Welcome to Amazing Aircraft where I, Vince, cover many of the most popular aircraft both military and commercial. Today we are going to cover a pretty well known aircraft, the Queen of the Skies, the Boeing 747. The first Boeing 747 was created in 1969 when it was introduced to the public. It was the first plane to be called a jumbo jet. Equipped with four General Electric GEnx-2B67 Turbo-Fan engines while the older ones have RB211 engines from Rolls Royce car company.
The B-747 is equipped with a staircase to go to the top floor. On the second floor there are additional passenger seats and the cockpit. It can hold 416-660 passengers but if you take out the seats the most people a 747 has ever carried is 1,087 people. Fun fact: the president’s plane, Air Force One, is a B747 200 with some fun stuff inside.
Now to the darker side of air travel, the accidents. The Boeing 747 aircraft model has had 64 accidents in its lifetime. 32 of the 64 crashes were non-fatal. The worst accident that did claim lives of passengers and crew were when two B747s – one flown by KLM and one by PanAm – collided on the runway, claiming lives from both planes. No passengers from the KLM survived and only 61 survived from the PanAm. But that was before the B747 model construction was discontinued. The last one was built in January 2023 and delivered to Atlas Air. Today these planes are being converted by logistic companies into cargo planes due to the fact that the freight load is perfect for international flights. While newer planes have better engines which are more cost effective for passengers.
https://www.boeing.com/commercial/747-8/design-highlights
