Featured Map: Generations of 747 First Flights (9 February 2011)

Yesterday and today mark the anniversaries of three milestones in the Boeing 747 program:

• 9 February 1969: The first 747 flew for the first time, a nearly two hour flight from from (and back to) Paine Field in Everett, Washington, site of Boeing's new 747 factory.
• 9 February 1989: Twenty years later, the 747-400 made its first revenue flight from Minneapolis to Phoenix for launch customer Northwest. After receiving two more 747-400s, Northwest began international service with the 747-400 on the New York (JFK) to Tokyo (Narita) route on 1 June.
• 8 February 2010: One day short of the 41st anniversary of the 747's first flight, the 747-8 Freighter made its first flight.

Today's featured map illustrates the nominal range of five models of 747 from New York. Because of the 747's range, typical range charts which show the areas within the aircraft's range can be difficult to understand, so an "inside out" map is used instead, centered on the antipode of New York which is well beyond the range of the 747. An azimuthal equidistant projection is used, which shows all of Earth flattened like an orange peel. While New York is marked at the top of the map, in this projection New York is the entire edge of the map rather than a single point.

Starting from the shortest range (the largest range contour, closest to New York), the range contours represent the

• 747-100: 6,100 statute miles or 9,800 km, including London and Buenos Aires but falling short of Tokyo and Beijing.
• 747-200: 7,900 statute miles or 12,700 km, almost reaching Johannesburg.
• 747-400: 7,260 nm or 13,450 km, reaching beyond Hong Kong.
• 747-400ER: 7,670 nm or 14,205 km, which barely reaches Auckland.
• 747-8: 8,000 nm or 14,815 km, significantly beyond Auckland (allowing increased payload at that range) but short of Singapore.

Additional information:

• Boeing 747 Program Milestones
• Boeing 747 Family: 747 Classics Technical Specs
• Boeing 747 Family: 747-400 Technical Characteristics
• Boeing 747 Family: 747-400ER Technical Characteristics
• Boeing 747 Family: 747-8 Technical Characteristics
• Boeing 747 takes maiden flight on February 9, 1969 – HistoryLink.org: The Free Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History