Boeing 747 Facts Part 2 of 4

Engineering and Testing

• Seventy-five thousand engineering drawings were used to produce the first 747.
• The first 747 completed more than 15,000 hours of wind-tunnel testing.
• The original 747 flight test program, which led to the airplane's certification for commercial service in December 1969, used five airplanes, lasted 10 months and required more than 1,500 hours of flying.

Flight

• The 747 fleet has logged more than 35 billion statute miles (56 billion km) - enough to make 74,000 trips to the moon and back.
• The 747 fleet has flown 3.5 billion people - the equivalent of more than half of the world's population.
• The 747-400ER range is approximately 7,720 statute miles (14,297 km).
• A 747-400 typically takes off at 180 mph (290 km/h), cruises at 565 mph (910 km/h) and lands at 160 mph (260 km/h).

For a typical international flight, one 747 operator uses about 5.5 tons (5,000 kg) of food supplies and more than 50,000 in-flight service items.


Continue to part 3 of 4