747-400

The 747-400 is the most successful 747 ever built — 694 aircraft across all versions, more than the -100, -200, -300 and SP combined — and for most people it is simply what a 747 looks like.

Boeing announced it in October 1985, rolled it out in January 1988, and flew it on 29 April 1988. Northwest Airlines took the first on 26 January 1989 and put it into service on 9 February.

What changed from the -300

Change	Why it mattered
Two-crew glass cockpit	Removed the flight engineer’s position entirely — the single largest operating-cost saving
6 ft wingtip extensions and 6 ft winglets	Reduced induced drag; the most visible external change
Lighter wing	Composites and new aluminium alloys, so the wing got bigger and lighter
Tail fuel tanks	Extra fuel in the horizontal stabiliser, adding range
Revised engines	Pratt & Whitney PW4000, GE CF6-80C2 or Rolls-Royce RB211-524G
New interior, fairings and IFE	Revised fuselage-to-wing fairings and an all-new cabin

The stretched upper deck carried over from the -300 as standard on passenger aircraft.

The flight engineer

It is hard to overstate this one. Every 747 up to the -300 needed three people on the flight deck. The -400’s glass cockpit needed two.

Over a 25-year airframe life flying long sectors, that is an enormous sum of money — and it is why the -300 was obsolete within two years of entering service, and why airlines replaced perfectly serviceable classics with -400s rather than waiting.

Certification came in three stages, one per engine: 10 January 1989 with the PW4000, 18 May 1989 with the CF6-80C2, and 8 June 1989 with the RB211-524G.

The London to Sydney flight

In 1989 a Qantas 747-400 flew London to Sydney nonstop — 9,720 nmi (18,000 km) in 20 hours 9 minutes.

It is worth being precise about what that was, because the record is often overstated: it was a delivery flight with no commercial passengers or freight, using a specially produced high-density jet fuel from Shell. It demonstrated what the airframe could do stripped of payload, not what it did in service.

The versions

Version	Built	What it is
747-400 passenger	442	The standard aircraft
747-400M Combi	61	Passengers forward, freight aft on the main deck
747-400D Domestic	19	High-density Japanese domestic; no winglets
747-400F Freighter	126	Factory freighter using the -200F fuselage
747-400ER	6	Extended range; Qantas was the only passenger customer
747-400ERF	40	Extended-range freighter
747-400BCF	~50 conversions	Passenger aircraft converted to freighters

The 747-400C frequently turns up in searches. It does not exist — it is a mix-up with the -400M Combi.

The Signature Interior

Boeing’s Signature Interior was later offered on the -400, both as a retrofit and factory-fitted. China Airlines’ final four 747-400s — the last four passenger -400s ever built — were delivered with it. One of them, B-18210, wore a hybrid livery with a China Airlines tail and Boeing fuselage colours.

The end of the line

Production of the passenger -400 officially ceased on 15 March 2007. The last four on order were cancelled by Philippine Airlines, which switched to the 777-300ER — a telling substitution, since a twin was by then doing the job of a four-engined aircraft.

China Airlines placed the final passenger order in November 2002. The last passenger 747-400 was built in 2005 and delivered that April: the 1,358th 747 built, MSN 33737, registered B-18215.

Freighter production continued to 2009, after which the 747-8 took over.