Boeing 747

The Boeing 747, commonly called the Jumbo Jet, is one of the most recognizable modern airliners and is the largest airliner currently in airline service. First flown commercially in 1970, it held the size record for more than 35 years, although it has been surpassed by the Airbus A380 (due to enter service in late 2006). The Ukrainian-built Antonov An-225, a transport, remains the world's largest aircraft.

The four-engine 747, produced by Boeing Commercial Aircraft, uses a two-deck configuration, where the small upper deck is usually used for business-class passengers. A typical three-class layout accommodates 416 passengers while a one-class layout accommodates a maximum of 524 passengers. The hump created by the upper deck has made the 747 a highly recognizable icon of air travel.

The 747 flies at high-subsonic speeds (typically 0.85 Mach or 565 mph or 909 km/h) and features intercontinental range (8,430 statute miles, or 13,570 km, for the 747-400 version). In some configurations this is sufficient to fly non-stop from New York to Hong Kong — a third of the way around the globe. In 1989, a Qantas 747-400 flew non-stop from London to Sydney, a distance of 11,185 miles (18,000 km), in 20 hours and 9 minutes, although this was a delivery flight with no passengers or freight aboard.

By October 2005, a total of 1406 aircraft have been built or ordered in various 747 configurations, making it a profitable product for Boeing.

The 747 was born from the explosion of air travel in the 1960s. The era of commercial jet transportation, led by the enormous popularity of the Boeing 707, had revolutionized long distance travel and made possible the concept of the "global village." Boeing had already developed a study for a very large airplane while bidding on a US military contract for a huge airlifter. Boeing lost the contract to Lockheed's C-5 Galaxy but came under pressure from its most loyal airline customer, Pan Am, to develop a giant passenger plane that would be over twice the size of the 707. In 1966 Boeing proposed a preliminary configuration for the airliner, to be called the 747. Pan Am ordered 25 of the initial 100 series. The original design was a full-length double-decker fuselage. Issues with evacuation routes caused this idea to be scrapped in favor of a wide-body design.

At the time, it was widely thought that the 747 would be replaced in the future with an SST (supersonic transport) design. In a shrewd move, Boeing designed the 747 so that it could easily be adapted to carry freight. Boeing knew that if and when sales of the passenger version dried up (see below regarding the future sales of the 747), the plane could remain in production as a cargo aircraft. The cockpit was moved to a shortened upper deck so that a nose cone loading door could be included, thus creating the 747's distinctive "bulge". The supersonic transports, including the Concorde and Boeing's never-produced 2707, never lived up to expectations, such planes being too expensive to operate profitably at a time when fuel prices were soaring, and also there were difficulties of operating such aircraft due regulations regarding flying supersonic over land.

The 747 was expected to become obsolete after sales of 400 units. But the 747 outlived many of its critics and production passed the 1,000 mark in 1993. The expected slow-down in sales of the passenger version in favour of the freighter model has only been realized in the early 2000s, around 2 decades overdue.

The development of the 747 was a huge undertaking. Boeing did not have a facility large enough to assemble the giant aircraft, so the company built an all-new assembly building near Everett, Washington. The factory is the largest building by volume ever built.

Pratt and Whitney developed a massive high-bypass turbofan engine, the JT9D, which was initially used exclusively with the 747. To appease concerns about the safety and flyability of such a massive aircraft, the 747 was designed with four backup hydraulic systems, split control surfaces, multiple structural redundancy, and sophisticated flaps that allowed it to use standard-length runways.

Initially, many airlines regarded the 747 with skepticism. McDonnell Douglas (which now has been absorbed by Boeing) and Lockheed, were working on wide-body three-engine "tri-jets", which were significantly smaller than the proposed 747. Many airlines believed the 747 would prove too large for an average long distance flight, investing instead in tri-jets. There were also concerns that the 747 would not be compatible with existing airport infrastructure, similar concerns that the Airbus A380 currently faces, however compounded even more due to its double-decker feature.

Another issue raised by the airlines was fuel efficiency. A three-engine airliner burns significantly less fuel per flight than a four-engine, and with airlines trying to lower costs, fuel efficiency was an important issue that would briefly return to haunt Boeing in the 1970s.

Boeing had promised to deliver the 747 to Pan Am by 1970, meaning that it had less than four years to develop, build and test the airplane. Work progressed at such a breakneck pace that all those who worked on the development of the 747 were given the nickname "The Incredibles". The massive cost of developing the 747 and building the Everett factory meant that Boeing had gambled its very existence on the 747's success, and the company was nearly bankrupted in the early 1970s.

The gamble paid dividends; however, and Boeing enjoyed a monopoly in the very large passenger aircraft industry for years. In fact, the record and benchmark set by the 747 would only be surpased, more than 35 years after first its delivery, by the Airbus A380, built by Boeing's rival.

Technical data:

	747-100	747-200	747-300	747-400
Passengers 3 class configuration 2 class configuration	366  452	366  452	412  496	416  524
Freight 30 LD-1 containers 14 LD-containers + bulk	175,3 m3  155,6 m3	175,3 m3  155,6 m3	175,3 m3  155,6 m3	170,5 m3
Engines Manufacturer Type Maximum thrust   Manufacturer Type Maximum thrust   Manufacturer Type Maximum thrust	Pratt & Whitney  JT9D-7A  20925 kg    Rolls Royce  RB211-524B2  22545 kg    General Electric  CF6-45A2  20925 kg	Pratt & Whitney  JT9D-7R4G2 24635 kg    Rolls Royce  RB211-524D4  223850 kg    General Electric  CF6-50E2  23625 kg	Pratt & Whitney  JT9D-7R4G2 24635 kg    Rolls Royce  RB211-524B2  23850 kg    General Electric  CF6-80C2B1  25040 kg	Pratt & Whitney  4062  28710 kg    Rolls Royce  RB211-524H  26990 kg    General Electric  CF6-80C2B5F  27945 kg
Maximum fuel amount	183380 dm3	199158 dm3	199158 dm3	216847 dm3
Maximum take-off weight	333400 kg	374850 kg	374850 kg	396900 kg
Cruising speed (35.000 ft)	895 km/h	895 km/h	910 km/h	910 km/h
Dimensions Wingspan Length Height (Incl. tail) Cabin width	59,6 m 70,6 m 19,3 m 6,1 m	59,6 m 70,6 m 19,3 m 6,1 m	59,6 m 70,6 m 19,3 m 6,1 m	64,4 m 70,6 m 19,4 m 6,1 m
Cockpit crew Captain 1st officer Engineer	Yes Yes Yes	Yes Yes Yes	Yes Yes Yes	Yes Yes No
Cockpit Avionics Displays Controls	Analogue Electromechanical 971 lamps and gauges	Analogue Electromechanical 971 lamps and gauges	Analogue Electromechanical 971 lamps and gauges	Digital 6 cathode tube rays 365 lamps and gauges
Deliveries Passenger Combi Freight Short Range (SR's) Special Performance (SP's) Convertible Military Total	176 0 0 29 45 0 0 250	225 78 73 0 0 13 4 393	56 21 0 4 0 0 0 81

 

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