Today marks the 40th anniversary of the 747's entry into commercial service. Well, technically, it's not until tomorrow. On January 22, 1970, at around 2AM EST, the first 747-100 (operated by Pan American World Airways), made its historic flight from New York to London carrying 362 passengers onboard. 40 years later, over 1,400 various models of 747 aircraft have been flown and are still continuing to fly with over 95 airlines. It has performed roughly 17 million flights, flown around 42 billion nautical miles, and carried more than half of the world's air freight. The legacy of the 747 will continue this year with the expected first flight of the 747-8 Freighter and the 747-8 Intercontinental (scheduled to fly in 2011). Below is a little table I created which gives a brief history of the 747 family.
Model First Flight In Service Launch Customer
747-100/SR/B 2/9/69 1/21/70 Pan Am
747-200 10/11/70 6/71 KLM
747-200F 11/30/71 4/19/72 Lufthansa
747-200C 3/23/73 5/73 World Airways
747SP 7/4/75 4/25/76 Pan Am
747-200M 11/18/74 3/7/75 Air Canada
747-300M 2/14/83 3/83 Swissair
747-300/SR 10/5/82 3/28/83 Swissair
747-400 4/29/88 2/9/89 Northwest
747-400M 6/30/89 9/89 KLM
747-400D 3/18/91 10/91 Japan Air Lines
747-400F 5/4/93 11/17/93 Cargolux
747-400ER 7/31/02 11/7/02 Qantas
747-400ERF 9/02 10/02 Air France
747-8F ??/10 ?? Cargolux
747-8I ??/11 ?? Lufthansa
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