N7001U

N7001U is the first production Boeing 727-22^[a] to be built by Boeing in 1962. It was delivered to United Airlines in 1964, and spent its entire service career with the airline until its retirement in 1991.^[1]

N7001U
General information
Type	Boeing 727-22
Manufacturer	Boeing
Owners	United Airlines
Registration	N7001U
Flights	48,060
Total hours	64,495
History
Manufactured	November 27, 1962
First flight	February 9, 1963
Last flight	March 2, 2016
Preserved at	Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington.
Fate	On static display

History

Construction and rollout

On November 27, 1962, N7001U was rolled out of the Boeing factory in Renton, Washington. It bore a lemon yellow and copper-brown paint scheme, reminiscent of the Boeing 367-80 prototype of 1954.^[2][3]

Maiden flight and service

N7001U took to the skies for the first time on February 9, 1963. After completing the flight test and certification program, it was delivered to United Air Lines on October 6, 1964. United operated N7001U for 27 years, accumulating 64,495 flight hours and executing 48,060 takeoffs and landings during its time in service. In 1991, United Air Lines donated the aircraft to The Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington.^[3][4] Over its years of service, N7001U carried approximately three million passengers.^[3]

Final flight and legacy

On March 2, 2016, after extensive restoration, N7001U made its final flight from Paine Field near Everett, Washington to the museum's facility at Boeing Field.^[5] The aircraft was a notable exception to Boeing's practice of retaining first production examples of its jet airliners for testing and development; not until the Boeing 777 of the 1990s would such an aircraft see regular airline service.^[b][2][3][6]

Notes

1. The aircraft is a Boeing 727-100 model; until 2016, Boeing assigned a unique code for each company that bought one of its aircraft, which was applied as a suffix to the model number at the time the aircraft was built, hence "727-22" designates a 727-100 built to United Airlines' specifications (customer code 22).
2. N7771, the first Boeing 777 to be built, was delivered to Cathay Pacific in 2000.