Boeing 747

The Boeing 747 is a long-range wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2023. It was conceived in response to the demand of Pan Am for a jet 2+1⁄2 times the size of the 707, which had been introduced in October 1958, to reduce the airline's seat cost by 30%. The design team was led by Joe Sutter, who left the 737 development program in 1965 to design the 747. In April 1966, Pan Am ordered 25 Boeing 747-100 aircraft, and in late 1966, Pratt & Whitney agreed to develop the JT9D engine, a high-bypass turbofan. On September 30, 1968, the first 747 was rolled out of the custom-built Everett Plant, the world's largest building by volume. The 747's first flight took place on February 9, 1969, and the 747 was certified in December 1969. It entered service with Pan Am on January 22, 1970. The 747 was the first airplane called a "Jumbo Jet" as the first wide-body airliner.

The 747 is a four-engined jet aircraft, initially powered by Pratt & Whitney JT9D turbofan engines, then General Electric CF6 and Rolls-Royce RB211 engines for the original variants. With a ten-abreast economy seating, it typically accommodates 366 passengers in three travel classes. It has a pronounced 37.5° wing sweep, allowing a Mach 0.85 (560 kn; 1,000 km/h) cruise speed, and its heavy weight is supported by four main landing gear legs, each with a four-wheel bogie. The partial double-deck aircraft was designed with a raised cockpit so it could be converted to a freighter airplane by installing a front cargo door, as it was initially thought that it would eventually be superseded by supersonic transports.

Boeing introduced the 747-200 in 1971, with uprated engines for a heavier maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) of 833,000 pounds (378 t) from the initial 735,000 pounds (333 t), increasing the maximum range from 4,620 to 6,560 nautical miles [nmi] (8,560 to 12,150 km; 5,320 to 7,550 mi). It was shortened for the longer-range 747SP in 1976, and the 747-300 followed in 1983 with a stretched upper deck for up to 400 seats in three classes. The heavier 747-400 with improved RB211 and CF6 engines or the new PW4000 engine (the JT9D successor), and a two-crew glass cockpit, was introduced in 1989 and is the most common variant. After several studies, the stretched 747-8 was launched on November 14, 2005, using the General Electric GEnx engine first developed for the 787 Dreamliner (the inspiration for the -8 in the name), and was first delivered in October 2011. The 747 is the basis for several government and military variants, such as the VC-25 (Air Force One), E-4 Emergency Airborne Command Post, Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, and some experimental test aircraft such as the YAL-1 and SOFIA airborne observatory.

Initial competition came from the smaller trijet widebodies: the Lockheed L-1011 (introduced in 1972), McDonnell Douglas DC-10 (1971) and later MD-11 (1990). Airbus competed with later variants with the heaviest versions of the A340 until surpassing the 747 in size with the A380, delivered between 2007 and 2021. These later variants of the 747 also faced internal competition from, and were ultimately superseded by, larger variants of the Boeing 777, such as the 777-300ER and 777-9. Freighter variants of the 747 remain popular with cargo airlines. The final 747 was delivered to Atlas Air in January 2023 after a 54-year production run, with 1,574 aircraft built. As of October 2025, 65 Boeing 747s (4.1%) have been lost in accidents and incidents, in which a total of 3,746 people have died.

Development

Background

A drawing of a Boeing 747 Combi from SAS with cargo on the half of the main deck - 1970's

Cutaway drawing of a Scandinavian Airlines 747-200M Combi showcasing the 747's freight carrying capabilities

File:AirBridgeCargo Airlines Boeing 747-200F nose loading door open and cargo loader at Sheremetyevo International Airport.jpg

Cargo nose door open with cargo loader

In 1963, the United States Air Force (USAF) began a series of study projects on an extremely large strategic transport aircraft. Although the C-141 Starlifter was being introduced, officials believed that a much larger and more capable aircraft was needed, especially to carry cargo that would not fit in any existing aircraft. These studies led to initial requirements for the CX-Heavy Logistics System (CX-HLS) in March 1964 for an aircraft with a load capacity of 180,000 pounds (81.6 t) and a speed of Mach 0.75 (430 kn; 800 km/h), and an unrefueled range of 5,000 nautical miles (9,300 km; 5,800 mi) with a payload of 115,000 pounds (52.2 t). The payload bay had to be 17 feet (5.18 m) wide by 13.5 feet (4.11 m) high and 100 feet (30 m) long with access through doors at the front and rear.

The desire to keep the number of engines to four required new engine designs with greatly increased power and better fuel economy. In May 1964, airframe proposals arrived from Boeing, Douglas, General Dynamics, Lockheed, and Martin Marietta; engine proposals were submitted by General Electric, Curtiss-Wright, and Pratt & Whitney. Boeing, Douglas, and Lockheed were given additional study contracts for the airframe, along with General Electric and Pratt & Whitney for the engines.

The airframe proposals shared several features. As the CX-HLS needed to be able to be loaded from the front, a door had to be included where the cockpit usually was. All of the companies solved this problem by moving the cockpit above the cargo area; Douglas had a small "pod" just forward and above the wing, Lockheed used a long "spine" running the length of the aircraft with the wing spar passing through it, while Boeing blended the two, with a longer pod that ran from just behind the nose to just behind the wing. In 1965, Lockheed's aircraft design and General Electric's engine design were selected for the new C-5 Galaxy transport, which was the largest military aircraft in the world at the time. Boeing carried the nose door and raised cockpit concepts over to the design of the 747.

Proposal

The 747 was conceived while air travel was increasing in the 1960s. The era of commercial jet transportation, led by the enormous popularity of the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8, had revolutionized long-distance travel. In this growing jet age, Juan Trippe, president of Pan American Airways (Pan Am), one of Boeing's most important airline customers, asked for a new jet airliner 2+1⁄2 times size of the 707, with a 30% lower cost per unit of passenger-distance and the capability to offer mass air travel on international routes. Trippe also thought that airport congestion could be addressed by a larger aircraft.

A view of an early-production 747 cockpit

An Iran Air 747-200, showing an early-production 747 cockpit with a flight engineer, located on the upper deck

In 1965, Joe Sutter was transferred from Boeing's 737 development team to manage the design studies for the new airliner, already assigned the model number 747. Sutter began a study with Pan Am and other airlines to better understand their requirements. At the time, many thought that long-range subsonic airliners would eventually be superseded by supersonic transport aircraft. Boeing responded by designing the 747 so it could be easily adapted to carry freight and remain in production even if sales of the passenger version declined.

In April 1966, Pan Am ordered 25 Boeing 747-100 aircraft for US$525 million (equivalent to $Template:Inflation billion in Template:Inflation-year dollars). During the ceremonial 747 contract-signing banquet in Seattle on Boeing's 50th Anniversary, Juan Trippe predicted that the 747 would be "…a great weapon for peace, competing with intercontinental missiles for mankind's destiny". As launch customer, and because of its early involvement before placing a formal order, Pan Am was able to influence the design and development of the 747 to an extent unmatched by a single airline before or since. Once additional orders for the aircraft were filed by Japan Airlines and Lufthansa, approval for production of the 747 was given in July 1966.

Initial design

Ultimately, the high-winged CX-HLS Boeing design was not used for the 747, although technologies developed for their bid had an influence. The original design included a full-length double-deck fuselage with eight-across seating and two aisles on the lower deck and seven-across seating and two aisles on the upper deck. However, concern over evacuation routes and limited cargo-carrying capability caused this idea to be scrapped in early 1966 in favor of a wider single deck design. The cockpit was therefore placed on a shortened upper deck so that a freight-loading door could be included in the nose cone; this feature produced the 747's distinctive "hump". In early models, what to do with the small space in the pod behind the cockpit was not clear, and it was initially specified as a "lounge" area with no permanent seating. (A different configuration that had been considered to keep the flight deck out of the way for freight loading had the pilots below the passengers, and was dubbed the "anteater".)

The Pratt & Whitney JT9D turbofan suspended under the wing pylon of the 747 prototype. It is stripped of its outer casing, revealing the engine's core at The Museum of Flight in Seattle, WA

The Pratt & Whitney JT9D high-bypass turbofan engine was developed for the 747.

One of the principal technologies that enabled an aircraft as large as the 747 was the high-bypass turbofan engine. This engine technology was thought to be capable of delivering twice the power of the earlier turbojets while consuming one-third less fuel. General Electric had pioneered the concept but was committed to developing the engine for the C-5 Galaxy and did not enter the commercial market until later. Pratt & Whitney was also working on the same principle and, by late 1966, Boeing, Pan Am and Pratt & Whitney agreed to develop a new engine, designated the JT9D to power the 747.

The project was designed with a new methodology called fault tree analysis, which allowed the effects of a failure of a single part to be studied to determine its impact on other systems. To address concerns about safety and flyability, the 747's design included structural redundancy, redundant hydraulic systems, quadruple main landing gear and dual control surfaces. Additionally, some of the most advanced high-lift devices used in the industry were included in the new design, to allow it to operate from existing airports. These included Krueger flaps running almost the entire length of the wing's leading edge, as well as complex three-part slotted flaps along the trailing edge of the wing. The wing's complex three-part flaps increased wing area by 21% and lift by 90% when fully deployed compared to their non-deployed configuration.

Boeing agreed to deliver the first 747 to Pan Am by the end of 1969. That date left 28 months to design the aircraft, just two-thirds of the normal time. The schedule was so fast-paced that the people who worked on it were given the nickname "The Incredibles". Developing the aircraft was such a technical and financial challenge that management was said to have "bet the company" when it started the project. Due to its large size, Boeing subcontracted the assembly of subcomponents to other manufacturers, notably Northrop and Grumman (later merged into Northrop Grumman in 1994) for fuselage parts and trailing edge flaps respectively, Fairchild for tailplane ailerons, and Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV) for the empennage. For the 747SP, assembly was subcontracted to Japanese companies comprising Mitsubishi, Kawasaki, and Fuji, which were responsible for assembly of the inboard flaps, outboard flaps, and vertical rudder respectively.

Assembly plant

Airplane assembly hall, featuring heavy machinery. Large cylindrical airplane sections and wings are readied for mating with other major components. Above are the cranes which ferry heavy and outsize parts of the 747.

747 final assembly at the Boeing Everett Factory

Boeing did not have a plant large enough to assemble the giant airliner, so they chose to build a new plant. The company considered locations in about 50 cities, and eventually decided to build the new plant some 30 miles (50 km) north of Seattle on a site adjoining a military base at Paine Field near Everett, Washington. It bought the 780-acre (320 ha) site in June 1966.

Developing the 747 had been a major challenge, and building its assembly plant was also a huge undertaking. Boeing president William M. Allen asked Malcolm T. Stamper, then head of the company's turbine division, to oversee construction of the Everett factory and to start production of the 747. To level the site, more than four million cubic yards (three million cubic meters) of earth had to be moved. Time was so short that the 747's full-scale mock-up was built before the factory roof above it was finished. The plant is the largest building by volume ever built, and has been expanded several times to permit construction of other models of Boeing wide-body commercial jets.

Flight testing

File:Boeing 747 rollout (3).jpg

The prototype 747 was first displayed to the public on September 30, 1968.

Before the first 747 was fully assembled, testing began on many components and systems. One important test involved the evacuation of 560 volunteers from a cabin mock-up via the aircraft's emergency chutes. The first full-scale evacuation took two and a half minutes instead of the maximum of 90 seconds mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and several volunteers were injured. Subsequent test evacuations achieved the 90-second goal but caused more injuries. Most problematic was evacuation from the aircraft's upper deck; instead of using a conventional slide, volunteer passengers escaped by using a harness attached to a reel. Tests also involved taxiing such a large aircraft. Boeing built an unusual training device known as "Waddell's Wagon" (named for a 747 test pilot, Jack Waddell) that consisted of a mock-up cockpit mounted on the roof of a truck. While the first 747s were still being built, the device allowed pilots to practice taxi maneuvers from a high upper-deck position.

In 1968, the program cost was US$1 billion (equivalent to $Template:Inflation billion in Template:Inflation-year dollars). On September 30, 1968, the first 747 was rolled out of the Everett assembly building for the world's press and representatives of the 26 airlines that had ordered the airliner. Over the following months, preparations were made for the first flight, which took place on February 9, 1969, with test pilots Jack Waddell and Brien Wygle at the controls and Jess Wallick at the flight engineer's station. Despite a minor problem with one of the flaps, the flight confirmed that the 747 handled extremely well. The 747 was found to be largely immune to "Dutch roll", a phenomenon that had been a major hazard to the early swept-wing jets.

After the 747's introduction into commercial service in 1970, Boeing continued flight tests to address issues with the 747's design. In its first year of service, it was observed generating a significant amount of wake turbulence and posed a risk for smaller aircraft flying behind it, prompting the FAA to implement separation rules for aircraft flying close to 747s; the French government banned Pan Am from flying 747s into Paris during its first year of 747 service due to this concern. Boeing addressed these concerns in 1970 by conducting wake turbulence tests with a 737-100 flying closely behind a 747 at various distances to measure the wake generation of the larger aircraft, which Boeing found only to have a slight difference from the wake generated by the smaller 707 flown in the same test.

