three times in the last three months.

References and additional information:

• Atlas Air
  • 747-8F Specifications
  • Atlas Air Worldwide Orders Four New Boeing 747-8 Freighters (12 January 2021)
  • Polar Air Cargo
• Boeing
  • Final Boeing 747 Airplane Leaves Everett Factory (6 December 2022)
• Final Boeing 747 rollout for 'Queen of the Skies' – Seattle Times (7 December 2022)
• N863GT (BOE704) – FlightAware (18 December 2022)
• JDLMultimedia
  • @photoJDL: The last Boeing 747 B1 is in the books ... – Twitter (18 December 2022)
  • @photoJDL: The last factory-fresh 747 has taken off on its first flight – Twitter (18 December 2022)
• Atlas Air Fleet Details and History – Planespotters.net
  
  
• Featured Map: UPS Orders the 747-8F (28 October 2016)

 

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