An era ends as Qantas retires its Boeing 747-300s and their flight engineers

An era came to its end as Australian carrier Qantas retired its last Boeing 747-300.

The fleet of six, which entered service between 1984 and 1987, clocked more than 524,000 flying hours.

Along with the retirement of the fleet, comes another retirement -- flight engineers. Modern airliners with their "glass cockpits" have eliminated the flight engineers' station. Qantas will no longer have need for flight engineers in any of its remaining aircraft's cockpits.

The last serviceable Qantas B747-300 VH-EBW, will depart Sydney today at 1900 local (AEDT) 0800 GMT bound for the jets graveyard in Marana, Arizona, USA, pending sale.

Farewell.