by Мастер » Thu Feb 02, 2023 8:32 am
Two days late - but, here goes.
On 31 January 2023, the last ever Boeing 747 was delivered to the customer Atlas Air, a cargo carrier.
For 37 years, the Boeing 747 was the largest passenger aircraft in the sky, finally eclipsed by the Airbus 380.
Boeing didn’t believe the 747 had much of a future as a passenger aircraft. It was widely thought that the future of passenger travel was supersonic, and a very large but subsonic craft like the 747 was a stopgap measure. However, they did see a future for such craft as cargo aeroplanes, and designed the 747 to be converted easily into a freighter - something Airbus did not do such a good job of decades later.
Apart from it being very large, the cockpit is on a smaller upper deck. As a result, it is possible for a passenger to sit ahead of the pilot on the lower deck (something Мастер has done). The nose can pivot up, allowing cargo to be loaded through the front. The Airbus 380 cannot do this. It is larger, but the two decks are separated by flooring that cannot be removed, because it is needed for the structural integrity of the craft. And, the cockpit is between the upper and lower decks, making it impossible to swivel up. Cargo must therefore not only fit in the upper deck only or the lower deck only - it must also fit through the door. As pleasant as it is as a passenger aircraft, the A380 is a poor freighter.
As it happens, Boeing’s own demand forecasts for passenger variants of the 747 were too pessimistic. The craft sold well. Widespread supersonic travel never happened, and twin-engine craft could not be flown long distances over water. The 747 faced only limited direct competition from the DC-10 (later the MD-11) and the Lockheed L10-11, somewhat smaller tri-engine craft. The 747 ruled the Pacific. While smaller craft were often used between North America and Europe, 747s were easy to find in Asia and Australia.
More than three and a half decades later, Airbus put out the even larger A380, another four-engine craft. But this one came to the market many years too late. It was too big, requiring extensive modifications at airports where it operated. But, the era of quad-engine very large jets was already coming to an end. Engine reliability improved to the point that twin-engine craft are now routinely flown across the wide expanses of the Pacific and other overwater routes. The twin-engine craft are more efficient, require less maintenance, and can operate profitably with smaller passenger loads than the B747 or the A380. Long distance flights are now routinely handled by twin-jets like the B777, B787, and A350. The passenger versions of both the B747 and A380 were discontinued in the last few years, although Boeing continued to make a freighter B747 until Tuesday. Now neither will be built again. If forces conspire to put another very large passenger aircraft into the sky, it will likely be a new design, taking advantage of the more efficient materials and technologies used on the B787 and the A350.
But it will still be possible to fly in a B747, probably for years to come. I believe there are still 31 operating as passenger aircraft (more than one hundred before COVID), with Lufthansa having the largest passenger 747 fleet. So a quick trip to Arnebburg could well put one inside one of these great metal beasts. For A380, there are a lot in the Middle East, including the one Мастер recently took to Doha. But Emirates operating out of Dubai has the largest fleet. (I recently saw one from MH on the ground in KL.)
They call me Mr Celsius!
Watch on 
