Roughly a thousand 747s are currently flying around the globe -- more than any other jetliner save the 737, the A320 and the DC-9/MD-80 series. Many people are surprised to learn that there are more airworthy 747s than either 757s or 767s. (Neither the 757 nor the DC-9/MD-80 is still in production.) Boeing predicts a need for approximately 900 airplanes in the 747's class over the next 20 years. Note also Boeing's emphasis on a freighter option for the 747-8. Of late, most 747 sales have been as cargo haulers, and the plane's long history as an outstanding freighter (anyone remember the days of Flying Tigers or Seaboard World?) should provide a certain profit buffer should sales of the passenger versions falter. It's perhaps significant that the launch customers for the 747-8 program are Japan's Nippon Cargo Airlines (an All Nippon Airways affiliate) and Luxembourg's Cargolux (a longtime 747 operator), with commitments for 34 ships.

For now, and maybe permanently, the plane is called the 747-8. This designator is something of a non sequitur for Boeing, which has gone to great lengths to retain its orderly numbering system. Not only has the familiar 7-dash-7 sequence remained intact, but the variant suffixes have too. The 737, for instance, progressed from the 737-100 through the 737-900 without a skip. The 747 got a bit weird in the early '70s with the short-bodied SP, but in the minds of purists, next in line should be the -500. The choice of -8, however, is wily and significant in two ways. It's a pitch to the Asian market, where eight is considered a fortuitous number, and it's a subtle jab at the Airbus A380.

A not-so-subtle jab are the -8's specs. Price and performance, not nomenclature, will bring in the orders, and a look at the plane's numbers, from acquisition costs through operating data, should have the folks in Toulouse sweating profusely.

After five straight years of second-place sales, Boeing has once again gained the upper hand against Airbus. The 737 is doing well, and pre-production orders of the 787 are solidly outscoring those of the derivative A350. Now this. The modest makeover of a 35-year-old bird could bring dividends for decades to come.

I'd go so far as to call the A380 a white elephant, but elephants, for all their girth and heft, are at least kind of cool looking.

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Boeing 747 trivia and infamy:

  • The 747 was first put into service by Pan American World Airways in January 1970, on the New York-London route.

  • The first 747 to crash was a Lufthansa plane in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1974. The last was an African-registered freighter that went down in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 2004.

  • The airplane that completed the maiden Pan Am voyage to London was named the Clipper Victor. Seven years later, on the Spanish island of Tenerife, this very aircraft was destroyed in a takeoff collision with another 747. Five hundred and eighty-three people were killed in what remains the worst disaster in aviation history.

  • On older 747s, the main and upper decks were connected by a spiral staircase.

  • In 1991, as part of an airlift of Ethiopian Jews called Operation Solomon, an El Al 747 transported a record 1,087 passengers from Addis Ababa to Tel Aviv.

  • Although maximum-density seating allows for as many as 580 very uncomfortable riders, typical three-class layouts range from 350 to 450. At Japan's All Nippon Airways, a token number of 747s are modified for short-haul operations, each with a knee-breaking 569 seats. (Similarly, you can expect the A380 to feature those much-hyped "800 or more passengers" only in very select markets, if at all. With an emphasis on premium cabin comforts, some A380s will contain fewer seats than many 747s.)

  • Airlines with the most 747s: Japan Airlines (72), Air France (60), British Airways (58), Singapore Airlines (43).

  • Of all U.S. legacy airlines, past and present -- American, America West, Braniff, Continental, Delta, Eastern, Northwest, Pan Am, TWA, United and US Airways -- only one has never had a 747 in its fleet: US Airways. Today, the last holdouts are Northwest and United, with about 35 examples each. Atlas Air, UPS, Polar Air Cargo and something called Kalitta Air -- all freighters -- also use 747s.

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    GO-AROUNDS (formerly "Missed Approaches")

    Re: mileage records

    Dear Patrick Smith: I anticipate you'll receive hundreds of similar corrections, but your list of the longest scheduled nonstop flights seems to have omitted a few obvious candidates, including a flight I have taken many times, San Francisco-Hong Kong, at 6,927 miles.

    -- Dan Kutten

    Author's reply: Several e-mails like this one were received, all citing statute rather than nautical miles. If you're using the Great Circle Mapper, be careful to select nautical miles in the "path distance" window. The list of the 10 longest flights is correct as it appears.

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    Do you have questions for Salon's aviation expert? Send them to AskThePilot and look for answers in a future column.

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