Editing Iran Air (section)

===Rise to global prominence===
{{More citations needed section|date=March 2017}}
[[File:Iran Air Boeing 707-300 Manteufel.jpg|thumb|An Iran Air [[Boeing 707|Boeing 707-320]] at [[Frankfurt Airport]] in 1970]]
[[File:Iran Air Boeing 747SP-86 (EP-IAB) at JFK.jpg|thumb|An Iran Air [[Boeing 747SP]] at [[John F. Kennedy International Airport]] in 1976]]

In 1965, Iran Air took delivery of its first jet aircraft, the [[Boeing 707]] and six [[Boeing 727|Boeing 727-100]], followed by the [[Boeing 737|Boeing 737-200]] in 1971, three of the stretched [[Boeing 727|Boeing 727-200]] in 1974, and three variants of Boeing 747 (one 747-100B, two −200M and four [[Boeing 747SP|SP]]), starting in 1978–1979. By the mid-1970s, Iran Air was serving cities in Europe with non-stop and one-stop flights, including over 30 flights a week to London alone.{{cn|date=November 2024}}

On 29 May 1971, the Tehran to New York City route was inaugurated, using [[Boeing 707]]s making a stop-over at [[London Heathrow Airport]]. Shortly thereafter, the route was upgraded to a non-stop flight using Boeing 747SPs, making Iran Air the second Middle Eastern carrier (after [[El Al]]), to offer non-stop service to New York. With this flight, Iran Air set a new world record in time and distance for a non-stop, scheduled long-haul flight (12 hours and 15 minutes, 9,867&nbsp;km – 6,131&nbsp;mi – 5,328&nbsp;nm). In 1978, the airline acquired six [[Airbus A300]] aircraft for use on its domestic trunk and busy regional routes. By the end of that year, Iran Air was serving 31 international destinations stretching from New York City to Peking and Tokyo. Plans were made to offer direct services to Los Angeles and to Sydney, for which the airline's long range Boeing 747SP aircraft were ideal. This would have allowed Iran Air to use Tehran as a midway point between East and West, because of its favorable geographical location. Such plans were never realized but they bear considerable resemblance to the [[hub-and-spoke]] strategies adopted by the [[ME3 carriers]] and [[Turkish Airlines]].

Lt. Gen. [[Ali-Mohammad Khademi]] was the general manager of Iran Air from 1962 to 1978.<ref name=EminentPersians>{{cite web|url=https://web.stanford.edu/group/abbasmilani/cgi-bin/wordpress/publications/eminent-persians/|title=Eminent Persians: Ali-Mohammad Khademi|access-date=10 November 2018|archive-date=12 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210112004022/https://web.stanford.edu/group/abbasmilani/cgi-bin/wordpress/publications/eminent-persians/|url-status=dead}}</ref>