This can be impacted by several key factors: the airplane's total shape as well as its wing shape, the direction of airflow, and the aircraft's size and weight. For the Boeing 747, under ideal ...

A decade later, Boeing’s main rival, Airbus, debuted the A380, which can carry more passengers than the 747. But Airbus struggled to sell the plane and announced the end of production in 2019.

Today, with hindsight being 20/20, we know how the Boeing 747 revolutionized air travel. But that was anything but a sure thing back when it was still on the drawing board in the mid-1960s.

Back in 1969, Andy Anderson was in the same plant as they built the world's first jumbo jet, twice the size of the largest airliner to date. ... Boeing's 747, the "queen of the skies" 52 photos.