In the modern world of aviation, huge winged machines rule the roost. In a series of subsonic passenger flights, several giants can be distinguished, capable of lifting four hundred to five hundred people in one sitting. The Boeing 747 stands out against their background, the cabin layout of which will allow travelers to be accommodated on two passenger decks at the same time.
Size matters
The post-war era was marked by explosive demand in the aviation market. The global growth in passenger air travel in the 1960s presented Boeing engineers with a daunting task. It was necessary to design an aircraft twice as large as the "707" running at that time. The national company "Pan American" could not cope with the flow of people who wanted to carry out air travel by air in the shortest possible time. This state of affairs forced her to place a tender for the development, production, testing and delivery of the largest aircraftin the world on turbojet thrust.
Production expansion
Pan American lived up to the expectations of the Boeing management and ordered twenty-five aircraft from the first hundred copies of the pilot series. A year later, in 1971, the carrier placed an order for an equal number of Boeing 747 200 aircraft, with cabin layout and more powerful engines to increase the total number of payloads and passengers on board.
The giant aircraft was built, tested and certified in less than four years, which is a very short time even for a new model of a small aircraft. The existing plant of the aircraft concern did not allow building machines of such large dimensions in its workshops. They just didn't fit in there. Especially for the Boeing 747, whose cabin scheme provided for an additional upper deck, as well as a high- altitude cockpit on the upper deck, a new plant was built in Everett, Washington.
Interesting facts
The work went on at an accelerated pace. Exclusively for a new class of aircraft, Pratt & Whitney has designed an unusually large jet-powered turbofan engine with the JT9T index. The unit had a high bypass ratio and was installed in the amount of four pieces, two for each wing. An interesting fact is that the company went for a little trick. In order to ensure a possible replacement of the outgoingWhen building the engine at airports remote from the company's service centers, an additional engine attachment point was installed under the fuselage, not far from the number two engine attachment. Thus, the donor aircraft delivered a spare engine to its broken brother, taking off with five engines installed, but flying only four of them.
Another interesting fact is related to the high cockpit on this monster. In order to develop future pilots of the 747th piloting skills and a sense of speed at such an altitude (and it is not easy to feel the right speed at such an altitude - it is perceived to be noticeably lower than the actual one), a special simulator was invented. The pilot's workplace was installed on the roof of the truck in the layout of the cockpit of the Boeing 747 aircraft. The layout of the car's interior and the structure of its roof made it possible to safely operate such a hybrid in a closed area. It was used to practice taxiing, parking and pre-start/execution start procedures by prospective pilots. The simulator was named "Waddell Van", in honor of Jack Waddell, the first test pilot of this new series.
Misty prospects
The development of a new aircraft design of this magnitude and the construction of a plant of unprecedented size almost brought the company to the brink of bankruptcy. However, the multimillion-dollar profits from sales of the first models fully paid off the costs, bringing the balance sheet of the aircraft concern to a level unattainable before.
However, despite this positive fact, the future of the already created series of aircraft remained vague. It did not help to solve the problem and updating the series to the Boeing 747 300 model, the cabin layout of which made it possible to accommodate noticeably more passengers than on the previous two hundredth version, by increasing the length of the upper deck. The questions remained unchanged. How profitable is it to use such an aircraft? Is it economical, including over long distances? Will the huge cost of leasing it pay off?
Competitors are on the alert
The doubts of top managers and owners of passenger transportation companies were also fueled by the fuel crisis that broke out in the world in the early seventies. The explosive rise in oil prices immediately sent up airfare. Demand for air travel began to plummet. Oil was added to the fire by restless competitors, including those within the same company. In addition to market novelties such as DC-10, L-1011 and A300, the new wide-body B767 confidently won back its positions, competing with the Boeing 747 model. The layout of the cabin "seven hundred and sixty-seventh" allowed to accommodate fewer passengers, but it was much more economical, more compact, and less expensive to maintain.
Prospective update
The young aircraft giant of the sky, the Airbus A380, is now facing similar difficulties. It was developed by a European manufacturer under the Airbus A3XX program, forcreating competition for a growing manufacturer from the states. In response to this move, the Americans launched the Boeing 747 500 model into the project. The layout of the cabin of the promising generation of the series allowed for a capacity of up to 800 people per flight. At the same time, a project of the 600th series of a winged vehicle was launched, with similar flight characteristics, but these ideas remained on paper.
In 2005 the company announced another update of its creation. The version of the 747-400, extended by five and a half meters, first took to the air on February 8, 2010. The model was assigned the index 747-8, or, according to the company's model coding, "Boeing 747 800". The layout of the cabin of the updated aircraft allows you to carry fifty-one passengers and two cargo air pallets more than the previous version of the B744. In the passenger version of the aircraft, there were also noticeable changes to the eye. The entrance for passengers has become more spacious, the stairs to the second deck have become more gentle, and in the SkyBunks version, you can go down to the lower deck using the second staircase.
Russian realities
In Russia, the main customer for Boeing 747 models is Transaero. The cabin layout of carrier-operated aircraft provides 522 seats on most of the 20 aircraft operating on various routes. Feedback from management, pilots and passengers is mostly positive. The machine is understandable, comfortable, easily controlled in the air. The high landing of the aerobatic team provides morevisibility while taxiing, and due to its unusual shape of the fuselage, other pilots immediately notice the Boeing 747 Transaero. The layout of the cabin and the flexibility of its layout allows air carriers to set cabins and classes of service to various standards, including their own. And the remarkable passenger capacity of the cabin and the ability of the aircraft to land on the main runways of standard lengths give this aircraft an additional advantage over its European competitors.
