It’s the end of the line for Northwest Airlines’s last Everett-built 747-200. The Minnesota-based carrier retired its final 747-200 from service today, following a flight from Tokyo to Seattle.

Gallaher, 64, was retiring with the 747 fleet. He’s flown with Delta and its merger predecessor, Northwest Airlines, since 1983 and was a captain on the 747 for 18 years.

For a time, Northwest owned and flew more 747s than any other U.S. airline and was Boeing's launch customer for the 747-200 and 747-400 versions of the plane.

Gallaher had flown the first Northwest 747-400 into Minneapolis in 1989. “I was in the right place at the right time to be able to do all this,” he said.

The peak year of the 747 came in 2002, when the airplane completed 33,000 flights hauling 10.5 million passengers on 50 airlines. All told, 1,540 Boeing aircraft have been delivered since 1969.

For me, sitting on the upper deck of a Northwest Airlines 747 on a flight to Germany was about as close to space (or heaven) as I am likely to get. Northwest merged with Delta in 2010, but I have ...

Northwest Airlines did not return calls for comment. The 747 has two rudders because of its huge size. The tip of the tail is nearly six stories off the ground.