The "final" 747-8 was delivered about a year ago. Demand has been low since the turn of the century but there had been a small backlog and trickle of orders from cargo carriers.
Its a 747–8, the 8 referencing the Dreamliner plane that is the backbone of a lot of Boeing's current fleet. These planes are relatively new and cost over 400 million a piece dwarfing the 737 Max 9s 120 million. They are really something to look at if you ever get the opportunity but given their enormous size and air travels recent trials and tribulations, a lot of airlines opted for smaller and cheaper planes so this monster is used for cargo mostly. Not an old plane or second class by any stretch of the imagination though. Its probably the plane I enjoyed looking into more than any other out of Boeing's current fleet.
The model numbers dont have anything to do with age in general, they were supposed to refer to tht type of aircraft but when Boeing was feeling confident it would give its future jets bigger numbers to imply improvement or advancement but then when the newer jets started having issues they would adopt modifications of older naming schemes to reassure customers. Over the years that left the whole scheme in tatters.
I was curious how common fires are on flights. Searching NTSB data for the keyword "fire" on part 121 flights (ie regular scheduled air carrier flights, this excludes general aviation, private jets etc)
They very first report I randomly clicked in your linked page was for a hydraulic failure that very clearly states at the end "Aircraft Fire: None" so I'm not sure your query, or at least the link you supplied, is very correct in searching for "fires".
The latest 2 out of 3 for 2023 did not have fires. They had mentions of the word "fire" for fire department and fire trucks, where a fire truck was dispatched for a plane hitting the tow truck on taxi after pushback. The one fire-related was an engine reporting a fire.
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[ 3.8 ms ] story [ 56.7 ms ] threadThe flames were a nice touch.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_747#End_of_production
The last 747-8 off the assembly line? N863GT
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/atlas-air-says-cargo-aircra...
I would naively -- and probably incorrectly-- assume higher is newer (747 newer than 737)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Commercial_Airplanes#Mo...
[1] https://www.ntsb.gov/Pages/ResultsV2.aspx?queryId=262a5b32-9...