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The 747 was the result of the work of some 50,000 Boeing people. Called “the Incredibles,” these were the construction workers, mechanics, engineers, secretaries and administrators who made aviation history by building the 747 — the largest civilian airplane in the world — in roughly 16 months during the late 1960s.
The incentive for creating the giant 747 came from reductions in airfares, a surge in air-passenger traffic and increasingly crowded skies.
The 747 was truly monumental in size. The massive airplane required construction of the 200 million-cubic-foot (5.6 million-cubic-meter) 747 assembly plant in Everett, Washington, the world’s largest building (by volume). The fuselage of the original 747 was 225 feet (68.5 meters) long; the tail as tall as a six-story building. Pressurized, it carried a ton of air. The cargo hold had room for 3,400 pieces of baggage and could be unloaded in seven minutes. The total wing area was larger than a basketball court. Yet, the entire global navigation system weighed less than a modern laptop computer.
The 747-400 rolled out in 1988. Its wingspan is 212 feet (64 meters), and it has 6-foot-high (1.8-meter-high) “winglets” on the wingtips. G-CIVY first flew on 25th September 1998 and was delivered to her British Airways London Heathrow base four days later. Her Manufacturer Serial Number was 28853. Her final revenue (cargo) flight, as BAW192, landed at Heathrow from Dallas Fort Worth on 5th April 2020, when she was withdrawn from service and entered storage having accumulated over 90,000 flight hours.
BA 747-436 G-CIVY became the last BA 747 to depart Heathrow (with sister aircraft G-CIVB) on the morning of 8th October 2020. In overcast and drizzly conditions, she carried out a flypast of the airfield before setting course for St. Athan, near Cardiff, where she was scrapped in December 2020.
Prior to her final demolition, sections from the port and starboard rear fuselage were removed. These were acquired by Aerotiques Ltd to produce unique items. Icarus Originals has been entrusted with some of this reclaimed material to manufacture this special range of BA 747-436 G-CIVY cufflinks and desktop models in association with Aerotiques. These have been produced by melting down the original airframe aluminium and recasting (using the lost wax method) ensuring this iconic aeroplane will live on beyond her retirement.