Delays and certification

A view of the 747's four main landing gear, each with four wheels

The 747's 16-wheel main landing gear

During later stages of the flight test program, flutter testing showed that the wings suffered oscillation under certain conditions. This difficulty was partly solved by reducing the stiffness of some wing components. However, a particularly severe high-speed flutter problem was solved only by inserting depleted uranium counterweights as ballast in the outboard engine nacelles of the early 747s. This measure caused some concern when these aircraft crashed, for example El Al Flight 1862 at Amsterdam in 1992 with 622 pounds (282 kg) of uranium in the tailplane (horizontal stabilizer); detailed investigations showed, however, that the best estimate of the exposure to depleted uranium was ".. several orders of magnitude less than the workers' limit for chronic exposure."

The flight test program was hampered by problems with the 747's JT9D engines. Difficulties included engine stalls caused by rapid throttle movements and distortion of the turbine casings after a short period of service. The problems delayed 747 deliveries for several months; up to 20 aircraft at the Everett plant were stranded while awaiting engine installation. The program was further delayed when one of the five test aircraft suffered serious damage during a landing attempt at Renton Municipal Airport, the site of Boeing's Renton factory. The incident happened on December 13, 1969, when a test aircraft was flown to Renton to have test equipment removed and a cabin installed. Pilot Ralph C. Cokely undershot the airport's short runway and the 747's right, outer landing gear was torn off and two engine nacelles were damaged. However, these difficulties did not prevent Boeing from taking a test aircraft to the 28th Paris Air Show in mid-1969, where it was displayed to the public for the first time. Finally, in December 1969, the 747 received its FAA airworthiness certificate, clearing it for introduction into service. Pan Am introduced the first 747 service the following year on January 22, 1970.

The huge cost of developing the 747 and building the Everett factory meant that Boeing had to borrow heavily from a banking syndicate. During the final months before delivery of the first aircraft, the company had to repeatedly request additional funding to complete the project. Had this been refused, Boeing's survival would have been threatened. The firm's debt exceeded $2 billion, with $1.2 billion owed to the banks setting a record for all companies. Allen later said, "It was really too large a project for us." Ultimately, the gamble succeeded, and Boeing held a monopoly in very large passenger aircraft production for many years.

Improved versions

After the initial 747-100, Boeing developed the -100B, a higher maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) variant, and the -100SR (Short Range), with higher passenger capacity. Increased maximum takeoff weight allows aircraft to carry more fuel and have longer range. The -200 model followed in 1971, featuring more powerful engines and a higher MTOW. Passenger, freighter and combination passenger-freighter versions of the -200 were produced. The shortened 747SP (special performance) with a longer range was also developed, and entered service in 1976.

Boeing primarily focused on improving payload capabilities during the development and testing of the 747-200 and its subvariants in the 1970s. Weight trials were conducted between October and November of 1970 at Edwards Air Force Base with the prototype 747-200B, which reached a maximum takeoff weight of 820,700 pounds (372.3 t) during a test flight on November 12. At that time, the aircraft held the record for the heaviest takeoff weight until heavier and more powerful 747-200 airframes were built. On November 1, 1976, the first RB211-powered 747-200 set a world record for maximum mass lifted during a trial flight at NAS Lemoore, where it flew up to 6,562 feet (2,000 meters) with a weight of 840,500 pounds (381.2 t).

The 747 line was further developed with the launch of the 747-300 on June 11, 1980, followed by interest from Swissair a month later and the go-ahead for the project. The 300 series resulted from Boeing studies to increase the seating capacity of the 747, during which modifications such as fuselage plugs and extending the upper deck over the entire length of the fuselage were rejected. The first 747-300, completed in 1983, included a stretched upper deck, increased cruise speed, and increased seating capacity. The -300 variant was previously designated 747SUD for stretched upper deck, then 747-200 SUD, followed by 747EUD, before the 747-300 designation was used. Passenger, short range and combination freighter-passenger versions of the 300 series were produced.

Throughout the early 1980s, Boeing faced criticism from customers who expressed frustration over Boeing's incremental approach to the 747's development, pointing out that previous 747 variants were developed merely as derivatives of the original 747-100 from the late 1960s, with improvements focused on one area of the design (i.e. payload for the 747-200, range for the 747SP and later 747-200 models, passenger capacity for the 747-300), rather than as complete revamps of the original design that incorporated newer technologies of the decade to update systems and performance; in an effort to save on Boeing's total development costs across all aircraft types, the finance department disallowed the design team from proposing major changes to the 747. The demand for a modernized 747 with newer technologies intensified after the publication of an interview with Lufthansa's then-deputy chairman, Reinhardt Abraham, on the May 28, 1984, issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology, which stated:

Boeing is working on all of the proposed improvements but Lufthansa is concerned that they will make them available in a piecemeal fashion. Abraham said this would increase the development cost, which will be passed along to the airlines, and result in airlines operating a fleet of 747 aircraft that have little remaining commonality. "We don't like the piecemeal approach," Abraham said. "We want one full package on the airplane. It would be a big incentive for new orders."

After the publication of Abraham's Aviation Week & Space Technology interview, more airlines became vocal about expressing their demands for a modernized 747, to which Boeing responded by launching the development of the longer-range 747-400 in October 1985. This variant had a new glass cockpit, which allowed for a cockpit crew of two instead of three, new engines, lighter construction materials, and a redesigned interior. Development costs soared, and production delays occurred as new technologies were incorporated at the request of airlines. Insufficient workforce experience and reliance on overtime contributed to early production problems on the 747-400. The -400 entered service in 1989.

The 747 remained the heaviest commercial aircraft in regular service until the debut of the Antonov An-124 Ruslan in 1982; variants of the 747-400 surpassed the An-124's weight in 2000. The Antonov An-225 Mriya cargo transport, which debuted in 1988, remains the world's largest aircraft by several measures (including the most accepted measures of maximum takeoff weight and length); one aircraft has been completed and was in service until 2022 when it was destroyed. The Scaled Composites Stratolaunch is currently the largest aircraft by wingspan.

Further development

Interior view. Seats are separated by two aisles, in 3–4–3 configuration. A TV is positioned towards the front of aircraft.

747-400 main deck economy class seating in 3–4–3 layout

After the arrival of the 747-400, several stretching schemes for the 747 were proposed. Boeing announced the larger 747-500X and -600X preliminary designs in 1996. The new variants would have cost more than US$5 billion, and interest was not sufficient to continue. In 2000, Boeing offered the more modest 747X and 747X stretch derivatives as alternatives to the Airbus A38X. However, the 747X family was unable to attract enough interest to enter production. A year later, Boeing switched from the 747X studies to pursue the Sonic Cruiser, and after the Sonic Cruiser program was put on hold, the 787 Dreamliner. Some of the ideas developed for the 747X were used on the 747-400ER, a longer range variant of the 747-400.

After several variants were proposed but abandoned, some industry observers became skeptical of new aircraft proposals from Boeing. However, in early 2004, Boeing announced plans for the 747 Advanced that were eventually adopted. Similar in nature to the 747-X, the stretched 747 Advanced used technology from the 787 to modernize the design and its systems. The 747 remained the largest passenger airliner in service until the Airbus A380 began airline service in 2007.

A Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental for Lufthansa

A Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental of Lufthansa

On November 14, 2005, Boeing announced it was launching the 747 Advanced as the Boeing 747-8. The last 747-400s were completed in 2009. As of 2011, most orders of the 747-8 were for the freighter variant. On February 8, 2010, the 747-8 Freighter made its maiden flight. The first delivery of the 747-8 went to Cargolux in 2011. The first 747-8 Intercontinental passenger variant was delivered to Lufthansa on May 5, 2012. The 1,500th Boeing 747 was delivered in June 2014 to Lufthansa.

In January 2016, Boeing stated it was reducing 747-8 production to six per year beginning in September 2016, incurring a $569 million post-tax charge against its fourth-quarter 2015 profits. At the end of 2015, the company had 20 orders outstanding. On January 29, 2016, Boeing announced that it had begun the preliminary work on the modifications to a commercial 747-8 for the next Air Force One presidential aircraft, then expected to be operational by 2020.

On July 12, 2016, Boeing announced that it had finalized an order from Volga-Dnepr Group for 20 747-8 freighters, valued at $7.58 billion (~$Template:Format price in Template:Inflation/year) at list prices. Four aircraft were delivered beginning in 2012. Volga-Dnepr Group is the parent of three major Russian air-freight carriers – Volga-Dnepr Airlines, AirBridgeCargo Airlines and Atran Airlines. The new 747-8 freighters would replace AirBridgeCargo's current 747-400 aircraft and expand the airline's fleet and will be acquired through a mix of direct purchases and leasing over the next six years, Boeing said.

End of production

On July 27, 2016, in its quarterly report to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Boeing discussed the termination of 747 production due to insufficient demand. With a firm order backlog of 21 aircraft and a production rate of six per year, program accounting had been reduced to 1,555 aircraft. In October 2016, UPS Airlines ordered 14 -8Fs to add capacity, with options for 14, added in February 2018 to increase the total to 28 -8Fs on order. The backlog then stood at 25 aircraft, though several of these were orders from airlines that no longer intended to take delivery.

On July 2, 2020, it was reported that Boeing planned to end 747 production in 2022 upon delivery of the remaining jets for UPS and the Volga-Dnepr Group, due to low demand. On July 29, 2020, Boeing confirmed that the final 747 would be delivered in 2022 as a result of "current market dynamics and outlook" stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to CEO David Calhoun. The last aircraft, a 747-8F for Atlas Air registered N863GT, rolled off the production line on December 6, 2022, and was delivered on January 31, 2023. Boeing hosted an event at the Everett factory for thousands of workers as well as industry executives to commemorate the delivery.

Design

File:Boeing 747-100 3-view.png

Three-view diagram of the original 747-100, showing its general configuration maintained in later variants

For design details of a particular generation, see Boeing 747-400, 747-8, and 747SP.

File:Air New Zealand Boeing 747-400 (ZK-SUH) arrives London Heathrow 17Oct2010 arp.jpg

Front view showing the triple-slotted trailing edge flaps

The 747 is a large, wide-body (two-aisle) airliner with four wing-mounted engines. Its wings have a high sweep angle of 37.5° for a fast, efficient cruise speed of Mach 0.84 to 0.88, depending on the variant. The sweep also reduces the wingspan, allowing the 747 to use existing hangars. Its seating capacity is over 366 with a 3–4–3 seat arrangement (two aisles with three seats on each side and four seats in the middle) in economy class and a 2–3–2 layout in first class on the main deck. The upper deck has a 3–3 seat arrangement in economy class and a 2–2 layout in first class. Lavatories for later passenger models built from the 1980s onwards could be placed anywhere in the cabin through the installation of a central waste disposal system, dubbed the "sewer system", powered by an electric pump to provide suction. The "sewer system" was proposed by KLM chief engineer Gerald Lamb and initially tested on the Boeing 767 before its installation on 747s.

Seated 2 ft 7 in (0.79 m) above the floor of the main deck, the cockpit creates a hump. This raised cockpit allows front loading of cargo on freight variants. The upper deck behind the cockpit provides space for a lounge and/or extra seating. Some operators also configured the upper deck with features other than passenger seating or lounges, such as the Skybeds of Philippine Airlines' 747-200Bs, which provided passengers with genuine beds fitted with seatbelts, enabling them to sleep during long-haul sectors. The "stretched upper deck" became available as an alternative on the 747-100B variant and later as a standard configuration beginning with the 747-300. The upper deck was stretched further on the 747-8. The 747 cockpit roof section also has an escape hatch, from which the cockpit crew can exit during an emergency if they cannot do so through the cabin. An inertial reel attached to a cable is provided for each crew member to hold onto while exiting through the hatch and sliding down to the ground.

The 747's maximum takeoff weight ranges from 735,000 pounds (333 t) for the -100 to 970,000 pounds (440 t) for the -8. Its range has increased from 5,300 nautical miles (9,800 km; 6,100 mi) on the -100 to 8,000 nautical miles (15,000 km; 9,200 mi) on the -8I.

The 747 has redundant structures along with four redundant hydraulic systems and four main landing gears each with four wheels; these provide good support on the ground and safety in case of tire blow-outs. The main gear are redundant so that landing can be performed on two opposing landing gears if the others are not functioning properly. The 747 also has split control surfaces and was designed with sophisticated triple-slotted flaps that minimize landing speeds and allow the 747 to use standard-length runways.

