How big is Boeing 747? | Scale of the Universe

The Boeing 747 is a four-engine jet airliner and cargo plane, and it was the first wide-body airliner, with two aisles in the cabin instead of one. Its longest version, the 747-8, is 76.25 meters (250 feet 2 inches) long from nose to tail. That length is the size shown here. Its wings span 68.4 meters (224 feet 5 inches) from tip to tip.

Size

Boeing publishes the exact dimensions of each 747 model in its planning guides for airports. The 747-8 is 76.25 meters long overall and has a wingspan of 68.40 meters. It came in two versions: the 747-8 Freighter, which first flew in 2010, and the 747-8 Intercontinental, a passenger plane that first flew in 2011.

Earlier 747s were smaller. The 747-100, -200 and -300 were about 70 meters (231 feet) long, with a wingspan of 59.64 meters (195 feet 8 inches). The 747-400 of 1988 added upturned wingtips called winglets and a wingspan of about 64 meters (212 feet). The 747-8 is 5.6 meters (18 feet 4 inches) longer than the 747-400 Freighter.

Size comparisons

A 747-8 is about as long as 45 people 1.7 meters (5 feet 7 inches) tall, lying head to toe.
The first powered airplane flight, made by the Wright brothers in 1903, covered 36 meters (120 feet), about half the length of a 747-8.
Stood on its tail, a 747-8 would reach about four-fifths of the way up the Statue of Liberty, which is 93 meters (305 feet) tall from the ground to its torch.
A 747-8 is a little over two-thirds the length of an American football field, which is 110 meters (120 yards) long with its end zones.

Building the first jumbo jet

Boeing designed the 747 in the late 1960s, when falling airfares were filling the skies with passengers. About 50,000 Boeing workers built the first one in roughly 16 months, and it first flew on February 9, 1969. It needed a new assembly plant, the Everett factory in Washington State, with a volume of 5.6 million cubic meters (200 million cubic feet).

Over the years, 747s carried passengers, cargo and some unusual loads. NASA converted two 747-100s into Shuttle Carrier Aircraft for the space shuttle program. In 1990, two modified 747-200Bs became Air Force One, the airplane of the U.S. president.

The last 747

Boeing launched the 747-8 in 2005, borrowing engines and other technology from its 787 Dreamliner. The final 747, a 747-8 Freighter, was delivered to the cargo airline Atlas Air on January 31, 2023. That delivery ended more than half a century of production, during which the Everett factory built 1,574 of the airplanes.