Once the supreme widebody airliner, the iconic Boeing 747 seemed an endangered type when COVID-19 hastened its retirement. So why are so many still flying, asks Mark Broadbent?
BA retired Boeing 747-436 G-CIVB to Cotswold Airport, Kemble in October 2020
Neil Porter
Agap between passing pulses of rain enabled Boeing 747-436 G-CIVB (c/n 25811) to conduct its final landing on October 8, 2020. Cotswold Airport in Kemble, Gloucestershire is this jumbo’s new home after its early retirement by British Airways.
One of the four 747-400s painted as retro jets in 2019 to mark BA’s centenary – it wears the Negus livery used from 1974 to 1984 – it will now assume a fresh multifaceted life as a museum exhibit, a school educational resource and a conference venue.
Put out to pasture
