That was a incredible jet, it was one of the first wide body airliners carrying over 400 passengers. The design was also iconic with the “hump” forming the upper deck.
It’s incredible to think that despite the age it still flys regularly as Air Force One and for numerous cargo airlines. There are still some 747’s in passenger configuration though, most notably Lufthansa still owns 26.
I regularly see Atlas Air Boeing 747’s fly over me doing work for the US Air Force.
I don’t know if you know about United Airlines flight 811 which was very high profile incident involving the Boeing 747 and a design flaw in the cargo door.
yeah . i have heard about the Boeing incidents in the past 3 years specially the 777 version , its a nice looking jet , but its sad that its going through rough times !
Yes the 777 isn’t looking good, the 737 max back in 2018 also wasn’t good. Although the 737 max is now one of the most investigated and inspected aircraft in existence, making it really safe, even if people don’t like it.
The 747 incident I mentioned happened years ago, but it’s a shame what’s happening at the moment as well.
A fun fact about the a380 is that it is actually certified to hold over 800 passengers, but airlines only configure it to hold roughly 500.
Not really a weight issue since the maximum taken off weight could accommodate more passengers. It’s more that the 850 is the total amount of people that can be safely seated and evacuated within two minutes (part of what is needed for certification), it doesn’t take into account comfort, additional facilities, etc.
That means that 850 is the amount of economy seats there could be, but in the real world airlines have economy, premium economy, business and first. In the case of most a380 operators the business and first take up substantially more room than economy ( for example Qatar’s q-suite or Emirates private suites). These obviously require lots of space, meaning you can’t now fit 800 passengers.
Emirates and other airlines also offer lots of in flight amenities to passengers, for example Emirates a380 planes have private showers for first class passengers. These obviously take up lots of space, further reducing the passenger count.
Premium airlines like Emirates also obviously offer highly personalised experiences, meaning that one flight attendant might only handle just a few first class passengers. This means more flight attendants are needed (especially in long haul operations where rest breaks are needed), therfore reducing the total space for passengers.
Realistically it’s a balancing act between total passengers and passenger experience.