Boeing 747

The Boeing 747 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States. The 747 was conceived while air travel was increasing in the 1960s.[17] 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 the early 1960s, Boeing was asked by Juan Trippe, president of Pan Am, one of their most important airline customers, to build a passenger aircraft more than twice the size of the 707. During this time, airport congestion, worsened by increasing numbers of passengers carried on relatively small aircraft, became a problem that Trippe thought could be addressed by a larger new aircraft.

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.[28][29] 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.[1] The cockpit was, therefore, placed on a shortened upper deck so that a freight-loading door could be included in the nose cone; this design feature produced the 747's distinctive "hump".[30] In early models, what to do with the small space in the pod behind the cockpit was not clear, and this was initially specified as a "lounge" area with no permanent seating.

The 747 enjoyed a fairly smooth introduction into service, overcoming concerns that some airports would not be able to accommodate an aircraft that large.

Popular Variants

Dreamlifter (originally called the 747 Large Cargo Freighter or LCF) is a Boeing-designed modification of existing 747-400s to a larger configuration to ferry 787 Dreamliner sub-assemblies.
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.
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 a 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"), these type is now referred to as the National Airborne Operations Center (NAOC).
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.
Global Supertanker – A Boeing 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 Boeing 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.