Delta flying iconic 747 after merger

The Boeing 747 jumbo jet is back in Atlanta in Delta colors.

The first Delta-branded 747 to fly out of Atlanta since 1977 departed Thursday from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, bound for Honolulu.

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Elissa Eubanks / eeubanks@ajc.com

A 747-400, newly painted as a Delta jet, taxis before its flight from Atlanta to Honolulu on Thursday.

• Video: See the 747 being painted

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Atlanta-based Delta acquired 747s in its merger last October with Eagan, Minn.-based Northwest Airlines and has been repainting them in Delta colors since December at a facility in Victorville, Calif. The airline expects to finish repainting the Northwest fleet in Delta colors by the end of 2010.

Delta’s 747-400, now the largest plane in its fleet, seats 403 customers with 338 in coach and 65 lie-flat seats in business class. The jet has four engines, can fly 570 miles per hour and has a range of 8,300 miles. Its tail is 62 feet high, roughly the height of a six-story building. The plane’s take-off speed is 165 miles per hour and the landing speed is 145 miles per hour.

Back in the 1970s, Delta operated a smaller and less-sophisticated version of the 747. Northwest was Boeing’s launch customer for the 747-400 in the 1980s.

On Delta’s Atlanta-Honolulu route, the 747 replaces the smaller Boeing 767-400ER.

Delta plans to launch its second route from Atlanta with the 747-400 on May 4, when it begins using the plane on a second daily flight from Atlanta to Tokyo’s Narita Airport.