America is saying goodbye to the Boeing 747 jumbo jet - here's a look at its glorious history

The Boeing 747 first flew in February 1969.

The big jet and the Everett, Washington, factory in which it was built were designed and constructed in just 16 months by a team of 50,000 Boeing employees.

The people involved became known as the "Incredibles."

Joe Sutter, the man who was tasked with leading the plane's engineering team, was generally regarded as the "Father of the 747."

Sadly, Sutter passed away in 2016 at the age of 95.

The 747 was a major gamble for Boeing. The prevailing thinking at the time was that the world was heading toward supersonic travel.

Boeing bet that people wanted to travel in comfort for less money.

As the legend goes, Pan Am boss Juan Trippe told Boeing that he needed a plane twice the size of ...

... the Boeing 707 the airline operated at the time.

To give Pan Am the capacity it was looking for, Boeing added a second aisle to the cabin — thus creating the wide-body jet.

According to Boeing, the 747 could carry 3,400 pieces of luggage and be unloaded in just seven minutes.

With seating for as many as 550 passengers, the 747 truly dwarfs the 707 as well as other workhorse jets of the era, such as ...

... The Douglas DC-8 and England's de Havilland Comet.

When the mighty jumbo jet entered service in 1970 with Pan Am, the public was mesmerized.

In the 1970s, Boeing was joined by a duo of smaller three-engine wide-body jets: the Lockheed L-1011 and ...

... the McDonnell Douglas DC-10.

Boeing followed up the original 747-100 with ...

... a new variant in late 1971 with more powerful engines and greater range called the 747-200 series.

A decade later, Boeing updated the 747 again with newer engines and an enlarged second deck. This version was called the "-300."

The -300 didn't prove to be as popular as Boeing would have liked. So in 1989, Boeing launched the -400. It featured modern avionics, a fully glass cockpit and greater range. It would go on to be the most popular of the 747 variants.

In 2011, Boeing launched the latest version of the jumbo jet, called the 747-8. At 250 feet, it's the longest airliner ever built.

The 747 has been deployed in a variety of ways, including as a firefighting water tanker ...

... a space-shuttle carrier ...

a freighter ...

... and as the official head-of-state aircraft for...

... The world's superpowers.

But the 747 really became a cultural icon when it was the plane to have for the world's major airlines. For many years, it seemed as if you weren't playing in the big leagues unless you were flying the jumbo.

Boeing has sold more than 1,500 747s.

The venerable Boeing jumbo jet has outlasted the supersonic Concorde as well as its subsonic contemporaries like the DC-10. the DC-10's replacement the MD-11, the Lockheed L-1011, and the Airbus A340.

Unfortunately, it looks unlikely that the jumbo jet will survive its latest slew of challengers, which include Airbus' double-deck A380 superjumbo and ...

... the A350XWB twin-engine "mini-jumbo."

The 747 has also lost sales to its corporate siblings, the 777 mini-jumbo and ...

... the 787 Dreamliner.

To compensate, Boeing has slowed down production of the 747 to just one aircraft every two months in an attempt to buy the sales team more time to generate orders.

Don't fret just yet jumbo jet aficionados, the 747 will fly on for years to come with international carriers.