The half-century tenure of the mighty Boeing 747 as “Queen of the Skies” is coming to an end. Boeing recently announced it was shutting down production of one of the most recognizable airplanes in the world.
The 747 made its first flight in 1969, entering into service a year later with Pan American World Airways—an airline the jumbo jet long outlasted. While more than 1,500 were made, there are currently only about 170 of the passenger jets left in fleets around the world and less than 30 are still in active use.
Although the plane might be getting phased out, it had a revolutionary effect on air travel, global tourism, airport design, manufacturing and aircraft technology—an impact still felt today.
Creation of the Modern Air Travel Industry
With a wingspan of 196 feet, a length of 231 feet and a height of 63 feet, the 747 towered over other passenger planes when it rolled off the assembly line. The original 747 had a top speed of 595 miles per hour and was powered by four massive Pratt & Whitney turbofan engines capable of over 40,000 pounds of thrust.
Inside, the super jumbo had almost vertical sidewalls and a high ceiling, giving passengers unprecedented room. Instead of the conventional long, narrow tube of seats, the cabin was divided into rooms divided by galleys and lavatories. This configuration has become the standard in air travel today, particularly on long-haul routes.
With a seating capacity of 550, Boeing’s behemoth could carry three times as many passengers as the Boeing 707, the aircraft it was intended to replace, all while burning 33 percent less fuel. With its four engines, it could travel farther and faster than other jets.
As a result, ticket prices fell, which brought airplane travel within reach of millions and created the modern passenger travel industry. From 1970 to 2017, more than 3.5 billion people—equivalent to half the world’s population—flew on a 747.
The 747 is surprisingly easy to fly for such a big plane.
“It was a wonderful surprise to find that it handled like a much smaller aircraft and was delightfully maneuverable,” said pilot Robert Scott. “It was really only when it was on the ground that one was aware of its enormous size and the care that had to be exercised, especially in restricted spaces.”
Airports Had to Change
Airports had to adapt to the game-changing capacity of the 747 to transport hundreds of passengers on every jet. They responded to the influx of traffic by expanding boarding lounges, check-in counters and building bigger terminals to accommodate the plane’s size. Existing customs and immigration facilities had to be increased in size and capacity as well. Runways also had to be extended to allow the plane to land.
This eventually led to the construction of giant hub airports that could handle the 747’s increased capacity. Once in the hub, passengers flying to smaller destinations connected to smaller aircraft—leading to the hub-and-spoke system we’re all familiar with today.
Ground support systems changed as well, getting bigger to handle the bigger plane. Larger aircraft tugs were needed to move the 750,000-pound plane. Catering trucks were modified to reach cabin doors above the wing, and fuel tankers needed their reach expanded to get to the tanks under the wings.
Engines Had to Change
To get the massive plane off the ground and haul so many passengers over long distances, the 747 needed an entirely new engine—something far more powerful than the ones in use at the time.
Enter the Pratt & Whitney JT9D turbofan, an engine that would be a game-changer for aircraft power. An incredible amount of air is forced into the engine, a small part of which flows into the engine core. In the core, the air is compressed, mixed with fuel and ignited, driving the engine’s turbine. That in turn spins the JT9D’s huge front fan and propels the aircraft forward. The JT9D directed the air flow around, rather than through, the engine core, which created much more thrust for the amount of fuel it burned, creating a more powerful and more efficient engine. This made it the first “high-bypass” turbofan to be used by widebody planes. Today, every passenger jet uses high-bypass turbofan engines. It was also much quieter than existing jet engines, creating a buzz rather than a scream during takeoff.
In later years, Boeing also used Rolls-Royce RB211 and GE CF6 engines to power its jumbo jet.
Manufacturing Had to Change
Boeing had to redesign how it made planes. The 747 was too big to produce at the company’s existing facilities, so the company had to build an entirely new assembly plant in Everett, Washington. The facility is still the biggest building in the world by volume. The factory cost about $1.4 billion in today’s dollars. If you factor in development costs, that number rises to $6.8 billion. The original building measured 1.9 million square feet and had three 300-by-1,000 foot assembly bays. It was so big that clouds would form inside the building. It has only grown since then, becoming Boeing’s main widebody production facility.
The 747 broke the mold in construction time too. The first one was built in 28 months by a crew of 50,000 mechanics, which was impressive at a time when aircraft usually took 42 months to build. The factory was still missing its roof when the inaugural 747 rolled off the assembly line.
Outpaced by Newer Planes
Boeing continued to tweak the design in the decades since its debut, adding new wings and winglets, new engines and other technologies, and creating variants optimized for short-range flights and marathon trans-Pacific routes alike.
But aircraft technology has evolved beyond the 747. Today, smaller twin-engine passenger jets can fly much further and burn less fuel, making them more efficient and cheaper to operate. Those planes have been taking over the routes once dominated by the 747.
While we’ll still see 747s in the sky—most of them serving as cargo planes these days—the super jumbo’s time has passed. But modern air travel and aircraft technology owe a great debt to the dethroned “Queen of the Sky.”
Read more about the 747’s continuing impact on aviation at Fastest Subsonic Transatlantic Flight Just Happened with a 747.