The undercarriage comprises a twin-wheeled nose gear and four sets of four-wheeled main gear bogies, two on the wing roots and two beneath the main fuselage. The bogies on the main fuselage are positioned behind the wing to accommodate heavy payloads and balance the load away from the nose gear, especially during takeoff and landing. The ground steering system of the landing gear is designed to enable the fuselage side bogies to move in concert with the nose gear. All the tires on the landing gear are tubeless and identical in size to facilitate interchangeability. Wheels on the main gear units of Classic variants were fitted with anti-skid disc brakes. The 747-400 later introduced carbon brakes and provided instrumentation that enabled the cockpit panel to display tire pressure values.

To transport spare engines, the 747 can accommodate a non-functioning fifth-pod engine under the aircraft's port wing between the inner functioning engine and the fuselage. Use of the fifth engine pod increases drag on the left side of the aircraft, which pilots need to compensate for by maintaining a consistent heading. When Air India Flight 182, operated by a 747-237B named Emperor Kanishka, broke apart over the Atlantic Ocean while ferrying a fifth engine on a scheduled flight from Montréal to London's Heathrow Airport on June 23, 1985, investigators considered the fifth engine pod a potential threat to the structural integrity of the 747's airframe. It was eventually ruled out as a cause of the crash after evaluation of the aircraft's flight data recorder (FDR) found no anomalies in the aircraft's handling, and the incident was revealed to have been caused by a terrorist bombing. The fifth engine mount point was used by Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne program to carry an orbital-class rocket to cruise altitude where it was deployed.

Internally, the 747 Classic variants, comprising the -100/200/300/SP, were designed to be flown by two pilots and a flight engineer relying on then-innovative electro-mechanical analog instruments for flight operations, which are either dual or triple redundant. Specifications of individual aircraft were delivered in accordance with the requests of their respective customers, who were given the option to customize cockpit layouts through means such as choosing to install either dial or tape-style gauges. The introduction of digital cockpit displays on the 747-400 later gave pilots the option to choose between displaying either dial or tape-style indicators by programming the display driver without the need to reinstrument the cockpit as was done for the Classic variants' analog cockpits. Unlike the earlier 707, the 747 did not need a navigator in the cockpit, as it was the first commercial aircraft to utilize an inertial navigation system (INS). Among the other advanced technologies included in the 747 were an autothrottle for automatic airspeed control and a performance management system (PMS).

The 747-400, launched in October 1985, replaced analog instruments with electronic flight instrument systems (EFIS) similar to those of the Boeing 757 and 767. These technologies reduced the number of cockpit instruments to 300 indicators and 200 switches from the nearly 690 dials and lights and 280 switches found in Classic variants, and they also enabled the -400 to be manned by two pilots, eliminating the flight engineer's position of previous variants.

On average, a 747 Classic airframe has approximately 135 mi (215 km) of electrical wiring and 1 mi (1.6 km) of hydraulics to power its systems. The wiring was reduced by about 30% for the 747-400.

Operational history

Commercial service

Passenger operators

File:Pat Nixon christens Boeing 747 2749-18.jpg

First Lady Pat Nixon christened the first commercial 747 on January 15, 1970.

On January 15, 1970, First Lady Pat Nixon christened Pan Am's first 747 at Dulles International Airport in the presence of Pan Am chairman Najeeb Halaby. Instead of champagne, red, white, and blue water was sprayed on the aircraft.

The 747 entered service on January 22, 1970, on Pan Am's New York–London route. The flight had been planned for the evening of January 21, but engine overheating made the original aircraft (Clipper Young America, registration N735PA) unusable. Finding a substitute delayed the flight by more than six hours to the following day when Clipper Victor (registration N736PA) was used. The 747 enjoyed a fairly smooth introduction into service, overcoming concerns that some airports would not be able to accommodate an aircraft that large. Although technical problems occurred, they were relatively minor and quickly solved. Pan Am soon expanded its network of transatlantic 747 operations to various destinations in Europe, namely Amsterdam, Barcelona, Brussels, Frankfurt, Lisbon, Paris, and Rome, from hubs in New York and London's Heathrow Airport before commencing transpacific operations from Los Angeles and San Francisco to Honolulu, Hong Kong, and Tokyo once enough aircraft were delivered. The Los Angeles and San Francisco hubs were connected to London and Paris via polar routes, and Pan Am 747s also flew from Chicago to Frankfurt and London and from New York to San Juan.

After the aircraft's introduction with launch customer Pan Am in 1970, other airlines that had bought the 747 to stay competitive began to put their own 747s into service. Within months after the inaugural 747 service, Pan Am faced competition on international routes from other US-based carriers, specifically Trans World Airlines (TWA) on transatlantic routes and Northwest Airlines on transpacific routes. TWA initially commenced 747 operations on its domestic network with a New York–Los Angeles service before placing the type into service on its New York–London route in March 1970, while Northwest commenced 747 services between New York, Chicago, Seattle, and Tokyo that same year in July. Pan Am also competed with foreign carriers such as Air France, Japan Airlines, and Lufthansa within the first year of 747 service.

Within the United States, the 747 was introduced on domestic routes. American Airlines introduced the 747-100 on the New York–Los Angeles route in March 1970, using aircraft leased from Pan Am, as American's own 747 fleet was not delivered from Boeing until later in the year. Braniff International Airways, Continental Airlines, Delta Airlines, Eastern Airlines, National Airlines, and United Airlines soon inaugurated their own domestic services with 747s between 1970 and 1971.

Boeing estimated that half of the early 747 sales were to airlines desiring the aircraft's long range rather than its payload capacity. While the 747 had the lowest potential operating cost per seat, this could only be achieved when the aircraft was fully loaded; costs per seat increased rapidly as occupancy declined. A moderately loaded 747, one with only 70 percent of its seats occupied, used more than 95 percent of the fuel needed by a fully occupied 747. Nonetheless, many flag-carriers purchased the 747 due to its prestige, "even if it made no sense economically" to operate. During the 1970s and 1980s, over 30 regularly scheduled 747s could often be seen at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The recession of 1969–1970, despite having been characterized as relatively mild, greatly affected Boeing. For the year and a half after September 1970, it only sold two 747s in the world, both to Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus. No 747s were sold to any American carrier for almost three years. When economic problems in the US and other countries after the 1973 oil crisis led to reduced passenger traffic, several airlines found they did not have enough passengers to fly the 747 economically, and they replaced them with the smaller and recently introduced McDonnell Douglas DC-10 and Lockheed L-1011 TriStar trijet wide bodies (and later the 767 and Airbus A300/A310 twinjets). Having tried replacing coach seats on its 747s with piano bars in an attempt to attract more customers, American Airlines eventually relegated its 747s to cargo service and, in 1983, exchanged them with Pan Am for smaller aircraft; Continental Airlines and Delta Airlines also removed their 747-100s from service not long after their introduction and replaced them with DC-10s and L-1011s, respectively, but both airlines would later reacquire 747s and continue operating them through mergers with other carriers. Continental operated the 747-100 again after merging with PEOPLExpress in 1987, while Delta acquired the 747-400 fleet of Northwest Airlines as part of their merger in 2008, although Delta retired the -400s in December 2017.

File:Boeing 747 JAL.jpg

A Boeing 747 Classic of Japan Airlines, the type's all-time largest operator, over Mount Fuji, c. 1970s.

The 747 saw the most success as the primary long-haul aircraft for airlines operating in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, where it had been introduced by airlines based in those regions within its first year of service in 1970. Lufthansa became the first European operator of the 747 and the first carrier outside the United States to inaugurate 747 services when its first 747-100 was delivered on March 10, 1970, and entered service on the Frankfurt–New York route the following month, replacing the smaller 707s that were previously flown. Japan Airlines commenced 747 operations in June 1970 with routes between Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Los Angeles, making it the first Asian operator of the 747. Air India followed Japan Airlines as the second Asian operator of the 747 with the acquisition of 747-200s in 1971 as replacements for older 707s on the airline's routes to London and New York. By 1971, more European carriers like Aer Lingus, British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), and Sabena, had acquired their own fleets of 747-100s, and European airlines that had previously not purchased any Boeing aircraft, such as Alitalia, KLM, and Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), chose the 747 as their first Boeing aircraft to remain competitive on long-haul routes. KLM, the launch customer of the improved 747-200B variant introduced in February 1971, had formed the KSSU consortium in 1968 with SAS, Swissair, and Union de Transports Aériens (UTA) to provide a maintenance and training pool for 747 operators while providing technical advice for the 747's development.

The 747 mainly appealed to Asian and European operators due to having more range than its contemporaries, the DC-10 and L-1011. Partly in response to accidents involving the DC-10 and the grounding of DC-10 fleets around the world in 1979, some airlines, such as Air New Zealand, Alitalia, and Singapore Airlines, completely replaced their DC-10s with 747s for fleet standardisation and deployed the latter on routes previously assigned to the former; Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) traded its remaining DC-10s with Canadian Pacific Air Lines (also known as CP Air) for the latter airline's 747-200s in 1986. Other airlines maintained fleets of smaller widebody types as complements to the 747 and assigned them to routes that either had airports too small to accommodate the 747 or did not have enough passenger traffic to fill a 747, as was the case for operators like Japan Airlines, KLM, Northwest Airlines, and Philippine Airlines that expanded their 747 fleets while simultaneously operating DC-10s during the 1980s. L-1011s were also operated alongside 747s in the fleets of airlines like Air Canada, All Nippon Airways (ANA), British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Saudia, and TWA, while airlines such as Air France, Alitalia, Garuda Indonesia, Korean Air, Lufthansa, Malaysia Airlines, South African Airways, and Thai Airways operated A300s together with their 747s. In much rarer cases observed during the 1980s, there were airlines whose widebody fleets were purely composed of 747s until the introduction of other types, examples including Aerolineas Argentinas, Air India, Avianca, and Qantas.

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747s at Honolulu International Airport in 1981. The 747 was a common sight at airports along the Pacific Ocean.

Many international carriers used the 747 on Pacific routes, while ANA and Japan Airlines deployed short-range 747 models on Japanese domestic routes. 747s specially designed for short-haul operations were offered to ANA and Japan Airlines as a response to the rapid growth of Japanese domestic traffic in the late 1960s, which had reached an average domestic load factor of 85% by 1970 and could not be efficiently addressed by smaller Boeing 727s and Douglas DC-8s that were then in operation with the two airlines. The original series of aircraft, known as the 747SR and based on the 747-100, was configured to carry over 550 people, close to the maximum passenger capacity.

The 747's prominence at airports in the Asia-Pacific region was noticed by its chief designer, Joe Sutter, who frequently traveled to Asia on business trips during his lifetime and wrote about his habit of watching 747s at airports beginning in the mid-1980s. On one such trip to Japan, he recalled counting 55 747s at Narita International Airport in Tokyo while waiting for his flight home, remarking in his autobiography that the 747s "clustered as thickly as single-aisle 737s do at U.S. airports." Sutter estimated that, assuming each 747 was at most 75% occupied, they carried as many as 20,000 people within the two hours he spent watching 747s arrive at Narita Airport.

International flights bypassing traditional hub airports and landing at smaller cities became more common throughout the 1980s, thus eroding the 747's original market. Airlines leased additional 747s to accommodate increased passenger flow between destinations during special occasions. For instance, airlines in Muslim-majority countries like Garuda Indonesia leased additional 747s for flights to Jeddah during the annual Hajj pilgrimage.

Freighter operators

Just as the design team had envisioned, the 747 also saw use as a freighter. Its design enabled not only the assembly of dedicated freighter aircraft but also the conversion of surplus airframes that were no longer wanted by passenger airlines, as the design team expected during its development that 747s would see more frequent usage as freighters as demand for passenger-carrying 747s would wane.

However, while the design team assumed that this decrease in demand for passenger 747s would come as a result of increased interest in the supersonic airliners in development at the time, such as Concorde and the cancelled Boeing 2707, this ultimately did not happen; instead, this decrease was caused by the introduction of ETOPS-capable widebody twinjets from the 1980s to the 2000s, such as the Airbus A310 and A330 and Boeing's own 767, 777, and 787, which were more efficient to operate than the trijets and quadjets which preceded them. Indeed, tri- and quadjet designs from the same era - including the Airbus A380, which was designed to compete directly with the 747 - struggled to reach commercial success.

Dedicated freighter variants were typically assembled with an upward-opening hinged nose and a side cargo door for freight loading, while conversions on former passenger airframes only added the side cargo door and reinforced the main deck floor while removing seats, galleys, toilets, overhead baggage stowage, and other passenger accommodations.

The first dedicated freighter variant was the 747-200F introduced by Lufthansa Cargo (then an in-house division of Lufthansa), which took delivery of the first -200F on March 9, 1972. Lufthansa Cargo was the sole operator of the type until Air France, Japan Airlines, and Seaboard World Airlines followed with their own orders for 747-200Fs in 1974. Around this time, the first conversion from a passenger airframe was conducted in 1974 at Boeing's Wichita plant on an ex-American Airlines 747-100 acquired by Flying Tiger Line. Within the decade, Boeing Wichita performed freighter conversions on ex-passenger 747-100s operated by American Airlines, Pan Am, and the Imperial Iranian Air Force (IIAF).

