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First Boeing 747-400 Retired

| Aviation News

The Boeing 747-400 with tail number N661US, operated by Delta Air Lines, was officially retired today.
As it was the world's first 747-400, to commemorate its service, it will be preserved at the Delta Flight Museum located in Atlanta after its retirement.

N661US previously bore the number N401PW. As a Boeing test aircraft, it completed the first flight of the 747-400 on April 29, 1988.
Following this, N401PW underwent various tests for a period of 8 months,
and was delivered to the 747-400's launch customer, Northwest Airlines, on January 26, 1989, at which point its registration number was changed to N661US.

During its service with Northwest Airlines, N661US experienced a harrowing incident.
On October 9, 2002, the aircraft was operating flight NW85 from Detroit to Tokyo Narita.
(I myself flew on NW85 once 10 years ago, though unfortunately, I hadn't started the habit of recording flights back then)
While flying over the Bering Sea, the aircraft began to bank left, reaching a bank angle of 35 degrees.
The cause of the failure is attributed to metal fatigue in a component within the power control module,
which caused the lower rudder surface to deflect to the maximum position.
The pilots had to resort to manual mode for flight. Having lost Aileron control,
they relied solely on the limited upper rudder and by asymmetrically adjusting the power of the left and right engines,
they successfully managed an emergency landing at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (PANC) in Alaska using differential thrust.

After Northwest Airlines merged with Delta Air Lines in 2009, N661US became a member of the Delta fleet,
and continued to operate under the same registration number until this year, 2015. The airframe operated flight DL83 from Honolulu to Atlanta, bringing its 27-year flying career to a close upon arrival in Atlanta on the morning of September 9th local time.

I look forward to having the opportunity to visit the Delta Flight Museum in the future to pay my respects to this famous 747-400 pioneer.

The following 2 photos are from when the 747-400 first appeared:

This article is excerpted from here.