Boeing was competing for a supersonic transport contract in 1965, at about the same time the 747 was conceived, and Pan Am founder and chairman Juan Trippe believed that the big subsonic jets would end up as freighters and that the SST would replace the 747 on passenger routes. Trippe was...
A Boeing 747-8 passenger airliner, for instance, has a maximum takeoff weight of 487.5 tons (442 metric tons), the force with which the weighty plane is drawn toward the Earth. Weight's opposing force is lift, which holds an airplane in the air. This feat is accomplished through the ...
Boeing claim that the B787 Dreamliner uses 20-25% less fuel on a per passenger basis than the planes it replaces. This is one of the facts which Europe’s largest low-cost airline, Ryanair, uses to make claims about being Europe’s greenest airline, never mind that it has flown on ...
Boeing 747 or Airbus A380 – which is your favorite? Should London Luton Airport be expanded? Will Global Airlines be a success? Where is your favorite plane spotting location? Boeing 787 vs. Airbus A350 – which do you prefer? What’s the worst diversion you’ve experienced? What...
A 747? We ran the numbers. Here are the results: 43 km/hFastest human (Usain Bolt) 121 km/hFastest land animal (cheetah) 431 km/hFastest car (Bugatti Veyron Super Sport) 988 km/hFastest commercial aeroplane (Boeing 747) 1,228 km/hCurrent land speed world record 1,234 km/...
Widebody Captain (Years 10-20): Flies long-haul international routes (Boeing 777, Airbus A350). Senior Captain (Years 20+): Highest-paid pilots flying flagship aircraft (Boeing 747, Airbus A380). ✔ Retirement and Pensions: Airline pilots have strong retirement packages with defined benefit pl...
Fun fact: A Boeing 747 has an estimated 140 miles of wiring. Each wire connects a specific pin on one end to another pin on the other. If even one wire connects to the wrong pin, the system—an aircraft, vehicle, or industrial machine—won’t function properly. The wiring schematic han...
Across the Atlantic, Boeing is also working, together with NASA, on a number of futurist aircraft concepts within the framework of theNew Aviation Horizons initiative. MORE: Why the sun is setting on the Boeing 747 The SUGAR program (that stands for Subsonic Ultra Green Aircraft Research) has...
The JT9D - the first to power the Boeing 747. Image via Pratt & Whitney. Speich has been at P&W since the mid-1970s, and joined just after P&W launched the JT9D, which powered the first Boeing 747. "Those first engines had a bypass ratio of around 4.5 to 1," Speich said. They ...