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The B-52 had long been one of the Air Force's key weapons, being the first aircraft to attack Baghdad during the Persian Gulf War. But over the past two decades, half of the military's B-52s have been scrapped due to budget constraints, leading several companies to come up with suggestions for a replacement. One of these groups was Boeing, who came up with a plan in the 1980s to turn a 747 into a launcher capable of carrying 70 cruise missiles. The aim was to create a low-cost bomber, at 15 per cent the price of the B-2, but able...

Paris (CNN)As round trips go, it was more of an oval: Paris to Paris with no ground stop in between, and it had grown men and women getting all misty-eyed. For Air France and its Boeing 747s, it was time to say goodbye -- but the airline and its personnel were having a hard time doing so. The last scheduled Air France 747 flight had landed days earlier, but here we all were at 8 a.m. for the first of two separate "last 747 flights" around France which, in fact, were just a prelude to a few more "last 747...

story from AP, so, not risking an excerpt.

Kuala Lumpur (AFP) - Still puzzled by the mystery of missing flight MH370, Malaysian airport authorities now have the opposite problem: three Boeing 747 planes left unclaimed at the country's main airport. The operators of Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) have placed a bizarre advertisement in a Malaysian newspaper seeking the owners of three 747-200F aircraft apparently abandoned there. "If you fail to collect the aircraft within 14 days of the date of this notice, we reserve the right to sell or otherwise dispose of the aircraft" under Malaysian regulations, said the ad which ran in Monday's edition of The...

Don't you hate it when you forget where you left your Boeing 747-200F? Someone abandoned not one, not two, but three of the massive cargo jets at KLIA Airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Airport officials, eager to clear the massive clutter, took out ads in Malaysia's The Star and Sin Chew Daily newspapers asking for the owner to please come get your planes.

The captain made an announcement about the special retirement of this airplane: “You are part of history tonight, this is the very last flight of this airplane, which was the first 747-400 ever built. It has carried millions of passengers millions of miles since its delivery in 1989″

But now the 747 is a flying antique: people are astonished when they see the analogue instruments. And the flight controls are all defiantly dependent on old-fashioned mechanical linkages. A 747 captain once explained to me that, if hydraulic assistance on the control yoke is lost, you can still put your feet on the instrument panel, give a big tug and wrench the plane about the sky. You cannot do that on a solid-state Airbus.

The design, power, and cockpit foot heaters that make the 747 feel like home to pilots. The 747 has foot heaters. The frozen surface of the Arctic Ocean looks better—everything looks better—when your feet are warm.

Boeing (NYSE: BA ) extended its sales lead over archrival Airbus (NASDAQOTH: EADSY ) in December. In its latest update on airplane orders, released last week, Boeing confirmed that 2014 "gross" orders for commercial aircraft reached 1,423 by mid-December, versus 1,328 planes for Airbus (at last report). After cancellations -- 106 at Boeing, but nearly three times as many at Airbus -- the U.S. aircraft maker's lead over its European rival only got bigger. This is good news for Boeing -- but, as we'll see in a moment, it might be bad news for one of Boeing's favorite customers: the...

Late 1960s: Economy Class Seating on a Pan-Am 747 The 1960's were barely done when Pan Am again set a standard the rest of the world was forced to follow. Pan American's Boeing B-747 Jumbo Jets brought down the cost of long distance air travel once again. Source: Pan Am Historical Foundation

From Foxtrot Alpha: After the Carter Administration's cancellation of the B-1A program due to fiscal concerns, the rise of air-launched cruise missiles and the possibility of developing a stealth bomber, Boeing put forward a low-risk, relatively cheap, cruise missile delivery vehicle alternative based on the mighty 747. It was called the Cruise Missile Carrier Aircraft, or CMCA for short. The idea was relatively simple, turn the premier long-range commercial hauler into an arsenal ship capable of carrying between 50 and 100 air-launched cruise missiles (ALCMs). At the time the AGM-86 air-launched cruise missile was all the rage (it is still...

Explanation: Bright stars of Sagittarius and the center of our Milky Way Galaxy lie just off the wing of a Boeing 747 in this astronomical travel photo. The stratospheric scene was captured earlier this month during a flight from New York to London, 11,0000 meters above the Atlantic Ocean. Of course the sky was clear and dark at that altitude, ideal conditions for astronomical imaging. But there were challenges to overcome while looking out a passenger window of the aircraft moving at nearly 1,000 kilometers per hour (600 mph). Over 90 exposures of 30 seconds or less were attempted with...

A Boeing Dreamlifter cargo jet, with a cargo hold among the largest by volume, accidentally landed at the wrong airport in Kansas Wednesday night, and was unable to take off due to the short runway. According to KWCH News, this type of plane requires 9,200 feet to take off whereas the runway at the airport is only 6,101 feet.

Atlas Air 747 Dreamlifter, a cargo plane that is a modified 747 that landed at the wrong airport on Wednesday. It is scheduled to try to take off Thursday even though the runway is considered too short for such a large plane. The cargo plane left New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport bound for McConnell Air Force Base.

CITY OF INDUSTRY (CBSLA.com) — One Southland man has spared no expense to recreate a mock 1970s Pan Am 747 that’s now on display at a warehouse in the city of Industry. As CBS2′s Amy Johnson reports, Anthony Toth has been working on a life-size model plane for about 35 years, moving it from place to place before finally having it settle into a 3000 square-foot warehouse. “When I was 5 years old, I boarded a 747 back in the early 70s with my family on a trip to Europe and the experience actually changed my life forever,” Toth said....

Functional laser weapons are just five years away. Advocates hope that won’t always be the case. The Air Force has been working on airborne laser weapons for more than 40 years, but a fielded system remains elusive. Experts also warn that the US does not enjoy a commanding lead in laser research. And the Air Force’s flagship laser weapon program, the Airborne Laser (later called the Airborne Laser Testbed) was terminated late last year and is now being dismantled. Still, service and industry experts predict there is plenty of reason for realistic optimism. Operational laser systems that can perform a...

The Pentagon has mothballed a laser-equipped jumbo jet after 15 years and $5 billion worth of research to develop an airborne missile defense system. Budget cuts shot down the Airborne Laser Test Bed but some research into anti-missile lasers will continue, according to the U.S. Missile Defense Agency. "We didn't have the funding to continue flying the aircraft," agency spokeswoman Debra Christman told the Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/xEnw3z ). The plane, a Boeing 747 mounted with a high-energy chemical laser, has been sent into storage at Davis Monthan Air Force Base, the agency said. The base near Tucson, Ariz., serves...

A Jumbo jet, with 286 passengers on board, had a terrifying near miss when it was forced to screech to a halt to avoid colliding with another plane that had turned into its path. The Lufthansa Boeing 747 was accelerating along a runway as it prepared to take off at Kennedy Airport, New York, when it narrowly avoided slamming into an EgyptAir Boeing 777.

'Doomsday Plane' Would Save President and Joint Chiefs in Apocalypse Scenario By MICHAEL MURRAY June 7, 2011 In the event of nuclear war, a powerful meteor strike or even a zombie apocalypse, the thoroughly protected doomsday plane is ready to keep the president, secretary of defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff and other key personnel in the air and out of danger. It may not deflect a Twitter photo scandal, but it can outrun a nuclear explosion and stay in the air for days without refueling. The flight team for the E-4B, its military codename, sleeps nearby and is ready to...

United Airlines released the first pictures Thursday of its largest jet, the Boeing 747-400, repainted with the new logo and color scheme adopted by the Chicago-based carrier as part of its 2010 merger with Continental Airlines.