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Boeing 747
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Boeing 747

jetliner
Also known as: 747

Learn about this topic in these articles:

aerospace engineering

  • Boeing 707
    In Boeing Company: History of Boeing Company

    …high development costs of the 747 “Jumbo Jet,” the world’s first wide-body jetliner, almost forced Boeing into bankruptcy, but, when the 400-seat aircraft went into service in 1970, it allowed airlines to offer affordable long-range air travel for the general public and gave Boeing a monopoly position in this market…

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aviation history

  • Leonardo da Vinci's flying machine
    In history of flight: Airliners

    …of the wide-bodied, 400-seat Boeing 747 in 1969. This large, swift, and long-ranged aircraft created a transportation revolution. Whereas air travel had once been confined to the affluent, it now became a mass-market conveyance as airline ticket prices fell and airlines became more sophisticated in their pricing practices. As the…

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landing gear

  • Air New Zealand Limited
    In airplane: Takeoff and landing gear

    Large aircraft, such as the Boeing 747, incorporate multiple bogies (several wheels arranged in a variety of configurations) in their landing gear to spread out the weight of the aircraft and to facilitate stowage after retraction in flight.

    Read More
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biplane
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1930 Fleet, two-seat biplane Voisin-Farman I biplane
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Estimated battle casualties, Normandy invasion, World War II. WWII, D-Day
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1930 Fleet, two-seat biplane
1930 Fleet, two-seat biplane

biplane

aircraft
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Article History

biplane, airplane with two wings, one above the other. In the 1890s this configuration was adopted for some successful piloted gliders. The Wright brothers’ biplanes (1903–09) opened the era of powered flight. Biplanes predominated in military and commercial aviation from World War I through the early 1930s, but the biplane’s greater maneuverability could not offset the speed advantage of the lighter monoplane. After World War II, biplanes were used only for special purposes: crop dusting and sport (aerobatic) flying.

In the mid-1930s Adolf Busemann proposed the supersonic biplane, having a quite narrow gap (space between wings) in which expansion waves and shock waves would interact to reduce drag (the “shape drag” due to the thickness of the airfoil sections). A biplane having one much smaller wing (usually the lower) is called a sesquiplane. A few triplane designs proved successful during World War I; powered aircraft with four or more main lifting surfaces have never been more than curiosities.

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