Boeing 747: interior layout of the aircraft

In the modern world of aviation, the scale is controlled by huge winged vehicles. In the series of subsonic passenger flights, there are several giants capable of lifting four hundred to five hundred people into the air in one sitting. Against their backdrop, Boeing 747 stands out especially , the layout of which allows travelers to be accommodated on two passenger decks simultaneously.

Size matters

The epoch of postwar time was marked by explosive demand in the aviation market. The global growth in the volume of passenger air transportation in the sixties put an uneasy task before the engineers of the Boeing concern. It was necessary to design the plane two times more than the running at that time "seven hundred and seventh". National company "Pan American" could not cope with the flow of people who want to fly by air in the shortest possible time. This state of affairs forced her to place a tender for the development, production, testing and supply of the world's largest aircraft on turbojet traction.

Expansion of production

"Pan American" met 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 air carrier placed an order for the same number of Boeing 747 200 aircraft, the layout of which and more powerful engines allowed to increase the total amount of payload and passengers on board.

The giant aircraft was built, tested and certified in less than four years, which is a very short period, even for a new model of a small-sized aircraft. The existing plant of the aircraft concern did not allow building cars of such large dimensions in their workshops. They simply could not fit there. Especially under the "Boeing 747", the layout of which provided for the presence of an additional upper deck, as well as a high-altitude cockpit on the upper deck, a new plant was built in the city of Everett, Washington.

Interesting Facts

The work was going on at a rapid pace. Exclusively for a new class of aircraft , Pratt & Whitney designed a non-standard large turbofan engine with jet thrust with the JT9T index. The unit had a high degree of dual circuit and was installed in the number of four pieces, two for each wing. An interesting fact is that the company went on a little trick. To ensure the possible replacement of a failed engine at airports remote from the company's service centers, an additional engine attachment point was installed under the fuselage, near engine mount number two. Thus, the donor airplane delivered the spare engine to its broken fellow, taking off with five installed engines, but managing only four of them.

Another interesting fact is connected with the high cabin of pilots on this monster. In order to train the future pilots of the 747th with flying skills and a sense of speed at such a height (and it is not easy to feel the necessary speed at such a high altitude - it is perceived much lower than the actual one), a special simulator was invented. On the roof of the truck installed the pilot's workplace in the layout of the cockpit of the Boeing 747 aircraft. The interior of the car and the structure of its roof allowed for the safe operation of such a hybrid in a closed area. It was used to develop taxiing, parking and exit procedures for preliminary / executive launch by future pilots. The simulator was named "Waddal 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 scale and the construction of an unprecedented factory almost put the company on the verge of bankruptcy. However, the multimillion-dollar profits from sales of the first models fully paid back the costs, bringing the balance of the airline to an unattainable level.

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 upgrade the series to the "Boeing 747 300" model, the layout of which allowed to accommodate significantly more passengers than the previous two-hundredth version, by increasing the length of the upper deck. The questions remained unchanged. How cost-effective to use such an airplane? Is it economical, including at long distances? Will the huge costs of leasing itself justify itself?

Competitors are not slumbering

Doubts of top managers and owners of companies engaged in passenger transportation, also fueled the fuel crisis that broke out in the world in the early seventies. Explosive growth in oil prices immediately inflated the price of air tickets. The demand for travel by air began to fall sharply. The oil was poured into the fire by troubled competitors, including inside one company. In addition to market innovations such as DC-10, L-1011 and A300, the new wide-bodied V767 confidently won its positions, competing with the "Boeing 747" model. The layout of the saloon "seven hundred and sixty-seventh" allowed to accommodate fewer passengers, however it was much more economical, more compact, and not so expensive in service.

Perspective update

With similar difficulties now faces a young aviation giant of heavenly space, "Airbus A380". It was developed by the European manufacturer under the Airbus A3XX program , to create competition for a growing manufacturer from the states. In response to this move, the Americans launched the "Boeing 747 500" model in the project. The scheme of the saloon of the prospective generation of the series allowed a capacity of up to 800 people per flight. In parallel, the project was launched in the six-hundredth series of the winged car, with similar flight characteristics, but these ideas remained on paper.

In 2005 the company announced another update of its creation. Extended for five and a half meters version of the running 747-400 for the first time took to the air on February 8, 2010. The model was assigned an index of 747-8, or, according to the company's encoded models, "Boeing 747 800". The scheme of the salon of the renewed aircraft allows transporting fifty-one passengers and two cargo airpans more than the previous version of the V744. In the passenger version of the aircraft there were also noticeable changes. The entrance for passengers became more spacious, the staircase to the second deck became more flat, and in the version of SkyBunks you can go down to the lower deck on the second staircase.

Russian realities

In Russia, the main customer of the Boeing 747 models is Transaero. The cabin layout of the aircraft operated by the carrier provides 522 seats on most of the 20 boards operating on different routes. Feedback guides, pilots and passengers are mostly positive. The machine is understandable, convenient, easily controlled in the air. The high landing of the aerobatic team provides a greater view on the 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 allow air carriers to establish lounges and classes of service according to various standards, including on 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 gives this car an additional advantage over its European competitors.