Is Boeing 747 still in production? The clear-cut answer is a big NO. There is no chance of any Boeing 747 production in the future. Because the last Boeing 747 aircraft was delivered on January 31, 2023.
See Also | What is the Landing Speed of Boeing 747?
Boeing has navigated through 503 aviation incidents involving their array of 737 aircraft, leading to 219 hull losses and a staggering loss of 9,000 lives. Analyzing the Boeing Statistical Summary of Commercial Jet Airplane Accidents spanning 2011 to 2020, the hull loss accident rate per million departures across all Boeing models settled at a figure of 0.22.
Check! Air India has sold four Boeng 747: Air India’s Boeing 747 takes final flight from Mumbai
Exclusive video of the wingwave on departure out of #Mumbai #AirIndia #Nomadic #Boeing #Boeing747
Video taken by a friend. pic.twitter.com/vwrjZyzaLq
— Varun Solanki (@varunb777) April 22, 2024
Is Boeing 747 still in production? Why they are stopped now?
Is Boeing 747 still in production? The production of the Boeing 747 has been stopped since January 2023.
Boeing started building airplanes in 1916, and during the Second World War, they built bombers that were shot down in thousands.
Airplanes develop over time and get safer for every generation. The Boeing 737, for example, was introduced in 1968. The first generation (-100 and -200) had a higher accident rate than the second generation (-300 to -500), which in turn had more accidents than the third generation (-600 to -900).
The reasons for this are many:
- Better technical standards, giving fewer failures.
- Better avionics, giving better situation awareness.
- Better crew training.
But statistics can be deceiving. Until 25 July 2000, the Concorde was the safest airplane in the world. One single accident changed that: The Concorde is now at the bottom of the list, because it made so few flights in total.
𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗱𝗯𝘆𝗲 𝗔𝗶𝗿 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮 𝗝𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗼❤️
Air India Boeing B744 taxiing towards runway 27 at Mumbai via famous N1 for the very last time. Departing from Mumbai to it’s birth place Everett(PAE).
Pic©:- @KadamAnshul @VishalJolapara @Vinamralongani #airindiajumbo #Boeing747 pic.twitter.com/w4YVkNYdW0
— Anshul Kadam (@KadamAnshul) April 22, 2024
The Boeing 777 is another example: From 1995 to 2014, the airplane was among the safest airplanes in the world. Then, in 2014, one airplane went missing over the Indian Ocean (most probably caused by one of the pilots) and one airplane was shot down over Ukraine. More than 500 people were killed. Neither of the incidents was caused by the airplane’s design but by human actions.
Boeing 737 Max stands out because it was pushed into production with badly designed software that nobody was aware of. This is a one-of-a-kind incident.
Therefore, it’s nearly impossible to compare airplane safety by counting the number of crashes.
The bottom line is that both Airbus and Boeing airplanes are very safe.
Worst Air Crash of Boeing 747
On August 12, 1985, the worst air disaster involving only one aircraft in history took place.
Is Boeing 747 still in production? Flight JAL 123 departed Tokyo for Osaka carrying 524 people on board. About 12 minutes after takeoff, the plane went into explosive decompression due to poor maintenance, leaving the massive Boeing 747 without a vertical stabilizer and virtually no control whatsoever as all hydraulics were destroyed.
As a result, the plane started up and down movements every 90 seconds and also turned to the left and right. It was 32 minutes of horror, time that passengers and crew used to write farewell letters to relatives and family members.
Flight JAL 123 met its end in a mountain range with high peaks, crashing into one of them. Only 4 people survived the accident.
Can a Boeing 747 do a barrel roll?
Yes, but I’ll qualify my answer by assuming you mean a regular aileron roll (see my point at the end). During type training, I’ve done it in the full-size 747–400 airline simulator more than once and they’re a very accurate representation of the real aircraft (just for fun when we had a few minutes spare. It’s not part of the actual training).
Done properly, a roll is a low-stress maneuver. Having said that, the 747 has been involved in at least one accident where the aircraft exceeded the stresses you’d find in an ordinary roll and performed some extraordinary maneuvers as the crew struggled to regain control (China Airlines Flight 006). They and the aircraft survived and flew on to landing.
4Also note that a Boeing 707 did a roll during a sales demonstration flight (Pilot Tex Johnson in 1955). It was both at a (relatively) low altitude and in front of a crowd. Search for it, there are many photos and a film. Back to the “barrel roll”. Most media and the general public incorrectly use the term “barrel roll” when they really mean an aileron roll.
An aileron roll is when the aircraft simply rotates 360 degrees along it’s longitudinal axis. Although an initial use of the elevator usually precedes the maneuver, the primary input during the roll is the aileron. A barrel roll is when the aircraft appears to scribe a path as if flying around the inside of a giant barrel. This maneuver has two primary inputs used throughout the maneuver, aileron, and elevator. I’d bet the ‘plane could pull this off but have never tried it.