Boeing 747 lovers rejoice. While Boeing is gearing up to deliver the final ever 747, passenger variants of the Jumbo Jet are becoming increasingly rare. Fans of the Queen of the Skies can now own part of one, thanks to Aviationtag's latest release.
Aviationtag is in the business of taking aircraft fuselage that would otherwise be discarded and upcycling it into a higher-value product that can be sold on to consumers. In this case, they repurpose the skin into limited edition key chains and have 'saved' some somewhat unique aircraft in this way.
Own part of a retired Corsair Boeing 747
Aviationtag's latest release gives a new lease of life to a former French Boeing 747-400 operated by Corsair. The aircraft, F-GTUI, was 28 years old when retired in April 2020. Avaitiontag has created tags in various colors, rating from plain white through each shade of blue in the Corsair livery.
The company made 3,500 tags from portions of F-GTUI skin, each with its own serial number. Aviationtag is selling plain white tags for €24.95 ($25.54), while blue tags retail for €27.95 ($28.61). Colored tags are typically in higher demand as they carry a little more character than a plain white tag. In February, a tag from an Eva Air Boeing 747 with the letter E painted on it sold at auction for €1,710 ($1,750), attracting 82 bids.
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About F-GTUI
According to ch-aviation.com, F-GTUI was initially ordered by United Airlines back in October 1990. The aircraft first flew on August 6th, 1992, being delivered to United 22 days later as N186UA. United flew the plane until 2005, when Corsair took it.
At retirement, the aircraft had completed 13,053 flight cycles, totaling 100,262 hours (11.44 years) of flying. United Airlines put 5,312 flight cycles and 43,636 hours on the clock, while Corsair was responsible for the remaining 7,554 cycles and 54,802 hours.
F-GTUI was the last Boeing 747 to be retired from the Corsair fleet. The planes were due to be retired in 2021, but like many other operators, Corsair brought this date forward due to the pandemic. The plane's last revenue service was from Pointe-a-Pitre in Guadeloupe on March 25th, 2020.
The final flight
On June 15th, 2020, the aircraft took off for the last time with flight number SS747. The plane took off from Paris at 13:42, completing a touch and go before flying north to Kemble, its final resting place. Kemble is known for scrapping a range of retired aircraft, including retired Boeing 747s from KLM, Saudia, and British Airways.
What do you make of Aviationtag's latest release? Do you own any parts of a Boeing 747? Let us know in the comments below!
Sources: Aviationtag, ch-aviation.com