Here’s American’s First Boeing 787 — They’ve Now Owned Every Single Boeing Jet

American took delivery of its first Boeing 787 on Thursday, and flew it to Dallas on Friday.

They have 42 firm orders for the 787-8 and 787-9 and options on an additional 58 planes.

We’ll see the aircraft flying between domestic hubs for a few weeks when the aircraft first goes into revenue service during the second quarter, before they begin flying it internationally.

Here’s the American’s 787 landing at Boeing’s Paine Field after a test flight.

With the introduction of the 787, American is claimed to have operated every Boeing-designed jet aircraft.

Boeing 707 (-123, -123B, -323B and -323C models)

Boeing 717 (designed by McDonnell Douglas as the MD-95, inherited from TWA but not officially operated)

Boeing 720

Boeing 727 (both models)

Boeing 737 (-200, -300 and -800 models)

Boeing 747 (-100 and SP models)

Boeing 757 (-200 model)

Boeing 767 (-200 and -300 models)

Boeing 777 (-200 and -300 models)

Boeing 787 (now the 787-8 model)

I’m not sure the 717 should even count, as it was McDonnell Douglas-designed prior to the merger with Boeing. So even if you’d only count American as having had the aircraft as a technicality, I’d toss that from the list since it wasn’t Boeing-designed in the first place.

Interestingly, the only pre-Boeing 707 aircraft (the 707 was their first jetliner) that American operated that I’m aware of was the 377 Stratocruiser, by virtue of their acquisition of American Overseas Airlines which was later sold to Pan Am.


About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. My first flight ever was on a Boeing 707 in 1967. Beautiful plane.

    We used to go to the airport on dates with girls (I say that just in case I am too old to know what a “date” may mean now) just to watch how it took off at such a steep angle. Those were the days when you could go up onto the roof of the airport building and take your deck chairs and have a picnic.

    Many years later I had the misfortune to be driving on a freeway and when a Concorde came in to land right over my head (the landing strip started just a few yards to the side of the road). I almost had an accident when I took my hands off the wheel trying to cover my ears from the terrific noise.

  2. What I’ve been reading, one get the impression there are still working stewardesses, aka flight attendants, who began their career on those ancient Boeing models.

  3. The B717 was introduced as a Boeing plane. The MD95 never flew. If I remember the one time I was on TWA B717 flight, everything said Boeing. As an American stockholder, I know the B717 was included in the fleet list, from 2001 to 2003.

  4. I have never flown on a 787 or A380 so far. Hoping to catch a flight with American with this plane.

  5. Since US has A350 on order, how well AA use the A350 when they start taking deliveries of them? What route will they use them on?

  6. In fairness, I don’t believe American has owned *every Boeing jet…the precursor to the 707, for example, was a similar design that later became the KC-135 stratotanker.

  7. @Ari K

    Care to expand on that and tell us which airline did fly that jet? I am assuming you are talking about Dash 80 experimental jet. By your logic, they didn’t fly the B-52 either.

  8. I really REALLY want to fly on that aircraft! I’m adding my voice/question to that of a couple of other folks: what domestic route(s)–“for a few weeks”–will this aircraft fly?

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