Boeing delivers last 747, Japan airline joins event as largest user

Boeing Co. delivered the last unit of its decades-long staple 747 model recently, with representatives of a major Japanese airline attending a farewell event as the operator of the most “jumbo jet” planes worldwide.

The U.S. aircraft giant handed over the final 747 unit -- the 1,574th since production began in 1967 -- to U.S. cargo airline Atlas Air Inc. at a factory in Washington state on Jan. 31, packed with thousands of participants.

The airplane “shrank the world, and revolutionized travel and air cargo as the first widebody,” Stan Deal, chief of Boeing’s commercial airplane business, said...