Boeing builds its last passenger plane in California

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LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) - One union official calls it "the end of an era."

The last Boeing seven-one-seven has left the factory near Los Angeles where it was made.

When it's delivered to AirTran Airways next month, it'll be the end of seven decades of commercial airplane production in Southern California.

The president of a United Aeronautical Workers local says "the industry is going away" and that's "really sad."

The Boeing C-17 military cargo plane is still being produced in California, but there are no new orders of the aircraft in the proposed Defense Department budget. If the program isn't restored, all airplane production would come to an end in California after the military plane is delivered in 2008.

California was once the hub of airplane construction in the U-S. An aviation history buff says "more aviation history was been made in Southern California than in any other place in the world."
Jordan Davis, correspondent, with Jacki Harris, president, United Aeronautical Workers Local 148

Boeing workers in Long Beach, California have closed a chapter in that state's aviation history. Correspondent Jordan Davis reports.

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Hate to see them stop building it, Great Plane!