--- title: "Luxury Boeing 747 Scrapped After Just 16 Flights" description: "An untouched and new Boeing 747 passenger jet, which was meant to be heavily modified to fly wealthy Saudi royalty around the world, has been scrapped." date: "2023-02-17" modified: "2023-02-17" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/luxury-boeing-747-scrapped" categories: - "Advanced Transport" - "Boeing" - "Space" tags: - "air travel" - "boeing" - "luxury" - "the digest" --- # Luxury Boeing 747 Scrapped After Just 16 Flights ![An untouched and new Boeing 747 passenger jet, which was meant to be heavily modified to fly wealthy Saudi royalty around the world, has been scrapped.]() *\Image: In Pictures Ltd./Corbis via Getty Images\* ## Short Life A practically new Boeing 747 passenger jet, which was meant to be heavily modified to fly wealthy Saudi royalty around the world, has been scrapped after spending only 30 hours and 16 flights in the air, [*CNN* reports]() — a wasteful demise for a plane that usually has a lifespan of 25 to 30 years. The jet, which sat abandoned at an airport near Basel, Switzerland, for almost a decade, was never actually modified with a luxury interior — and has now been flown to be scrapped at an airport in Arizona instead. That's because its intended customer, Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, died in 2011, months before it was meant to be delivered. ## End of an Era The news comes after [the very last 747]() to have ever been built by Boeing was shipped to cargo operator Atlas Air back in January, marking the end of the jumbo jet that ushered in a new era of air travel more than half a century ago. As for the abandoned Saudi 747, it will likely never be used as a luxury jet for the ultra-wealthy. "No one apart from a Saudi head of state is going to want a private, four-engine business jet," Richard Aboulafia, an aviation analyst at AeroDynamic Advisory, told *CNN*. Connor Diver, a senior analyst at aviation analytics firm Cirium, added that the renovations would likely "cost 30, 40 maybe 50 million dollars." It's a sad ending for a luxury jet that was never meant to be. "I’ve seen pictures of it and it’s been dismantled already, the engines have already been removed," Diver told *CNN*. "They were effectively brand new, and one of them is probably in the region of $20 million, so four would be in the region of $80 million." **READ MORE:** [Brand new Boeing 747 scrapped after 16 flights]() \[*CNN*\] **More on the 747:** *[Virgin Orbit Just Launched a Rocket Strapped to the Wing of a 747]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()