Fly-by-wire means that control input on the flight deck is transmitted by electric wire to actuators on the control surfaces rather than heavier hydraulic systems. Some of the new technologies used in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner have also been used in the 747 8, such as LED lighting in the cabin, larger passenger windows, and partial fly-by-wire systems. The 747 8, the final model, is an evolutionary follow-on from the 747 400, rather than a revolutionary jump. On the trips that make up that distance, more than half of the Earth's population has been carried, a total of 3.5 billion people. It is interesting to note that the entire Boeing 747 fleet has logged 42 billion nautical miles (77.8 billion kilometers) which is equivalent to 101,500 return trips from Earth to the Moon. Five aircraft then completed a ten-month 1,500 flying hour test program to gain certification for commercial operation. The Boeing 747 design was such a departure from the technology then in use that it took 75,000 engineering drawings and 15,000 hours of wind tunnel testing to come up with the first Boeing 747 prototype. Terminal gate areas also had to be widened to accommodate the greater wing span, as well as passenger assembly areas now needed to be able to accommodate two to three times as many passengers as previously.
Boeing for their part equipped the 747 with 18 wheels to enable a better distribution of weight. The introduction of this much larger aircraft caused its own headaches for airport operators, for instance, runways had to be strengthened. The distinctive bubble atop the front of the fuselage accommodates the flight deck and in the first 747s during the 1960s, there would be a first-class lounge in the rear of the bubble which was accessed by a circular staircase.įollowing the oil crisis of the early 1970s, many airlines opted for foregoing the upstairs lounge and replacing this with extra seating to try and offset the higher fuel-driven operating costs. The Boeing 747 on its main deck has two aisles where typically the economy cabin has a seat configuration of three seats on each window side and four seats in the centre, known as 3-4-3. This demise was also hastened by the downturn in travel caused by Covid 19.īeing the first wide-body aircraft ever built, the Boeing 747 was the result of the demands of growing trans-continental(USA) and trans-oceanic travel markets in the 1960s. The Boeing 747 was the Queen of Skies for near on 50 years and has now all but disappeared as the large, more economical twin jets take over.
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