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The Boeing 747, also popularly known as the jumbo jet, is the second largest passenger airliner after Airbus A380. Until the first commercial flight of the A380 in 2006, however, it remains the largest aircraft in commercial service. The four-engine 747, produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, combines passenger-carrying capacities with its unique two-deck configuration (the small upper deck is usually used for business-class passengers). A typical three-class layout would accommodate about 400 passengers. An advanced one-class layout would accommodate a maximum of 600 passengers. The characteristic hump created by the upper deck has made the 747 a hugely recognisable icon of air travel. The 747 flies at high-subsonic speeds (typically 0.85 Mach or 565 mph or 909 km/h) and features intercontinental range (8,430 statute miles, or 13,570 km, for the 747-400 version), in some configurations sufficient to fly New York-Hong Kong (roughly a third of the globe) non-stop. By May 2004, a total of 1381 aircraft have been built or ordered in various 747 configurations, making it an extremely profitable product for Boeing.
The 747 was born out of the explosion of air travel in the 1960s. The enormous popularity of the Boeing 707 had revolutionised long distance travel, and had began the concept of the "global village" made possible by the jet revolution. Boeing had already developed a study for a very large airplane when it was bidding on a US military contract for a huge airlifter. Boeing lost the contract to Lockheed, but came under pressure from its most loyal airline customer Pan Am to develop a giant passenger plane which would be over twice the size of the 707. In 1966, Boeing had proposed a preliminary configuration for the airliner, which was to be called the 747, and Pan Am got the ball rolling with an order for 25 of the initial -100 series. The original design was a full length double decker. However, following issues with proposed evacuation routes, this idea was scrapped in favor of a wide-body design.
At the time, it was widely thought that the 747 would be replaced in the future with an SST (SuperSonic Transport). Boeing took the shrewd move and designed the 747 so that it could easily be adapted to carry freight, knowing that when sales of the passenger version dried up, it could remain in production as a cargo aircraft. The cockpit was moved to a shortened upper deck so that a nose cone loading door could be included, thus creating the 747's distinctive "bulge", which was initially used as a luxurious first-class lounge/bar area, but as time went on was used for extra seating capacity. In the end however, the supersonic transports such as Boeing's still-born SST and the ConcordeThe Aerospatiale- BAC Concorde supersonic transport (SST) was one of only two supersonic passenger airliners to have seen commercial service. Concorde had a cruising speed of Mach 2. 04 and a cruise altitude of 56,000 feet ( 17,000 metres) with a delta wi never lived up to their promise, being far too expensive to operate profitably at a time when fuel prices were soaring. After being expected to wither on the vine with only 400 sales, the 747 outlived many of its critics and production passed the 1,000 mark in 19931993 is a common year starting on Friday and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003 Events January January 1 Czechoslovakia divides. Establishment of independent Slovakia and Czech Republic.. The expected slow-down in sales of the passenger version in favour of the cargo derivative has only happened in the early 2000sThis article is about the decade starting at the beginning of 2000 and ending at the end of 2009. For the century or millennium starting in 2000, see the links below. Millennia: 2nd millennium 3rd millennium 4th millennium Centuries: 20th century 21st cen.
The development of the 747 was a huge undertaking. Boeing did not have a factory big enough to assemble the giant aircraft, so had to build an all-new assembly building near Everett, WashingtonEverett is a city located in Snohomish County, Washington. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 91,488. It is the county seat of Snohomish County 6 and the western terminus of the western segment of U. It is also home to Boeing's 747. This factory is the largest building ever built. Pratt and Whitney developed a massive high-bypass turbofan engineA high-bypass turbofan engine is a turbofan with a bypass ratio of at least 5. Advantages These engines are generally quieter, and more fuel efficient. Blades The turbine blades are subject to high heat and stress, and require special fabrication. New mat, the JT9DThe Pratt & Whitney JT9D engine is the first high-bypass-ratio engine to power a wide-bodied aircraft. Its first initial application is the Boeing 747-100 , the original "Jumbo-jet". It is also the first high-bypass turbofan for Pratt & Whitney. The JT9D, that was, in the beginning, exclusively for the 747. In order to appease concerns about the safety and flyability of such a massive aircraft, the 747 was designed with no less than four backup hydraulic systems, split control surfaces, multiple structural redundancy, and sophisticated flaps which allow it to use standard-length runways.
Initially, Boeing found that the 747 was being treated with skepticism by many airlines. At the time, Boeing's rivals, McDonnell Douglas and Lockheed, were working on wide-body three-engine "tri-jets", which were significantly smaller than the proposed 747. Many airlines wondered if the 747 would prove to be too large for an average long distance flight and instead invested in tri-jets. Furthermore, there was worry about whether or not the 747 would be compatible with existing airport infrastructure.
Another issue raised by the airlines was fuel efficiency. A three-engine airliner burns significantly less fuel per flight than a four-engine, and with airlines trying to lower costs, fuel efficiency was a large issue (this issue would return to haunt Boeing during the 1970s).
Boeing had promised the 747 to Pan Am by 1970, so it had less than four years to develop, build and test the 747. Work progressed at such a breakneck pace that all those who worked on the development of the 747 were given the nickname "The Incredibles". The massive cost of developing the 747 and building the Everett factory meant that Boeing had gambled its very existence on the 747's success, and very nearly bankrupted the company in the early 1970s. The gamble paid off however, and Boeing enjoyed a monopoly on very large passenger transports that has only been broken 35 years later with the advent of the Airbus A380.