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The design, power, and cockpit foot heaters that make the 747 feel like home to pilots. The 747 has foot heaters. The frozen surface of the Arctic Ocean looks better—everything looks better—when your feet are warm.

Boeing (NYSE: BA ) extended its sales lead over archrival Airbus (NASDAQOTH: EADSY ) in December. In its latest update on airplane orders, released last week, Boeing confirmed that 2014 "gross" orders for commercial aircraft reached 1,423 by mid-December, versus 1,328 planes for Airbus (at last report). After cancellations -- 106 at Boeing, but nearly three times as many at Airbus -- the U.S. aircraft maker's lead over its European rival only got bigger. This is good news for Boeing -- but, as we'll see in a moment, it might be bad news for one of Boeing's favorite customers: the...

Late 1960s: Economy Class Seating on a Pan-Am 747 The 1960's were barely done when Pan Am again set a standard the rest of the world was forced to follow. Pan American's Boeing B-747 Jumbo Jets brought down the cost of long distance air travel once again. Source: Pan Am Historical Foundation

From Foxtrot Alpha: After the Carter Administration's cancellation of the B-1A program due to fiscal concerns, the rise of air-launched cruise missiles and the possibility of developing a stealth bomber, Boeing put forward a low-risk, relatively cheap, cruise missile delivery vehicle alternative based on the mighty 747. It was called the Cruise Missile Carrier Aircraft, or CMCA for short. The idea was relatively simple, turn the premier long-range commercial hauler into an arsenal ship capable of carrying between 50 and 100 air-launched cruise missiles (ALCMs). At the time the AGM-86 air-launched cruise missile was all the rage (it is still...

Explanation: Bright stars of Sagittarius and the center of our Milky Way Galaxy lie just off the wing of a Boeing 747 in this astronomical travel photo. The stratospheric scene was captured earlier this month during a flight from New York to London, 11,0000 meters above the Atlantic Ocean. Of course the sky was clear and dark at that altitude, ideal conditions for astronomical imaging. But there were challenges to overcome while looking out a passenger window of the aircraft moving at nearly 1,000 kilometers per hour (600 mph). Over 90 exposures of 30 seconds or less were attempted with...

A Boeing Dreamlifter cargo jet, with a cargo hold among the largest by volume, accidentally landed at the wrong airport in Kansas Wednesday night, and was unable to take off due to the short runway. According to KWCH News, this type of plane requires 9,200 feet to take off whereas the runway at the airport is only 6,101 feet.

Atlas Air 747 Dreamlifter, a cargo plane that is a modified 747 that landed at the wrong airport on Wednesday. It is scheduled to try to take off Thursday even though the runway is considered too short for such a large plane. The cargo plane left New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport bound for McConnell Air Force Base.

CITY OF INDUSTRY (CBSLA.com) — One Southland man has spared no expense to recreate a mock 1970s Pan Am 747 that’s now on display at a warehouse in the city of Industry. As CBS2′s Amy Johnson reports, Anthony Toth has been working on a life-size model plane for about 35 years, moving it from place to place before finally having it settle into a 3000 square-foot warehouse. “When I was 5 years old, I boarded a 747 back in the early 70s with my family on a trip to Europe and the experience actually changed my life forever,” Toth said....

Functional laser weapons are just five years away. Advocates hope that won’t always be the case. The Air Force has been working on airborne laser weapons for more than 40 years, but a fielded system remains elusive. Experts also warn that the US does not enjoy a commanding lead in laser research. And the Air Force’s flagship laser weapon program, the Airborne Laser (later called the Airborne Laser Testbed) was terminated late last year and is now being dismantled. Still, service and industry experts predict there is plenty of reason for realistic optimism. Operational laser systems that can perform a...

