<p>This is the cockpit of N601US, Northwest Airlines' first Boeing 747, which flew from 1970 to 1999. The nose section is preserved at National Air &amp; Space Museum on the Washington Mall. (The rest of the plane would have been too big to fit.)
</p><p>Due to the height of the double-deck nose, even though the nose landing gear is on the main floor, the cockpit needs to be accessed from the uppermost exhibit floor.
</p><p>As was the case with all "classic" 747s, this cockpit has three pilot positions, the third being the flight engineer (to the right); thanks to computerized automation, modern aircraft, including the Boeing 747-400 introduced in 1988, do not require flight engineers on board.
</p><p>Northwest, thanks to its routes to Hawaii and Asia, was a major Boeing 747 operator from early on, and unlike other US airlines, continued to fly the Boeing 747 for decades. The older "classic" 747s stayed in the Northwest fleet until the airline was merged into Delta in 2009, and the newer 747-400s are still flying in Delta service. Aside from Northwest, United is the only other US airline still operating the Boeing 747 in passenger service.
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N601US, Boeing 747-100
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/people/56619626@N05">skinnylawyer</a> from Los Angeles, California, USA
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/skinnylawyer/6264525059/">Boeing 747 cockpit (Northwest Airlines)</a>