By the 1990s, many older 747s that had been phased out from the fleets of passenger airlines found themselves in the hands of cargo operators who needed them to transport heavy freight loads across long distances. They became a favored choice of aircraft for small cargo carriers at the time, particularly those in the United States, such as Atlas Air, Kalitta Air, and Southern Air Transport.

Government and military service

United States

United States Air Force

See also: Boeing E-4 and Boeing VC-25

File:Fuel on the go (7277495).jpg

E-4B airborne command post as seen from a KC-135 tanker

The United States Air Force (USAF) operates specially designed variants of the Boeing 747 for its purposes, namely the E-4B airborne command posts of the National Emergency Airborne Command Post (NEACP) program and the VC-25 presidential transports. Both aircraft were developed as replacements for KC-135/707 derivatives that previously performed their respective roles, with the E-4 replacing the EC-135 in 1973 and the VC-25 replacing the VC-137C in 1990.

The first three E-4 airframes were initially designated E-4A and delivered between June 1973 and October 1974 with almost the same equipment as the EC-135, albeit with minor updates. In May 1975, the fourth aircraft was delivered as the updated E-4B, which introduced a super-high-frequency (SHF) satellite antenna mounted on the upper deck roof among other upgrades. Its design, however, was not finalized until January 1980. The first three aircraft were subsequently updated to E-4B specifications between 1983 and 1985.

File:Members of the 372nd Transportation, 101st Airborne Division, disembark a 747 Flying Tiger aircraft during exercise Ocean Venture '82 - DPLA - 19128c7c75bd888955472aedd85559fa.jpeg

U.S. Army infantrymen of the 101st Airborne Division disembarking from a Flying Tiger Line Boeing 747-200F deployed at Roosevelt Roads Naval Station for Exercise Ocean Venture, 1982.

Aside from the variants developed specifically for the USAF, some civilian 747s were chartered for USAF missions. One of the earliest deployments of civilian 747s into military service was Operation Babylift, the mass evacuation of South Vietnamese children to the United States during the closing stages of the Vietnam War. On April 5, 1975, two 747s of Pan Am were privately chartered to assist USAF Military Airlift Command (MAC) transport aircraft in carrying 728 children from Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Saigon to the US West Coast, with one aircraft going to San Francisco and the other to Seattle.Template:Reference page Seven days later on April 12, a World Airways 747-200C (all of World Airways' 747s at that time were 747-200C models) was chartered to transport 329 children who had been left behind in Clark Air Base in Angeles City, Philippines, to Los Angeles.Template:Reference page

Pan Am 747s would again see military service one more time after Operation Babylift and before the airline ceased operations in 1991, this time as volunteer aircraft for the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) during the 1980s and 1990s. Between 1985 and 1990, 19 of Pan Am's 747s, comprising 15 747-100s and 4 747-200Bs, were converted at Boeing Wichita for CRAF use as either troop transports or freighters in the event of a national emergency. Much like the 747-200C variant, the modified 747s, which were given the USAF designation C-19A, could be converted between passenger and freighter configurations, which was made possible by the installation of strengthened floor beams and a side cargo door aft of the left wing. The fuselage reinforcements and additional cargo door on the main deck added 13,000 pounds (5.9 t) to the empty weight of each aircraft, prompting the USAF to pay compensation for the increased weight whenever these aircraft were used on Pan Am's commercial flights. Three Pan Am aircraft were notably deployed along with 747s of Northwest Airlines as troop transports for Operation Desert Storm in 1990. Although none of the Pan Am 747s were destroyed during combat missions, one of the converted aircraft, a 747-121 named Clipper Maid of the Seas, was lost to a terrorist bomb attack while flying over Lockerbie, Scotland, as Pan Am Flight 103, a scheduled commercial flight, on December 21, 1988.

Although Boeing had attempted to convince to USAF to buy its own dedicated fleet of 747 freighters in two separate instances between the 1980s and 1990s, it rejected these in favor of additional Lockheed C-5s and, later, Boeing C-17s. The USAF did, however, charter 747s from airlines like Evergreen International Airlines, Flying Tiger Line, and Tower Air to conduct transport missions to overseas bases outside the United States.

NASA

Main articles: Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy

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Shuttle Carrier Aircraft N905NA releasing the Space Shuttle Enterprise for a free flight test in 1977. N905NA is seen here partially painted in its former American Airlines livery with NASA titles.

File:The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA).jpg

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA)

The 747 participated in the American space program through NASA's usage of two secondhand 747s, comprising one 747-100 from American Airlines and one 747SR from Japan Airlines, as the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) and one ex-Pan Am 747SP as the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA).

The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft was proposed as a solution to the logistical challenges of transporting Space Shuttle orbiters after each mission across the continental United States from their landing site in Edwards Air Force Base in California to the launch site in Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The proposal materialized when the first airframe, an ex-American Airlines 747-123 registered as N905NA and previously used for vortex flow research, was converted by Boeing with components developed at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center to enable the mounting and dismounting of the shuttle orbiters from the top of the aircraft's fuselage. From February 18 to August 13, 1977, the aircraft was deployed on a three-phase series of flights to test its handling with the Space Shuttle Enterprise mounted on top, with the third flight being the first of five involving the release of a manned shuttle from the 747 in mid-air to enable the former to enter free flight and have its flight characteristics evaluated while the Shuttle crew glided back to Edwards Air Force Base. Once the test flights concluded, N905NA was used to perform its originally proposed purpose of ferrying Space Shuttles between their landing and launch sites. In 1988, it was accompanied by a second aircraft, a 747SR-46 acquired from Japan Airlines and re-registered as N911NA in NASA service; N911NA was also the first production 747SR and had been delivered to Japan Airlines in 1973 to operate on its domestic routes.

In 1997, NASA acquired an ex-Pan Am 747SP-21, named Clipper Lindbergh in honor of Charles Lindbergh, for use as the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). The aircraft was modified by Raytheon with an 18 ft × 13.5 ft (5.5 m × 4.1 m) door on the left side of the fuselage to accommodate a large reflector telescope, which was assembled in Germany and shipped to the United States for mounting on the airframe in 2004. The aircraft was operational with the telescope by 2010 and conducted a series of observatory flights until its retirement in 2022 due to rising operational costs. The aircraft currently survives in preservation at the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona.

Iran

File:IIAF Boeing 707 refuels IIAF Boeing 747.jpg

Imperial Iranian Air Force (IIAF) Boeing 747-100F refueling from a KC-707 tanker.

The only air force with its own dedicated fleet of 747 freighters was the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF), formerly known as the Imperial Iranian Air Force (IIAF). In 1975, the IIAF acquired twelve passenger 747s, comprising nine ex-TWA 747-131s and three ex-Continental Airlines 747-124s, for conversion into freighters. All but one of the ex-TWA aircraft were converted, with three of them undergoing additional conversions into aerial refueling tankers, which were designated KC-747 and based on specifications for Boeing's entry into the USAF's Advanced Cargo Transport Aircraft (ACTA) program for a new tanker aircraft that ultimately chose the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 as the basis for the proposed tanker, later designated KC-10. The only ex-TWA airframe not converted, registration serial N93119, was instead returned to TWA in 1976 and continued its service as a passenger airliner for another 20 years until it crashed as TWA Flight 800. The ex-Continental Airlines aircraft, of which only one was converted into a freighter, also did not last long in the IIAF inventory and were all back in service with civilian operators by 1978. The IIAF later ordered five brand new 747-2J9Fs, of which only four were delivered between December 1977 and October 1978. The fifth -200F, which was first flown on September 17, 1979, was not delivered to the IIAF due to political tensions between the US and Iran after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. It was instead kept by Boeing until its delivery as a civilian freighter for Northwest Airlines on September 15, 1983. The rest of the 747s remained in the inventory of Iran's air force, by then renamed the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF), although some aircraft were transferred to Iran Air.

File:Boeing 747-100 of IRIAF taking off from Mehrabad with 2 on the ground.jpg

A Boeing 747-100 of the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF) taking off in front of two other IRIAF 747s parked on the apron at Mehrabad International Airport.

During their service, the Iranian 747s were primarily used to carry troops and cargo, as well as the royal family prior to their overthrow. Their duties remained almost the same after Iran's change of administration. While the nature of the IRIAF 747s' missions was not fully known outside of Iran during their early years in service, they were reported to have been deployed in conflicts such as the Iran–Iraq War, most notably in the H-3 airstrike of 1981 where a KC-747 provided aerial refueling for McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II and Grumman F-14 Tomcat fighter aircraft while another 747 acted as an airborne command post.

Eventually, the aircraft that remained operational in the 2020s were claimed to have been destroyed by the air forces of the US and Israel. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) claimed the destruction of the last KC-747 tanker during Operation Rising Lion in June 2025, while US missile strikes in March 2026 reportedly destroyed the last operational IRIAF 747-100F, which also happened to be the last operational 747-100 in the world at the time.

Other users

The Israeli Air Force (IAF) was also among the air forces that chartered 747s for transport and notably set a record in 1991, when 1,087 passengers were flown in an El Al 747-200C during Operation Solomon, a covert operation to airlift Ethiopian Jews from Addis Ababa to Tel Aviv; two other El Al 747s were also deployed in the operation, carrying 920 passengers each. The record set by the El Al 747-200C exceeded the maximum capacity of the 747-400, which typically carried between 416 and 524 passengers, and also broke a record previously held on December 29, 1974, by a Qantas 747-238B, named City of Melbourne, which carried 674 passengers, comprising 306 adults, 328 children, and 40 infants, from Darwin to Sydney following the devastation of Cyclone Tracy.

Other air forces have used 747s for the transport of government officials and other VIPs.

Variants

The 747-100 with a range of 4,620 nautical miles (8,556 km), was the original variant launched in 1966. The 747-200 soon followed, with its launch in 1968 and the shorter 747SP launched in 1973. The 747-300 was launched in 1980 and was followed by the 747-400 in 1985. Ultimately, the 747-8 was announced in 2005. Several versions of each variant have been produced, and many of the early variants were in production simultaneously. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) classifies variants using a shortened code formed by combining the model number and the variant designator (e.g. "B741" for all -100 models).

747-100

File:Boeing 747-121, Pan American World Airways - Pan Am AN1915191.jpg

The original 747-100 has a short upper deck with three windows per side; Pan Am introduced it on January 22, 1970

The first 747-100s were built with six upper deck windows (three per side) to accommodate upstairs lounge areas. Later, as airlines began to use the upper deck for premium passenger seating instead of lounge space, Boeing offered an upper deck with ten windows on either side as an option, which was first applied on airframes built for United Airlines. Some early -100s were retrofitted with the new configuration. The -100 was equipped with Pratt & Whitney JT9D engines and was compatible with the JT9D-1, -3, -3A, -3W, -7, and -7W variants. No freighter or combi versions of this model were developed, but many 747-100s were converted into freighters designated 747-100(SF), the first of which was delivered to Flying Tiger Line in 1974, while Sabena converted their pair of 747-100s in April 1974 with a combi configuration to carry both passengers and freight on the main deck in response to increased freight loads and minimal passenger demand on the airline's Brussels to New York route. A total of 168 747-100s were built; 167 were delivered to customers, while Boeing kept the prototype, City of Everett. In 1972, its unit cost was US$24 million (Template:Inflation million today).

747SR

Responding to requests from Japanese airlines for a high-capacity aircraft to serve domestic routes between major cities, Boeing developed the 747SR as a short-range version of the 747-100 with lower fuel capacity and greater payload capability. With increased economy class seating, up to 498 passengers could be carried in early versions and up to 550 in later models. Intended for shorter routes and thus more turn arounds, the 747SR had an economic design life objective of 52,000 flights during 20 years of operation, compared to 24,600 flights in 20 years for the standard 747. The initial 747SR model, the -100SR, had a strengthened body structure and landing gear to accommodate the added stress accumulated from a greater number of takeoffs and landings. Extra structural support was built into the wings, fuselage, and the landing gear along with a 20% reduction in fuel capacity.

File:JA8170 B747-146SR SUD JAL Japan Airlines HND 23MAY03 (8473400794).jpg

One of the two 747-100BSR with the stretched upper deck (SUD) made for JAL

The initial order for the -100SR – four aircraft for Japan Air Lines (JAL, later Japan Airlines) – was announced on October 30, 1972; rollout occurred on August 3, 1973, and the first flight took place on August 31, 1973. The type was certified by the FAA on September 26, 1973, with the first delivery on the same day. The -100SR entered service with JAL, the type's sole customer, on October 7, 1973, and typically operated flights within Japan. Seven -100SRs were built between 1973 and 1975, each with a 520,000-pound (240 t) MTOW and Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7A engines derated to 43,000 pounds-force (190 kN) of thrust.

