Delivered to Delta as N9898 in 1970. To China Airlines in 1975 and reregistered as B-1860 in 1976. To GPA as EI-BOS in then to Pan Am as N725PA in 1984. Fitted with side cargo door in 1986. To Evergreen as N479EV and converted to a freighter in 1991. Converted to a firebomber around 2003. Withdrawn from use at Marana, AZ by 2013.

Tanker 979 was based on a 747-100 originally manufactured by Boeing in 1971 for Delta Air Lines. It entered service for the first time in 2009, fighting a fire in Cuenca, Spain, and made its first American operation on August 31, 2009 at the Oak Glen Fire in California. When Evergreen went bankrupt in 2013 it was sitting at Marana to be scrapped in 2017, only after several key components were removed and installed in N744ST