The last queen of the skies

MOSES LAKE — The last 747 touched down briefly at the Grant County International Airport Tuesday afternoon as part of its final check before being delivered to its new owner, New York-based cargo airline Atlas Air.

David Bailey, a retired former executive director of the Port of Moses Lake who began his career in aviation as a flight engineer for Boeing in the late 1960s helping to design and test the 747, was on hand to watch the last one touch down as well.

“I went to work for Boeing in 1968,” said Bailey as he stood on a GCIA taxiway waiting for the plane to land. “In 1969, I was transferred over to flight test engineering, to work specifically on … the first 747.”

Bailey said Tuesday’s touch-and-go — a plane touching down on a runway without stopping and then quickly taking off again — was especially moving for him since he watched the first 747 landing at the GCIA in 1972. In fact, he added, that’s what brought him to Moses Lake.

“The very first plane, the RA 001, now sits in the Museum of Flight in Seattle in its original configuration,” he said. “So it’s kind of nice to see. I saw the first one take off and land, and now I’m going to be here to see (the) last one that was manufactured land and takeoff.”

In a press release issued in early December, Boeing announced the completion of the 747, a large freighter model designed to carry more than 130 tons of cargo. According to the press release, Boeing built 1,574 of the large aircraft — informally referred to as “Queen of the Skies” — from 1967 through 2022.

In July 2020, Boeing announced it would end production of its signature jumbo jet. However, with hundreds of aircraft still in service with airlines and governments across the world, 747s will fly the skyways for years to come.

“For more than half a century, tens of thousands of dedicated Boeing employees have designed and built this magnificent airplane that has truly changed the world,” said Kim Smith, Boeing’s vice president and general manager of 747 and 767 programs, in the press release. “We are proud that this plane will continue to fly across the globe for years to come.”

Port of Moses Lake Executive Director Don Kersey said he remembered when Japan Airlines, which used to train its 747 pilots in Moses Lake, would take school students up on a short ride around the county as a way to say thank you to the community for hosting its pilot training operations.

“I rode on this plane back in sixth grade,” Kersey said. “I was one of the kids in the grade schools that got to ride on this plane and I was just awestruck. We flew to Grand Coulee and then back and it’s always been a favorite plane of mine.”

Kersey said Boeing, which owns a large hangar at the airport dating to the 1950s and stores roughly 150 Boeing 737 Max airplanes here, uses the GCIA for touch-and-go checks prior to delivering them to final customers for all the commercial airplanes it currently produces.

“To see the last of the line is kind of sad,” he added. “But the fact they’re doing it here, at the Grant County International Airport, is very special to me.”

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.