Northwest Jumbo 400s Pt1: Orient Launch Customer

Unlike its international US major contemporaries (Pan Am, TWA and Braniff) Northwest Airlines steered its way through deregulation successfully and built upon its extensive long-haul network so that it was in a good position to renew its long-haul fleet when needed. Northwest was famed for taking on well looked after secondhand frames and did so with both 747-200s and DC-10-30s but that didn't stop it being one of only two US majors to operate Boeing's much improved version of the 747 - the series 400.

Northwest Airlines Boeing 747-451 N661US - Jet-X Model

In the 1960s competition between the US trunk airlines was still primarily service based, which gave a priority to aircraft type and fitout and enabled the Boeing 747 to surf a wave of one-upmanship from the US majors who for prestige reasons couldn't be seen not to be ordering 747s, even when the airline's route networks could not support them. The result were fleets of Jumbos flying half empty on domestic US routes with airlines like American, Delta, United and Continental equipped with piano bars and massive lounges. In fact of the existing trunk airlines only Northeast and Western avoided acquiring the type (though Eastern's were all leased).

By the late 1980s the results of the fuel crisis and deregulation had transformed the US airline industry. Widebodies could still be seen on domestic trunk routes but the thought of flying  747s regularly on such services (except for Hawaii) was a distant memory and where widebodies were needed it was in the form of smaller DC-10s, Tristars, A300s and 767s.

The above lovely image is taken from norebbo.com here.

The 747-300 had been a minor modernisation of the 747-200B, stretching the upper deck but failing to improve the airframe, which in fact resulted in a range decrease for the new type. Unsurprisingly the airlines approached the series 300 with some reluctance and sales were slow. Boeing announced the launch of the series 400 in October 1985 when Northwest ordered ten examples. The 747-400 was a significant reimagining of the Jumbo even though outwardly, aside from the huge winglets, it looked very similar to the series 300. It utilised new lighter composite materials and lighter aluminium alloys to decrease weight whilst adding a new fuel tank in the horizontal stabiliser. Flight systems were fully modernised removing the need for the flight engineer position, new much more powerful engines were developed by all three of the major manufacturers and there was a host of other design improvements.

In the 1970s only Pan Am, Northwest and TWA had sufficient international routes that could support 747s, however by the mid-late 1980s Pan Am and TWA were in such trouble that not only could they not afford new 747s but they were downsizing their transatlantic fleets to 767s and A310s more suitable to the frequency is king modern attitude to transatlantic services. It was across the Pacific that the 747 best suited US airlines where the distances were so great that there was a need for the 747s impressive range capabilities. Pan Am had been forced to sell its Pacific dvision to United in the mid-80s which left only itself and Northwest as viable customers for new Jumbos. Northwest Orient had been strengthening its Pacific network steadily and operated an impressive network across the Pacific especially to Tokyo where it ran a mini-hub operation. For Northwest a new 747 was most welcome and it would become the launch customer for the new 747-400 series.

The first 747-400 rolled out of the factory on January 26, 1988 and flew for the first time on April 29. The first four aircraft were used in the flight test programme which included two aircraft equipped with Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines. Both of these aircraft were destined for Northwest and in fact N401PW, which was the first flight frame, would join Northwest as N661US. Even though she was registered as the first Northwest 747-451 she actually was the sixth delivered. Northwest instead used an alternative aircraft (N663US) to undertake the first 747-400 in service operation, between Minneapolis and Phoenix, on February 9, 1989 (the 20th anniversary of the 747-100's first flight).