PARIS Reuters - British billionaire Richard Branson, who was inspired to start an airline with a single Boeing 747 after getting stuck on a delayed flight, paid tribute to the Queen of the Skies on Tuesday as Boeing delivered its final jumbo jet.
Branson, the son of a flight attendant who founded Virgin Atlantic in 1984 after cold-calling Boeing as a successful record publisher, said it gave America and Boeing the leadership role in aviation.
The first aircraft, named Maiden Voyager, became part of a fleet of 30 Boeing 747 s that challenged British Airways and U.S. carriers for a slice of the lucrative transatlantic market.
Branson's new aerospace venture, Virgin Orbit, aims to launch satellites from a rocket released from a 747 dubbed Cosmic Girl, formerly part of the same airline.
It's okay for the occasional mission for space, but the fuel costs flying daily back and forwards across the Atlantic are just too expensive, according to Branson, who told Reuters.
Thousands of Boeing employees, including some of the so-called Incredibles who developed the jet in the 1960 s gathered near Seattle on Tuesday to watch the last delivery of the 747, which brought affordable air travel to the masses.
Boeing said on Monday it would expand the production of the single-aisle 737 into the huge Everett plant that had previously housed the 747 for over 50 years, showing the ability of much smaller models to serve medium routes and now even cross the Atlantic Ocean.