The 747 Jumbo jet defined an era of international travel and now it’s coming to an end.
Whether the 747 was the first true jumbo jet – the 747-400 certainty wasn’t – is a question for debate; for my money the DC-10 was the original ‘heavy’. But really it doesn’t matter as the Boeing aircraft defined the late Twentieth Century model of global tourism.
The era of the heavy wide bodied jet planes chained international travel and spawned the modern tourist industry.
With the retirement of the last 747’s an important chapter of the Twentieth Century closes. What follows will define the shape of today’s tourist and business travel industry.