Introduced in the 1970s with Pan Am, nothing has ever screamed “American prosperity” quite like a double-decker plane, the Boeing 747. Large enough to destroy even the most claustrophobic passenger’s fears, these airborne islands—with penthouse apartments for business class—blew minds every time their wheels eased off and on the tarmac.
The elephantine planes could have been reduced to a few years of hubristic service, but these jumbo jets beat the odds and rising fuel costs to enjoy an enormous reign as the “Queen of the Skies.” They still hold a few routes today, thanks to Lufthansa, KLM, British Airways, and United.
Here’re some awesome Boeing 747 facts you probably don’t know.
1. Boeing 747s have flown more than 3.5 billion people.
That is almost half the planet’s population.
2. The 350-400 person Boeing 747 once carried 1,087 people at once.
During the Operation Solomon evacuation, Israel played some serious clown airplane, tripling standard capacity by modifying the airplane. This beat Qantas’ 747 evacuation record of 674.
3. It takes 90 gallons of paint to paint a Boeing 747.
This is the same volume as a 30-minute shower with a decent-flow/Kramer-approved shower head, and looks sweet in time-lapse.
4. There are 14 stairs to the upper deck.
Maybe not that impressive on its own, but this is a plane with stairs, people. Think about that!
5. That upper deck alone has the same square footage as a 737.
Did we mention this is a big plane?
6. Boeing has modified around 15 of their 1,500 Boeing 747 planes for special purposes.
Air Force Ones, E-5 military command centers, space shuttle carriers, refueling tanker planes, and the Dreamlifter…the plane that looks like an anaconda that ate a horse. This one in particular was built to transport the fuselage of Boeing’s new jumbo jet, the Dreamliner. A few others are also modified to be converted at a moment’s notice into cargo planes.
7. The Wright brothers could have fit their historic first flight inside a Boeing 747.
And could have stayed strictly within the 150-foot economy section.
8. The landing gear tires are filled with nitrogen to prevent explosive tire blow outs.
This, in turn, prevents spilled Bloody Marys.
9. It was originally designed to be converted into a cargo plane.
When Boeing created the original design, they assumed supersonic travel was going to be the standard, but that subsonic cargo planes would be future-proof. It turned out that subsonic travel was pretty future-proof as well.
10. There are 365 switches, dials, and lights in the incredibly confusing cockpit.
One for every day of the year. Apparently this is down from 971.
11. The engine fan diameter is almost as girthy as a B-29 bomber.
Which was an enormous plane in its day.
12. The engine noise of the current Boeing 747 is about half that of the original Pratt & Whitney engines.
It is still, however, f***ing loud.
13. NASA chose the 747 to haul its space shuttles over the C-5 Galaxy for two reasons.
- The low wing design made it easy to mount the shuttle
- NASA could own the 747s, while they couldn’t own an Air Force C-5.
14. It would take Usain Bolt seven seconds to run from tip to tail.
To be fair, the 747 can cover 100 meters in 0.36 seconds, besting Bolt’s time by 9.22 seconds.
15. Qantas Airways 747-400 aircraft VH-OJA breaks the world record for the longest ever commercial flight, non-stop from London to Sydney in 20 hours, 9 minutes and 5 seconds in August 1989. The Aircraft City of Canberra has just been retired(!) from the QF fleet.
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