Following the -100SR, Boeing produced the -100BSR, a 747SR variant with increased takeoff weight capability. Debuting in 1978, the -100BSR also incorporated structural modifications for a high cycle-to-flying hour ratio; a related standard -100B model debuted in 1979. The -100BSR first flew on November 3, 1978, with first delivery to All Nippon Airways (ANA) on December 21, 1978. A total of 20 -100BSRs were produced for ANA and JAL. The -100BSR had a 600,000 pounds (270 t) MTOW and was powered by the same JT9D-7A or General Electric CF6-45 engines used on the -100SR. ANA operated this variant on domestic Japanese routes with 455 or 456 seats until retiring its last aircraft in March 2006.

In 1986, two -100BSR SUD models, featuring the stretched upper deck (SUD) of the -300, were produced for JAL. The type's maiden flight occurred on February 26, 1986, with FAA certification and first delivery on March 24, 1986. JAL operated the -100BSR SUD with 563 seats on domestic routes until their retirement in the third quarter of 2006. While only two -100BSR SUDs were produced, in theory, standard -100Bs can be modified to the SUD certification. Overall, 29 Boeing 747SRs were built.

747-100B

Top view of quadjet on apron

EP-IAM, the sole 747-100B of Iran Air and the last 747-100 in passenger service

The 747-100B model was developed from the -100SR, using its stronger airframe and landing gear design. The type had an increased fuel capacity of 48,070 US gal (182,000 L), allowing for a 5,000-nautical-mile (9,300 km; 5,800 mi) range with a typical 452-passenger payload, and an increased MTOW of 750,000 lb (340 t) was offered. The first -100B order, one aircraft for Iran Air, was announced on June 1, 1978. This version first flew on June 20, 1979, received FAA certification on August 1, 1979, and was delivered the next day. Nine -100Bs were built, one for Iran Air and eight for Saudi Arabian Airlines. Unlike the original -100, the -100B was offered with Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7A, CF6-50, or Rolls-Royce RB211-524 engines. However, only RB211-524 (Saudia) and JT9D-7A (Iran Air) engines were ordered. The last 747-100B, EP-IAM was retired by Iran Air in 2014, the last commercial operator of the 747-100 and -100B.

747SP

Main article: Boeing 747SP

Air Namibia 747SP on approach

The 747SP was the only 747 model with a shortened fuselage

The development of the 747SP stemmed from a joint request between Pan American World Airways and Iran Air, who were looking for a high-capacity airliner with enough range to cover Pan Am's New York–Middle Eastern routes and Iran Air's planned Tehran–New York route. The Tehran–New York route, when launched, was the longest non-stop commercial flight in the world. The 747SP is 48 feet 4 inches (14.73 m) shorter than the 747-100. Fuselage sections were eliminated fore and aft of the wing, and the center section of the fuselage was redesigned to fit mating fuselage sections. The SP's flaps used a simplified single-slotted configuration. The 747SP, compared to earlier variants, had a tapering of the aft upper fuselage into the empennage, a double-hinged rudder, and longer vertical and horizontal stabilizers. Power was provided by Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7(A/F/J/FW) or Rolls-Royce RB211-524 engines.

The 747SP was granted a type certificate on February 4, 1976, and entered service with launch customers Pan Am and Iran Air that same year. The aircraft was chosen by airlines wishing to serve major airports with short runways. A total of 45 747SPs were built, with the 44th 747SP delivered on August 30, 1982. In 1987, Boeing re-opened the 747SP production line after five years to build one last 747SP for an order by the United Arab Emirates government. In addition to airline use, one 747SP was modified for the NASA/German Aerospace Center SOFIA experiment. Iran Air, the last civil operator of the type, retired its final 747-SP (EP-IAC) in June 2016.

747-200

While the 747-100 powered by Pratt & Whitney JT9D-3A engines offered enough payload and range for medium-haul operations, it was marginal for long-haul route sectors. The demand for longer-range aircraft with increased payload quickly led to the improved -200, which featured more powerful engines, increased MTOW, and greater range than the -100. The 747-200 was produced in passenger (-200B), freighter (-200F), convertible (-200C), and combi (-200M) versions and was partly influenced by design inputs from the KSSU airline consortium comprising KLM, Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), Swissair, and Union de Transports Aériens (UTA).

Externally, the appearance of the 747-200 is identical to that of the earlier 747-100. A few -200s retained the early three-window configuration on the upper deck, but most were built with a ten-window configuration on each side starting with the 147th aircraft built, a 747-200B delivered to Qantas. Retrofits were also offered to apply the ten-window upper deck configuration on early 747s with the three-window configuration.

The 747-200B was the basic passenger version, with increased fuel capacity and more powerful engines. The prototype 747-200B, an airframe destined for Northwest Airlines (then known as Northwest Orient), was first flown on October 11, 1970, and received FAA certification three weeks before the first delivery was made on January 16, 1971, to launch customer KLM, which subsequently flew the type's first revenue service the following month on February 14 from Amsterdam to New York. In its first three years of production, the -200 was equipped with Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7 engines, initially the only engine available. The -200 was later made compatible with the JT9D-7J, -7Q, -7AW, -70A, and -7R4G2 variants throughout its production run. Range with a full passenger load started at over 5,000 nmi (9,300 km; 5,800 mi) and increased to 6,000 nmi (11,000 km; 6,900 mi) with later engines. Extra fuel tanks were installed on two of the 747-200Bs delivered to Japan Airlines in the 1980s to increase the fuel capacity from 158.8 to 164.1 short tons (144.1 to 148.9 t), enabling them to be used on the airline's nonstop flights between Tokyo and New York. Most -200Bs had an internally stretched upper deck, allowing for up to 16 passenger seats.

The freighter model, the 747-200F, had a hinged nose cargo door and could be fitted with an optional side cargo door, and had a capacity of 105 short tons (95 t) and an MTOW of up to 833,000 pounds (378 t). The 747-200F was first flown on October 14, 1971, and entered service with Lufthansa in March 1972. The convertible version, the 747-200C, could be converted between a passenger and a freighter or used in mixed configurations, and featured removable seats and a nose cargo door. The -200C could also be outfitted with an optional side cargo door on the main deck. The first -200C rolled out of Boeing's Everett factory on February 28, 1973, and made its maiden flight a month later before its delivery to launch customer World Airways on April 27. The 747-200C's unique feature proved to be beneficial for its operators in maintaining profitable 747 operations through switching between configurations depending on the flow of passenger and freight traffic on their networks. For instance, Martinair flew their 747-200Cs in the 1980s and 1990s as passenger aircraft in the summer and as freighters in the winter.

The combi aircraft model, the 747-200M (originally designated 747-200BC), was based on a configuration first applied in 1974 as a conversion for Sabena's 747-100 fleet and could carry freight in the rear section of the main deck via a side cargo door. A removable partition on the main deck separated the cargo area at the rear from the passengers at the front. The -200M could carry up to 238 passengers in a three-class configuration with cargo carried on the main deck. The model was also known as the 747-200 Combi. The first -200M made its maiden flight on November 18, 1974, and was delivered to Air Canada on March 7, 1975. As on the -100, a stretched upper deck (SUD) modification was later offered in the 1980s. Between September 1984 and March 1986, all ten of the CF6-powered 747-200s in KLM's fleet were converted with a process that involved removing half of the upper fuselage up to the leading edge of the wing, where the new SUD section would be installed. Two -200 airframes operated by UTA were also modified with the SUD conversion.

The -200 was the first 747 to provide a choice of powerplant from the three major engine manufacturers, namely Pratt & Whitney, General Electric, and Rolls-Royce. After launching the -200 with Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7 engines on August 1, 1972, Boeing announced that it had reached an agreement with General Electric to certify the 747 with CF6-50 series engines to increase the aircraft's market potential. The CF6-50 was initially tested on the prototype 747 before the first CF6-powered production airframe, a 747-200M, was delivered to KLM in October 1975. The 747-200 was compatible with the CF6-50D and CF6-50E variants. Rolls-Royce followed 747 engine production with the announcement of the RB211-524B engine as an option for the 747 on June 17, 1975, and a launch order from British Airways for four aircraft, the first of which was delivered to the airline on June 16, 1977. Installation of the RB211 on the 747 had been proposed early in the aircraft's development, around 1967 or 1968, to satisfy the demands of BOAC (later merged to form British Airways) for their aircraft to be powered by British-designed engines, but this was not fulfilled until the experimental Hyfil carbon fiber material, which was planned for use in the fan blade assembly, failed a critical test and was discarded in favor of convenetional all-metal materials. The first RB211-powered 747-200 made its maiden flight on September 3, 1976, and received FAA certification in May 1977. Specific variants of the RB211 that were compatible with the 747-200 included the RB211-524B2 and -524C2.

In 1976, its unit cost was US$39M (Template:InflationM today). A total of 393 of the 747-200 versions had been built when production ended in 1991. Of these, 225 were -200B, 73 were -200F, 13 were -200C, 78 were -200M, and 4 were military. Iran Air retired the last passenger 747-200 in May 2016, 36 years after it was delivered. As of July 2019, five 747-200s remain in service as freighters.

747-300

File:Swissair Boeing 747-357 HB-IGF "Zürich" (27487433646).jpg

A 747-300, displaying the stretched upper deck. Swissair took the first delivery on March 23, 1983.

The 747-300 features a 23-foot-4-inch-longer (7.11 m) upper deck than the -200. The stretched upper deck (SUD) has two emergency exit doors and is the most visible difference between the -300 and previous models. After being made standard on the 747-300, the SUD was offered as a retrofit, and as an option to earlier variants still in-production. An example for a retrofit were two UTA -200 Combis being converted in 1986, and an example for the option were two brand-new JAL -100 aircraft (designated -100BSR SUD), the first of which was delivered on March 24, 1986.

The 747-300 introduced a new straight stairway to the upper deck, instead of a spiral staircase on earlier variants, which creates room above and below for more seats. Minor aerodynamic changes allowed the -300's cruise speed to reach Mach 0.85 compared with Mach 0.84 on the -200 and -100 models, while retaining the same takeoff weight. The -300 could be equipped with the same Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce powerplants as on the -200, as well as updated General Electric CF6-80C2B1 engines.

Swissair placed the first order for the 747-300 on June 11, 1980. The variant revived the 747-300 designation, which had been previously used on a design study that did not reach production. The 747-300 first flew on October 5, 1982, and the type's first delivery went to Swissair on March 23, 1983. In 1982, its unit cost was US$83M (Template:InflationM today). Besides the passenger model, two other versions (-300M, -300SR) were produced. The 747-300M features cargo capacity on the rear portion of the main deck, similar to the -200M, but with the stretched upper deck it can carry more passengers. The 747-300SR, a short range, high-capacity domestic model, was produced for Japanese markets with a maximum seating for 584. No production freighter version of the 747-300 was built, but Boeing began modifications of used passenger -300 models into freighters in 2000.

A total of 81 747-300 series aircraft were delivered, 56 for passenger use, 21 -300M and 4 -300SR versions. In 1985, just two years after the -300 entered service, the type was superseded by the announcement of the more advanced 747-400. The last 747-300 was delivered in September 1990 to Sabena. While some -300 customers continued operating the type, several large carriers replaced their 747-300s with 747-400s. Air France, Air India, Japan Airlines, Pakistan International Airlines, and Qantas were some of the last major carriers to operate the 747-300. On December 29, 2008, Qantas flew its last scheduled 747-300 service, operating from Melbourne to Los Angeles via Auckland. In July 2015, Pakistan International Airlines retired their final 747-300 after 30 years of service. Mahan Air was the last passenger operator of the 747-300. In 2022, one of their 747-300Ms was leased by Emtrasur Cargo. The 747-300M was later seized by the US Department of Justice in 2024.

747-400

Main article: Boeing 747-400

File:The Boeing 747 (3441131089).jpg

The improved 747-400, featuring canted winglets, entered service in February 1989 with Northwest Airlines

The 747-400 is an improved model with increased range. It has wingtip extensions of 6 ft (1.8 m) and winglets of 6 ft (1.8 m), which improve the type's fuel efficiency by four percent compared to previous 747 versions. The 747-400 introduced a new glass cockpit designed for a flight crew of two instead of three, with a reduction in the number of dials, gauges and knobs from 971 to 365 through the use of electronics. The type also features tail fuel tanks, revised engines, and a new interior. The longer range has been used by some airlines to bypass traditional fuel stops, such as Anchorage. A 747-400 loaded with 126,000 pounds (57,000 kg) of fuel flying 3,500 miles (3,000 nmi; 5,600 km) consumes an average of 5 US gallons per mile (12 L/km). Powerplants include the Pratt & Whitney PW4062, General Electric CF6-80C2, and Rolls-Royce RB211-524. As a result of the Boeing 767 development overlapping with the 747-400's development, both aircraft can use the same three powerplants and are even interchangeable between the two aircraft models.