The Pentagon has mothballed a laser-equipped jumbo jet after 15 years and $5 billion worth of research to develop an airborne missile defense system. Budget cuts shot down the Airborne Laser Test Bed but some research into anti-missile lasers will continue, according to the U.S. Missile Defense Agency. "We didn't have the funding to continue flying the aircraft," agency spokeswoman Debra Christman told the Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/xEnw3z ). The plane, a Boeing 747 mounted with a high-energy chemical laser, has been sent into storage at Davis Monthan Air Force Base, the agency said. The base near Tucson, Ariz., serves...

A Jumbo jet, with 286 passengers on board, had a terrifying near miss when it was forced to screech to a halt to avoid colliding with another plane that had turned into its path. The Lufthansa Boeing 747 was accelerating along a runway as it prepared to take off at Kennedy Airport, New York, when it narrowly avoided slamming into an EgyptAir Boeing 777.

'Doomsday Plane' Would Save President and Joint Chiefs in Apocalypse Scenario By MICHAEL MURRAY June 7, 2011 In the event of nuclear war, a powerful meteor strike or even a zombie apocalypse, the thoroughly protected doomsday plane is ready to keep the president, secretary of defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff and other key personnel in the air and out of danger. It may not deflect a Twitter photo scandal, but it can outrun a nuclear explosion and stay in the air for days without refueling. The flight team for the E-4B, its military codename, sleeps nearby and is ready to...

United Airlines released the first pictures Thursday of its largest jet, the Boeing 747-400, repainted with the new logo and color scheme adopted by the Chicago-based carrier as part of its 2010 merger with Continental Airlines.

Boeing rolled out a new bigger jumbo jet on Sunday almost 42 years to the day since the 747 changed the face of the travel industry. The 747-8 carries 467 passengers, 51 more than the current 747 range, burns less fuel, has new wings, tail and engines, is more comfortable and is 19 feet longer, says Boeing. Airlines have given a cool reception to the new plane with Boeing so far picking up only 33 orders from two airlines, Lufthansa and Korean Air Lines. The first plane off the production line will go to a VIP customer later this year....

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The Boeing Phantom Ray unmanned airborne system sits atop a NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), a modified Boeing 747, as it takes off at 1:40 p.m. Central time for today's test flight at Lambert International Airport. The 50-minute flight was conducted in preparation for Phantom Ray's upcoming transport on the SCA to the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. "This is exciting not just because it's the first time that an aircraft other than the space shuttle has flown on the SCA, but also because it puts Phantom Ray that much closer to making its first...

United Airlines 747 flies low over the Golden Gate Bridge

The airplane starts accelerating down the runway. In the flight deck, Captain Paul Stemer feels the weight of the situation. "It's a lot of mass, a lot of energy. I have to stay ahead of it." It's up to Capt. Stemer to command RC521, the second 747-8 Freighter, into defying gravity and lifting more than 1 million pounds into the air. It's a feat neither he nor any Boeing Flight Test pilot before him has ever attempted. While the airplane gathers speed, 100 knots, 120, 140, now 160 knots, the amount of available runway quickly evaporates. RC521 still needs to...

The Pentagon’s Airborne Laser (ABL) is being prepared for a late July test in which it will attempt to shoot down an ascending target missile from twice the distance of the aircraft’s previous intercept tests, the program’s top official said. Originally conceived as an operational military system that would use a high-power chemical laser to destroy ballistic missiles in the early stages of flight, the ABL platform — only one has been built — has been relegated to the role of technology test-bed. The program is funded by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) through September, but its future is...

A British aircraft broker (Balli Aviation Ltd.) was recently fined $17 million dollars, and put on probation for five years, for illegally exporting three Boeing 747s to Iran two years ago. The broker pled guilty and cooperated with the investigation. Iran has eight Boeing 747s, and they cannot be exported to Iran without a U.S. government permit. The U.S. refuses to provide these permits, so Iran obtains these aircraft via fraud and companies that are willing to risk prosecution. The Boeing and AirBus aircraft obtained this way have to be maintained by Iran, using smuggled parts. As a result, some...