The Boeing 747 jetliner turns 50

By M.R.

EARLIER THIS MONTH, a decommissioned Boeing 747 airliner was towed down a Dutch motorway to its final destination as a novelty hotel complex. Its owners reckon they can turn the jumbo-jet into a tourist attraction. They are not wrong. Sweden’s Stockholm Arlanda Airport is already using one as a hostel (its best room is where the pilots used to sit). In Bahrain, developers are planning to turn a submerged 747 into the centrepiece of a new underwater theme park. Having celebrated the 50th anniversary of the 747’s first flight this month, fans of the iconic jumbo jet know that it is falling out of favour with airlines. Before long, ground-based encounters will be the only way of getting up close and personal with these planes.

To say that the 747 revolutionised air travel when it entered commercial service in 1970 is an understatement. Saying it opened the skies to the masses is closer to the mark. As the first passenger plane ever built with a twin-aisle cabin configuration, it was twice the size of its predecessor, the Boeing 707. That gave airlines the economies of scale they needed to sell cheap tickets on long-haul routes for the first time. Its roomier cabins, with less noise from jet engines, made long-haul travel much more comfortable too. The 747’s upper deck, that formed its distinctive hump, became the most coveted place in the sky. More than 1,500 of the planes have been delivered over the past five decades. Not many people, even the geekiest of aviation enthusiasts, can distinguish an Airbus A330 jet from a Boeing 777–two of the jumbo’s modern successors–when they soar overhead. But almost every traveller can recognise the 747’s hump.

This iconic sight, however, is getting rarer. With four gas-guzzling engines, the 747 is much less fuel-efficient than modern twin-engine rivals such as the A330 or the 777. That makes it costlier to operate–a problem in an airline industry where margins are often too thin. Yet the real surprise for Boeing is how successful it was. It was originally just meant to be a cargo-carrying jet; supersonic airliners were thought to be the future of aviation when the 747 was born. The triumph of it as a passenger aircraft—and the commercial failure of supersonic jets such as Concorde—came as a pleasant surprise for Boeing. The purpose of its hump in the original design was not to wow business-class passengers but to raise the cockpit above the fuselage, so cargo the full size of its diameter could be fitted in. And there is still some demand for new ones for exactly that purpose. All of the 24 jumbos left in Boeing’s orderbook are destined for cargo carriers. The 747 is on the wane as a passenger aircraft as airlines retire their fleets. But it is far from dead yet.