The -400 was offered in passenger (-400), freighter (-400F), combi (-400M), domestic (-400D), extended range passenger (-400ER), and extended range freighter (-400ERF) versions. Passenger versions retain the same upper deck as the -300, while the freighter version does not have an extended upper deck. The 747-400D was designed for short-range operations with maximum seating for 624. So winglets were not included though they can be retrofitted. Cruising speed is up to Mach 0.855 on different versions of the 747-400.

The passenger version first entered service in February 1989 with launch customer Northwest Airlines on the Minneapolis to Phoenix route. The combi version entered service in September 1989 with KLM, while the freighter version entered service in November 1993 with Cargolux. The 747-400ERF entered service with Air France in October 2002, while the 747-400ER entered service with Qantas, its sole customer, in November 2002. In January 2004, Boeing and Cathay Pacific launched the 747-400 Special Freighter program, later referred to as the Boeing Converted Freighter (BCF), to modify passenger 747-400s for cargo use. The first 747-400BCF was redelivered in December 2005.

In March 2007, Boeing announced that it had no plans to produce further passenger versions of the -400. However, orders for 36 -400F and -400ERF freighters were already in place at the time of the announcement. The last passenger version of the 747-400 was delivered in April 2005 to China Airlines. Some of the last built 747-400s were delivered with Dreamliner livery along with the modern Signature interior from the Boeing 777. A total of 694 of the 747-400 series aircraft were delivered. At various times, the largest 747-400 operator has included Singapore Airlines, Japan Airlines, and British Airways. As of July 2019, 331 Boeing 747-400s were in service; there were only 10 Boeing 747-400s in passenger service as of September 2021.

747 LCF Dreamlifter

Main article: Boeing Dreamlifter

File:N718BA Boeing 747-4H6(LCF) Dreamlifter (49856836836) (cropped).jpg

The Boeing Dreamlifter, a modified 747-400, first flew on September 9, 2006

The 747-400 Dreamlifter (originally called the 747 Large Cargo Freighter or LCF) is a Boeing-designed modification of existing 747-400s into a larger outsize cargo freighter configuration to ferry 787 Dreamliner sub-assemblies. Evergreen Aviation Technologies Corporation of Taiwan was contracted to complete modifications of 747-400s into Dreamlifters in Taoyuan. The aircraft flew for the first time on September 9, 2006, in a test flight. Modification of four aircraft was completed by February 2010. The Dreamlifters have been placed into service transporting sub-assemblies for the 787 program to the Boeing plant in Everett, Washington, for final assembly. The aircraft is certified to carry only essential crew with no passengers.

747-8

Main article: Boeing 747-8

Side view of quadjet over clouds

The stretched and re-engined 747-8 made its maiden flight on February 8, 2010, as a freighter

Boeing announced a new 747 variant, the 747-8, on November 14, 2005. Referred to as the 747 Advanced prior to its launch, Boeing selected the designation 747-8 to show the connection with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, as the aircraft would use technology and the General Electric GEnx engines from the 787 to modernize the design and its systems. The variant is designed to be quieter, more economical, and more environmentally friendly. The 747-8's fuselage is lengthened from 232 feet (71 m) to 251 feet (77 m), marking the first stretch variant of the aircraft.

File:Lufthansa Boeing 747-830 D-ABYT "Retro" (29988018323).jpg

A 747-8I, the passenger variant of the -8 series, of launch customer Lufthansa. This example is painted with a retro livery modeled after the livery worn by Lufthansa's 747 fleet from the 1970s to 1980s.

The 747-8 Freighter, or 747-8F, has 16% more payload capacity than its predecessor, allowing it to carry seven more standard air cargo containers, with a maximum payload capacity of 154 short tons (140 t) of cargo. As on previous 747 freighters, the 747-8F features a flip up nose-door, a side-door on the main deck, and a side-door on the lower deck ("belly") to aid loading and unloading. The 747-8F made its maiden flight on February 8, 2010. The variant received its amended type certificate jointly from the FAA and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) on August 19, 2011. The -8F was first delivered to Cargolux on October 12, 2011.

The passenger version, named 747-8 Intercontinental or 747-8I, is designed to carry up to 467 passengers in a 3-class configuration and fly more than 8,000 nautical miles (15,000 km; 9,200 mi) at Mach 0.855. As a derivative of the already common 747-400, the 747-8I has the economic benefit of similar training and interchangeable parts. The type's first test flight occurred on March 20, 2011. The 747-8 has surpassed the Airbus A340-600 as the world's longest airliner, a record it would hold until the 777X, which first flew in 2020. The first -8I was delivered in May 2012 to Lufthansa. The 747-8 received 155 total orders, including 106 for the -8F and 47 for the -8I as of June 2021. The final 747-8F was delivered to Atlas Air on January 31, 2023, marking the end of the production of the Boeing 747 series. The final aircraft was registered as N863GT.

Government, military, and other variants

File:Air Force One over Mt. Rushmore.jpg

Air Force One, a Boeing VC-25, over Mount Rushmore

Silhouette diagram of 747 airborne aircraft carrier aircraft

747 "airborne aircraft carrier" concept

File:Atlantis on Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.jpg

Shuttle Carrier Aircraft carrying a Space Shuttle orbiter

File:American Boeing 747 Refuels an Iranian Boeing 747.jpg

Imperial Iranian Air Force (IIAF) KC-747 tanker refueling a standard IIAF 747-100F. The KC-747 is still wearing the livery of its former operator, TWA.

• VC-25 – This aircraft is the U.S. Air Force very important person (VIP) version of the 747-200B. The U.S. Air Force operates two of them in VIP configuration as the VC-25A. Tail numbers 28000 and 29000 are popularly known as Air Force One, which is technically the air-traffic call sign for any United States Air Force aircraft carrying the U.S. president. Partially completed aircraft from Everett, Washington, were flown to Wichita, Kansas, for final outfitting by Boeing Military Airplane Company. Two new aircraft, based around the 747-8, are being procured which will be designated as VC-25B.
• E-4B – This is an airborne command post designed for use in nuclear war. Three E-4As, based on the 747-200B, with a fourth aircraft, with more powerful engines and upgraded systems delivered in 1979 as an E-4B, with the three E-4As upgraded to this standard. Formerly known as the National Emergency Airborne Command Post (referred to colloquially as "Kneecap"), this type is now referred to as the National Airborne Operations Center (NAOC).
  • Survivable Airborne Operations Center - In April 2024, Sierra Nevada Corporation was awarded a contract to develop and build the Survivable Airborne Operations Center aircraft to replace the Boeing E-4 NAOC. Five 747-8Is were purchased from Korean Air for conversion, with the contract calling for nine in total.
• YAL-1 – This was the experimental Airborne Laser, a planned component of the U.S. National Missile Defense.
• Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) – Two 747s were modified to carry the Space Shuttle orbiter. The first was a 747-100 (N905NA), and the other was a 747-100SR (N911NA). The first SCA carried the prototype Enterprise during the Approach and Landing Tests in the late 1970s. The two SCA later carried all five operational Space Shuttle orbiters.
• C-33 – This aircraft was a proposed U.S. military version of the 747-400F intended to augment the C-17 fleet. The plan was canceled in favor of additional C-17s.
• KC-25/33 – A proposed 747-200F was also adapted as an aerial refueling tanker and was bid against the DC-10-30 during the 1970s Advanced Cargo Transport Aircraft (ACTA) program that produced the KC-10 Extender. Before the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Iran bought four 747-100 aircraft with air-refueling boom conversions to support its fleet of F-4 Phantoms and F-14 Tomcats. The last of the Iranian tankers was claimed to be destroyed by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) during Operation Rising Lion in June 2025. Since then, there have been proposals to use a 747-400 for that role.
• 747F Airlifter – Proposed US military transport version of the 747-200F intended as an alternative to further purchases of the C-5 Galaxy. This 747 would have had a special nose jack to lower the sill height for the nose door. System tested in 1980 on a Flying Tiger Line 747-200F.
• 747 CMCA – This "Cruise Missile Carrier Aircraft" variant was considered by the U.S. Air Force during the development of the B-1 Lancer strategic bomber. It would have been equipped with 50 to 100 AGM-86 ALCM cruise missiles on rotary launchers. This plan was abandoned in favor of more conventional strategic bombers.
• MC-747 – Two separate studies from the 1970s and 2005, the first by Boeing and the second by ATK and BAE Systems, to horizontally store up to four Peacekeeper ICBMs or seven Minutemen above bomb bay-like doors in the first study, and to vertically store twelve Minutemen or 32 JDAM-equipped conventional missiles for launch from in situ tubes in the second.
• 747 AAC – A Boeing study under contract from the USAF for an "airborne aircraft carrier" for up to 10 Boeing Model 985-121 "microfighters" with the ability to launch, retrieve, re-arm, and refuel. Boeing believed that the scheme would be able to deliver a flexible and fast carrier platform with global reach, particularly where other bases were not available. Modified versions of the 747-200 and Lockheed C-5A were considered as the base aircraft. The concept, which included a complementary 747 AWACS version with two reconnaissance "microfighters", was considered technically feasible in 1973.
• Evergreen 747 Supertanker – A 747-200 modified as an aerial application platform for fire fighting using 20,000 US gallons (76,000 L) of firefighting chemicals.
• Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) – A former Pan Am 747SP modified to carry a large infrared-sensitive telescope, in a joint venture of NASA and DLR. High altitudes are needed for infrared astronomy, to rise above infrared-absorbing water vapor in the atmosphere.
• A number of other governments also use the 747 as a VIP transport, including Bahrain, Brunei, India, Iran, Japan, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. Several 747-8s have been ordered by Boeing Business Jet for conversion to VIP transports for several unidentified customers.

Comparison

Below is a list of major differences between the original 747 variants.

Model	747-100	747-200B	747-300
Typical seats	366		400
MTOW	735,000–750,000 lb (333.4–340.2 t)	775,000–833,000 lb (351.5–377.8 t)
OEW	358,000–381,480 lb (162.39–173.04 t)	376,170–388,010 lb (170.63–176.00 t)	384,240–402,700 lb (174.29–182.66 t)
Fuel capacity	47,210–48,445 US gal (178,710–183,380 L)	52,035–52,410 US gal (196,970–198,390 L)
Turbofan (×4)	Pratt & Whitney JT9D or Rolls-Royce RB211 or General Electric CF6
Thrust (×4)	43,500–51,600 lbf (193–230 kN)	46,300–54,750 lbf (206.0–243.5 kN)	46,300–56,900 lbf (206–253 kN)
Range	4,620 nmi (8,560 km; 5,320 mi)	6,560 nmi (12,150 km; 7,550 mi)	6,330 nmi (11,720 km; 7,280 mi)
Takeoff	10,650 ft (3,250 m)	10,900 ft (3,300 m)	10,900 ft (3,300 m)

Proposed variants

Boeing studied a number of 747 variants that did not advance beyond the concept stage.

747 trijet

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Boeing studied the development of a shorter 747 with three engines, to compete with the smaller Lockheed L-1011 TriStar and McDonnell Douglas DC-10. The center engine would have been fitted in the tail with an S-duct intake similar to the L-1011's. Overall, the 747 trijet would have had more payload, range, and passenger capacity than either of the two other aircraft. However, engineering studies showed that a major redesign of the 747 wing would be necessary. Maintaining the same 747 handling characteristics would be important to minimize pilot retraining. Boeing decided instead to pursue a shortened four-engine 747, resulting in the 747SP.

747-500

In January 1986, Boeing outlined preliminary studies to build a larger, ultra-long haul version named the 747-500, which would enter service in the mid- to late-1990s. The aircraft derivative would use engines evolved from unducted fan (UDF) (propfan) technology by General Electric, but the engines would have shrouds, sport a bypass ratio of 15–20, and have a propfan diameter of 10–12 feet (3.0–3.7 m). The aircraft would be stretched (including the upper deck section) to a capacity of 500 seats, have a new wing to reduce drag, cruise at a faster speed to reduce flight times, and have a range of at least 8,700 nmi; 16,000 km, which would allow airlines to fly nonstop between London, UK and Sydney, Australia.

747 ASB

Boeing announced the 747 ASB (Advanced Short Body) in 1986 as a response to the Airbus A340 and the McDonnell Douglas MD-11. This aircraft design would have combined the advanced technology used on the 747-400 with the foreshortened 747SP fuselage. The aircraft was to carry 295 passengers over a range of 8,000 nmi (15,000 km; 9,200 mi). However, airlines were not interested in the project and it was canceled later that year.

747-500X, -600X, and -700X

Aircraft comparison diagram.

The proposed 747-500X and -600X as depicted in a 1998 FAA illustration

Boeing announced the 747-500X and -600X at the 1996 Farnborough Airshow. The proposed models would have combined the 747's fuselage with a new wing spanning 251 feet (77 m) derived from the 777. Other changes included adding more powerful engines and increasing the number of tires from two to four on the nose landing gear and from 16 to 20 on the main landing gear.

The 747-500X concept featured a fuselage length increased by 18 feet (5.5 m) to 250 feet (76 m), and the aircraft was to carry 462 passengers over a range up to 8,700 nautical miles (16,100 km; 10,000 mi), with a gross weight of over 1.0 Mlb (450 tonnes). The 747-600X concept featured a greater stretch to 279 feet (85 m) with seating for 548 passengers, a range of up to 7,700 nmi (14,300 km; 8,900 mi), and a gross weight of 1.2 Mlb (540 tonnes). A third study concept, the 747-700X, would have combined the wing of the 747-600X with a widened fuselage, allowing it to carry 650 passengers over the same range as a 747-400. The cost of the changes from previous 747 models, especially the new wing for the 747-500X and -600X, was estimated to be more than US$5 billion. Boeing was not able to attract enough interest to launch the aircraft.

747X and 747X Stretch

As Airbus progressed with its A3XX study, Boeing offered a 747 derivative as an alternative in 2000; a more modest proposal than the previous -500X and -600X with the 747's overall wing design and a new segment at the root, increasing the span to 229 ft (69.8 m). Power would have been supplied by either the Engine Alliance GP7172 or the Rolls-Royce Trent 600, which were also proposed for the 767-400ERX. A new flight deck based on the 777's would be used. The 747X aircraft was to carry 430 passengers over ranges of up to 8,700 nmi (16,100 km; 10,000 mi). The 747X Stretch would be extended to 263 ft (80.2 m) long, allowing it to carry 500 passengers over ranges of up to 7,800 nmi (14,400 km; 9,000 mi). Both would feature an interior based on the 777. Freighter versions of the 747X and 747X Stretch were also studied.

Side view of quadjet in flight

The 747-400ER was derived from the 747-400X study.

Like its predecessor, the 747X family was unable to garner enough interest to justify production, and it was shelved along with the 767-400ERX in March 2001, when Boeing announced the Sonic Cruiser concept. Though the 747X design was less costly than the 747-500X and -600X, it was criticized for not offering a sufficient advance from the existing 747-400. The 747X did not make it beyond the drawing board, but the 747-400X being developed concurrently moved into production to become the 747-400ER.

747-400XQLR

After the end of the 747X program, Boeing continued to study improvements that could be made to the 747. The 747-400XQLR (Quiet Long Range) was meant to have an increased range of 7,980 nmi (14,780 km; 9,180 mi), with improvements to boost efficiency and reduce noise. Improvements studied included raked wingtips similar to those used on the 767-400ER and a sawtooth engine nacelle for noise reduction. Although the 747-400XQLR did not move to production, many of its features were used for the 747 Advanced, which was launched as the 747-8 in 2005.

Operators

Main article: List of Boeing 747 operators

The 747 was utilized by various airlines from the Asia-Pacific region, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Historically, it was the primary long-haul aircraft for operators like Air France, Air New Zealand, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Lufthansa, Northwest Airlines, Pan Am, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, and United Airlines. Qantas notably became the first airline in the world to operate an all-747 fleet after the retirement of its last 707 in 1979. In 1984, Qantas operated a total of 25 aircraft.

During the Cold War, Boeing refused to sell 747s to the Soviet Union due to political tensions and suspicions of industrial espionage raised in the 1970s after delegates from the Soviet Ministry of Aviation Industry visited the Everett factory, in the guise of negotiating for the purchase of 25 747s, and attempted to obtain copies of a document pertaining to the 747's design objectives and criteria, which the design team successfully prevented.

As of July 2019, there were 462 Boeing 747s in airline service, with Atlas Air and British Airways being the largest operators with 33 747-400s each.

The last US passenger Boeing 747 was retired from Delta Air Lines in December 2017. The model flew for almost every American major carrier since its 1970 introduction. Delta flew three of its last four aircraft on a farewell tour, from Seattle to Atlanta on December 19 then to Los Angeles and Minneapolis/St Paul on December 20.

As the IATA forecast an increase in air freight from 4% to 5% in 2018 fueled by booming trade for time-sensitive goods, from smartphones to fresh flowers, demand for freighters is strong while passenger 747s are phased out. Of the 1,574 produced, 890 are retired; as of 2018, a small subset of those which were intended to be parted-out got $3 million D-checks before flying again. Young -400s were sold for 320 million yuan ($50 million) and Boeing stopped converting freighters, which used to cost nearly $30 million. This comeback helped the airframer financing arm Boeing Capital to shrink its exposure to the 747-8 from $1.07 billion in 2017 to $481 million in 2018.

In July 2020, British Airways announced that it was retiring its 747 fleet. The final British Airways 747 flights departed London Heathrow on October 8, 2020.

Orders and deliveries

Year	Total	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017	2016	2015	2014	2013	2012	2011	2010	2009	2008	2007	2006
Orders	1,573	–	–	5	1	–	13	6	18	6	2	13	7	3	1	5	2	16	53
Deliveries	1,573	1	5	7	5	7	6	14	9	18	19	24	31	9	–	8	14	16	14

Year	2005	2004	2003	2002	2001	2000	1999	1998	1997	1996	1995	1994	1993	1992	1991	1990	1989	1988	1987	1986
Orders	46	10	4	17	16	26	35	15	36	56	32	16	2	23	31	122	56	49	66	84
Deliveries	13	15	19	27	31	25	47	53	39	26	25	40	56	61	64	70	45	24	23	35

Year	1985	1984	1983	1982	1981	1980	1979	1978	1977	1976	1975	1974	1973	1972	1971	1970	1969	1968	1967	1966
Orders	42	23	24	14	23	49	72	76	42	14	20	29	29	18	7	20	30	22	43	83
Deliveries	24	16	22	26	53	73	67	32	20	27	21	22	30	30	69	92	4	–	–	–

Boeing 747 orders and deliveries (cumulative, by year):

  Orders   Deliveries — as of February 2023

Model summary

Model Series	ICAO code	Deliveries
747-100	B741 / BSCA	167	205
747-100B		9
747-100SR	B74R	29
747SP	B74S	45	45
747-200B	B742	225	393
747-200C		13
747-200F		73
747-200M		78
747 E-4A		3
747 E-4B		1
747-300	B743	56	81
747-300M		21
747-300SR		4
747-400	B744 / BLCF	442	694
747-400ER		6
747-400ERF		40
747-400F		126
747-400M		61
747-400D	B74D	19
747-8I	B748	48	155
747-8F		107
747 Total		1,573

Orders and deliveries through to the end of February 2023.

Accidents and incidents

Main article: Boeing 747 hull losses

As of November 2023, the 747 has been involved in 173 aviation accidents and incidents, including 65 hull losses (53 in-flight accidents), causing 3,746 fatalities. There have been several hijackings of Boeing 747s, such as Pan Am Flight 73, a 747-100 hijacked by four terrorists, resulting in 20 deaths. The 747 also fell victim to several mid-air bombings, two of which resulted in major fatalities and hull losses, Air India Flight 182 in 1985, and Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988.

The deadliest aviation accident, the Tenerife airport disaster, resulted from pilot error and communications failure, while the Japan Air Lines Flight 123 and China Airlines Flight 611 crashes stemmed from improper aircraft repair due to a tail-strike. Korean Air Lines Flight 007 was shot down by a Soviet Su-15TM interceptor in 1983 after it had violated Soviet airspace for over 12 minutes, causing US President Ronald Reagan to authorize the then-strictly-military global positioning system (GPS) for civilian use. South African Airways Flight 295, a 747-200M Combi, which crashed on 28 November 1987 due to an in-flight fire, led to the mandate of adding fire-suppression systems on board Combi variants.

A handful of crashes have been attributed to 747 design flaws, mainly older 747 classic (100/200/300/SP) variants. United Airlines Flight 811, which suffered an explosive decompression mid-flight on February 24, 1989, led the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to issue a recommendation that the Boeing 747-100 and 747-200 cargo doors similar to those on the Flight 811 aircraft be modified to those featured on the Boeing 747-400. TWA Flight 800, a 747-100 that exploded in mid-air on July 17, 1996 due to sparking from the old and cracked electrical wires inside the fuel tank, where voltage levels exceeded the maximum limit, causing ignition of the fuel vapors inside the tank. This finding led the FAA to adopt a rule in July 2008 requiring installation of an inerting system in the center fuel tank of most large aircraft, after years of research into solutions. At the time, the new safety system was expected to cost US$100,000 to $450,000 per aircraft and weigh approximately 200 pounds (91 kg). Two 747-200F freighters - China Airlines Flight 358 on December 29, 1991, and El Al Flight 1862 on October 4, 1992, crashed after the fuse pins for an engine (no. 3) broke off shortly after take-off due to metal fatigue, and instead of simply dropping away from the wing, the engine knocked off the adjacent engine and damaged the wing. Following these crashes, Boeing issued a directive to examine and replace all fuse pins found to be cracked. The lack of adequate warning systems combined with flight crew error led to a preventable crash of Lufthansa Flight 540 in November 1974, which was the first fatal crash of a 747, while an instrument malfunction leading to crew disorientation caused the crash of Air India Flight 855 on New Years Day in 1978.

Other incidents did not result in any hull losses, but the planes suffered certain damages and were put back into service after repair. On July 30, 1971, Pan Am Flight 845 struck approach lighting system structures while taking off from San Francisco for Tokyo, Japan; the plane dumped fuel and landed back. The cause was pilot error with improper calculations, and the plane was repaired and returned to service. On June 24, 1982, British Airways Flight 9, a Boeing 747-200, registration G-BDXH, flew through a cloud of volcanic ash and dust from the eruption of Mount Galunggung, suffering an all engine flameout; the crew restarted the engines and successfully landed at Jakarta. The volcanic ash caused windscreens to be sandblasted along with engine damage and paint rip-off; the plane was repaired with engines replaced and returned to service. On December 11, 1994, on board Philippine Airlines Flight 434 from Manila to Tokyo via Cebu, a bomb exploded under a seat, killing one passenger; the plane landed safely at Okinawa despite damage to the plane's controls. The bomber, Ramzi Yousef, was caught on 7 February 1995 in Islamabad, Pakistan, and the plane was repaired, but converted for cargo use.

Preserved aircraft

Aircraft on display

Ventral view of museum aircraft raised on struts.

Boeing 747-230B in Lufthansa livery on display at the Technikmuseum Speyer in Germany

A parked museum aircraft on static display

Boeing 747-128 on display at the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace in France

File:VH-OJA City of Canberra.jpg

VH-OJA City of Canberra at HARS, Shellharbour Airport

As increasing numbers of "classic" 747-100 and 747-200 series aircraft have been retired, some have been used for other uses such as museum displays. Some older 747-300s and 747-400s were later added to museum collections.

• 20235/001 – 747-121 registration N7470 City of Everett, the first 747 and prototype, is at the Museum of Flight, Seattle, Washington.
• 19651/025 – 747-121 registration N747GE at the Pima Air & Space Museum, Tucson, Arizona, US.
• 19778/027 – 747-151 registration N601US nose at the National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C.
• 19661/070 – 747-121(SF) registration N681UP preserved at a plaza on Jungong Road, Shanghai, China.
• 19896/072 – 747-132(SF) registration N481EV at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, McMinnville, Oregon, US.
• 20107/086 – 747-123 registration N905NA, a NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, at the Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, US.
• 20269/150 – 747-136 registration G-AWNG nose at Hiller Aviation Museum, San Carlos, California.
• 20239/160 – 747-244B registration ZS-SAN nicknamed Lebombo, at the South African Airways Museum Society, Rand Airport, Johannesburg, South Africa.
• 20541/200 – 747-128 registration F-BPVJ at Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace, Paris, France.
• 20770/213 – 747-2B5B registration HL7463 at Jeongseok Aviation Center, Jeju, South Korea.
• 20713/219 - 747-212B(SF) registration N482EV at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, McMinnville, Oregon, US.
• 20781/221 – 747SR-46 registration N911NA, originally built as the first 747SR for Japan Airlines as JA8117, and later converted into a NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, at Joe Davies Heritage Airpark, California, US.
• 20825/223 - 747-200 registration SX-OAB at the site of Ellinikon International Airport, Athens, Greece. After over 20 years sitting at the closed airport, it was moved to a permanent location within the boundaries of the airport and put on display as part of the ongoing regeneration work.
• 21134/288 – 747SP-44 registration ZS-SPC at the South African Airways Museum Society, Rand Airport, Johannesburg, South Africa.
• 21549/336 – 747-206B registration PH-BUK at the Aviodrome, Lelystad, Netherlands.
• 21588/342 – 747-230B(M) registration D-ABYM preserved at Technik Museum Speyer, Germany.
• 22145/410 – 747-238B registration VH-EBQ at the Qantas Founders Outback Museum, Longreach, Queensland, Australia.
• 21942/471 – 747-212B registration N642NW nose at the Museum of Aeronautical Science in Narita, Japan, near Narita International Airport.
• 22382/498 – 747-2F6B(SF) registration TF-ARN on display as an attraction at the Donghai Cloud Corridor in Dinghai, Zhoushan, Zhejiang, China. Formerly operated by Philippine Airlines and Air Atlanta Icelandic.
• 22455/515 – 747-256BM registration EC-DLD Lope de Vega nose at the National Museum of Science and Technology, A Coruña, Spain.
• 23719/696 – 747-451 registration N661US at the Delta Flight Museum, Atlanta, Georgia, US. This particular plane was the first 747-400 in service, as well as the prototype.
• 24354/731 – 747-438 registration VH-OJA at Shellharbour Airport, Albion Park Rail, New South Wales, Australia.
• 25811/1018 – 747-436 registration G-CIVB preserved at Cotswold Airport, UK as an event space.
• 21441/306 - SOFIA - 747SP-21 registration N747NA at Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona, US. Former Pan Am and United Airlines 747SP bought by NASA and converted into a flying telescope, for astronomy purposes. Named Clipper Lindbergh.

Other uses

A parked aircraft on a grassy field.

Boeing 747-212B serving as the Jumbo Stay at Arlanda Airport, Sweden

Upon its retirement from service, the 747 which was number two in the production line was dismantled and shipped to Hopyeong, Namyangju, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea where it was re-assembled, repainted in a livery similar to that of Air Force One and converted into a restaurant. Originally flown commercially by Pan Am as N747PA, Clipper Juan T. Trippe, and repaired for service following a tailstrike, it stayed with the airline until its bankruptcy. The restaurant closed by 2009, and the aircraft was scrapped in 2010.

A former British Airways 747-200B, G-BDXJ, is parked at the Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey, England and has been used as a movie set for productions such as the 2006 James Bond film, Casino Royale using the fictional registration N88892 and N9747P. The airplane also appears frequently in the television series Top Gear, which is filmed at Dunsfold.

The Jumbo Stay hostel, using a converted 747-200 formerly operated by Singapore Airlines and registered as 9V-SQE, opened at Arlanda Airport, Stockholm in January 2009. It closed in March 2025 after the owner declared bankruptcy.

A former Pakistan International Airlines 747-300 was converted into a restaurant by Pakistan's Airports Security Force in 2017. It is located at Jinnah International Airport, Karachi.

The wings of a 747 have been repurposed as roofs of a house in Malibu, California.

In 2023, a Boeing 747-412, retired from Lion Air, was turned into a steak restaurant in Bekasi, Indonesia. The aircraft had been sitting since 2018 but the construction of the restaurant was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Two used 747-400s were cannibalized to build the Scaled Composites Stratolaunch aircraft.

Specifications (Boeing 747-200B, with JT9D-7R4G2 engines)

A comparison of the different 747 variants

Diagram of Boeing 747 variants.
At the top: 747-100 (dorsal, cross-section, and front views). Side views, in descending order: 747SP, 747-100, 747-400, 747-8I, and 747LCF.

Cultural impact

See also: Aircraft in fiction § Boeing 747

File:American Airlines C.R. Smith Museum May 2019 21 (Wurlitzer electronic piano).jpg

American Airlines 747 Wurlitzer electronic piano, 1971

Following its debut, the 747 rapidly achieved iconic status. The aircraft entered the cultural lexicon as the original Jumbo Jet, a term coined by the aviation media to describe its size, and was also nicknamed Queen of the Skies. Test pilot David P. Davies described it as "a most impressive aeroplane with a number of exceptionally fine qualities", and praised its flight control system as "truly outstanding" because of its redundancy.

Appearing in over 300 film productions, the 747 is one of the most widely depicted civilian aircraft and is considered by many as one of the most iconic in film history. It has appeared in film productions such as the disaster films Airport 1975 and Airport '77, as well as Air Force One, Die Hard 2, and Executive Decision.

Beyond its media presence, the 747's interior configuration introduced a physical social hierarchy within commercial aviation. With an increased seating capacity on the lower deck, ticket prices decreased and made long-haul travel more accessible. The upper deck promoted luxury, featuring sofas, bars, and premium amenities that began the formalization of the modern business and first-class cabin. This separation of classes established a precedent for class differentiation in the wide-body aircraft design.

References

Bibliography

• Bowers, Peter M. (1989). Boeing Aircraft Since 1916. London: Putnam Aeronautical Books. ISBN 0-85177-804-6.
• Davies, R.E.G. Delta: An Airline and Its Aircraft: The Illustrated History of a Major U.S. Airline and the People Who Made It. McLean, VA: Paladwr Press, 1990. ISBN 0-9626483-0-2.
• Donald, David and Lake, Jon. Encyclopedia of World Military Aircraft. London: Aerospace Publishing, 1996. ISBN 1-874023-95-6.
• Green, William; Swanborough, Gordon; Mowinski, John (1987). Modern Commercial Aircraft. London: Salamander Books Ltd. ISBN 0-86101-271-2.
• Haenggi, Michael. Boeing Widebodies. St. Paul, MN: MBI Publishing Co., 2003. ISBN 0-7603-0842-X.
• Irving, Clive (1994). Wide Body: The Making of the Boeing 747. Philadelphia: Coronet. ISBN 0-340-59983-9.
• Itabashi, M., K. Kawata and S. Kusaka. "Pre-fatigued 2219-T87 and 6061-T6 aluminium alloys". Structural Failure: Technical, Legal and Insurance Aspects. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon.: Taylor & Francis, 1995. ISBN 978-0-419-20710-8.
• Jenkins, Dennis R. (1999). B-1 Lancer, The Most Complicated Warplane Ever Developed. New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-134694-5.
• Jenkins, Dennis R. (2000). Boeing 747-100/200/300/SP. AirlinerTech Series. 6. North Branch, Minnesota: Specialty Press. ISBN 1-58007-026-4.
• Kane, Robert M. Air Transportation: 1903–2003. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Publishing Co., 2004. ISBN 0-7575-3180-6.
• Lawrence, Philip K. and David Weldon Thornton. Deep Stall: The Turbulent Story of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Co., 2005, ISBN 0-7546-4626-2.
• Minton, David H. (1991). The Boeing 747 (Aero Series 40). Fallbrook, CA: Aero Publishers. ISBN 0-8306-3574-2.
• Morton, John K. (1997). Jetliner Glory: Airliner Liveries. Osceola, Wisconsin: Motorbooks International. ISBN 0-7603-0515-3.
• Norris, Guy; Wagner, Mark (1997). Boeing 747: Design and Development Since 1969. St. Paul, Minnesota: MBI Publishing Co. ISBN 0-7603-0280-4.
• Norton, Bill. Lockheed Martin C-5 Galaxy. North Branch, MN: Specialty Press, 2003. ISBN 1-58007-061-2.
• Orlebar, Christopher. The Concorde Story. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 5th ed., 2002. ISBN 1-85532-667-1.
• Pealing, Norman; Savage, Mike (1999). Jumbo Jetliners: Boeing's 747 and the Widebodies. Osprey Color Classics. Osceola, Wisconsin: Motorbooks International. ISBN 1-85532-874-7.
• Rosson, Lois R. (2025). SOFIA: The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (PDF). Washington, DC: NASA. ISBN 978-1-62683-085-1.
• Seo, Hiroshi (1984). Boeing 747. Worthing, West Sussex: Littlehampton Book Services Ltd. ISBN 0-7106-0304-5.
• Serling, Robert J. (1992). Legend & Legacy: The Story of Boeing and Its People. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 031205890X.
• Shaw, Robbie (1994). Boeing 747 (Osprey Civil Aircraft series). London: Osprey. ISBN 1-85532-420-2.
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• Taylor, John W. R. (editor). Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1988–89. Coulsdon, UK: Jane's Defence Data, 1988. ISBN 0-7106-0867-5.
• Thisdell, Dan and Seymour, Chris. "World Airliner Census". Flight International, July 30 – August 5, 2019, Vol. 196, No. 5697. pp. 24–47. ISSN 0015-3710.

Further reading

• Ingells, Douglas J. (1970). 747: Story of the Boeing Super Jet. Fallbrook, California: Aero Publishers. ISBN 0-8168-8704-7.
• Kuter, Laurence S. (1973). The Great Gamble: The Boeing 747. The Boeing – Pan Am Project to Develop, Produce, and Introduce the 747. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. ISBN 0-8173-8700-5.
• Lucas, Jim (1988). Boeing 747 – The First 20 Years. Browcom Publishers Ltd. ISBN 0-946141-37-1.
• Wright, Alan J. (1989). Boeing 747. Hersham, Surrey: Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-1814-6.
• Smith, P.R. Boeing 747. Airline Markings. 1. Shrewsbury: Airlife.
• Baum, Brian (1997). Boeing 747-SP. Great Airliners. 3. Osceola, Wisconsin: Motorbooks International. ISBN 0-9626730-7-2.
• Falconer, Jonathan (1997). Boeing 747 in Color. Hersham, Surrey: Ian Allan. ISBN 1-882663-14-4.
• Gilchrist, Peter (1998). Boeing 747-400. Airliner Color History. Osceola, Wisconson: Motorbooks International. ISBN 0-7603-0616-8.
• Henderson, Scott (1999). Boeing 747-100/200 In Camera. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Scoval Publishing. ISBN 1-902236-01-7.
• Shaw, Robbie (1999). Boeing 747-400: The Mega-Top. Osprey Civil Aircraft. London: Osprey. ISBN 1-85532-893-3.
• Wilson, Stewart (1999). Boeing 747. Aviation Notebook. Queanbeyan, NSW: Wilson Media Pty. Ltd. ISBN 1-876722-01-0.
• Wilson, Stewart (1999). Airliners of the World. Fyshwick, Australia: Aerospace Publications Pty Ltd. ISBN 1-875671-44-7.
• Birtles, Philip (2000). Boeing 747-400. Hersham, Surrey: Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-2728-5.
• Bowman, Martin (2000). Boeing 747. Crowood Aviation. Marlborough, Wilts: Crowood. ISBN 1-86126-242-6.
• Dorr, Robert F. (2000). Boeing 747-400. AirlinerTech. 10. North Branch, Minnesota: Specialty Press. ISBN 1-58007-055-8.
• Gesar, Aram (2000). Boeing 747: The Jumbo. New York: Pyramid Media Group. ISBN 0-944188-02-8.
• Gilchrist, Peter. Boeing 747 Classic (Airliner Color History). Osceola, WI: Motorbooks International, 2000. ISBN 0-7603-1007-6.
• Graham, Ian. In Control: How to Fly a 747. Somerville, MA: Candlewick, 2000. ISBN 0-7636-1278-2.
• Nicholls, Mark. The Airliner World Book of the Boeing 747. New York: Osprey Publishing, 2002. ISBN 0-946219-61-3.
• March, Peter. The Boeing 747 Story. Stroud, Glos.: The History Press, 2009. ISBN 0-7509-4485-4.
• Eames, Jim (2022). [[[:Template:GBurl]] The Mighty 747: Australia's Queen of the Skies]. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 9781760877118.
• Spaeth, Andreas; Thomas, Geoffrey (2022). Boeing 747: Memories of the Jumbo Jet / Boeing 747: Erinnerungen an den Jumbojet (in English and German). Berlin: Delius Fine Books. ISBN 9783949827006.

External links

• "747-8". Boeing.
• "747-100 cutaway". FlightGlobal.
• Debut of Boeing 747. British Movietone News. October 1, 1968.
• "Photos: Boeing 747-100 Assembly Line In 1969". Aviation Week & Space Technology. April 28, 1969.
• "Aircraft Owner's & Operator's Guide: 747-200/-300" (PDF). Aircraft commerce. June 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 9, 2011. Retrieved July 16, 2011.
• "Boeing 747 Aircraft Profile". FlightGlobal. June 3, 2007.
• Negroni, Christine (July 2014). "747: The World's Airliner". Air & Space Magazine.
• "This Luxury Boeing 747-8 for the Super-Rich is a Palace in the Sky". popular mechanics. February 24, 2015.
• "How Boeing and Pan Am created an airliner legend". flightglobal. April 15, 2016.
• "Boeing 747: Evolution of a Jumbo, As Featured On Aviation Week's Covers". Aviation Week. August 2016.
• "Boeing's Jumbo jet celebrates golden jubilee". FlightGlobal. February 8, 2019.
• Guy Norris (February 8, 2019). "Boeing's Queen of the Skies Marks 50th Anniversary Of First Flight". Aviation Week & Space Technology.
• Guy, Norris. "Evolution of a Widebody: 50 Years of the Boeing 747". Aviation Week & Space Technology.
• "The 747 Takes Off: The Dawn of the Jumbo Jet Age". Digital Exhibit. Northwestern University Transportation Library. January 2020.
• Flottau, Jens (January 26, 2023). "How Boeing's 747 Revolutionized Air Travel". Aviation Week & Space Technology.