The Boeing 747-8

The 747-8 was the fourth and final generation of the Boeing 747, announced on 14 November 2005 and built until January 2023. It stretched the fuselage, replaced the wing outright, and hung four new engines under it — while keeping enough in common with the 747-400 that pilots could move between the two on a single type rating.

It was built in two versions: the 747-8 Freighter for cargo, which flew first and sold best, and the 747-8 Intercontinental for passengers, which found only a handful of customers.

The main changes

Length	250 ft 2 in (76.25 m) — 18.3 ft longer than the 747-400
Wing	Entirely new, with raked wingtips in place of winglets
Engines	Four General Electric GEnx-2B
Flight deck	787-derived displays, same type rating as the 747-400
Noise	Footprint about 30 percent smaller than the 747-400

The stretch came from two fuselage plugs — 13 ft 4 in ahead of the wing and 5 ft behind it — which made the 747-8 the longest airliner in the world at the time.

In this section

• How much bigger the 747-8 is — where the stretch went
• The 747-8 compared to the 747-400
• The new wing design
• Engines optimised for the 747-8 — the GEnx-2B
• The flight deck
• The Intercontinental, the passenger version
• The Freighter interior
• Improved flying experience
• Environmental factors
• New environmental control system
• Reduced maintenance requirements
• E-enabled capabilities
• Rejected take-off test
• Intercontinental announcement
• First flight announcement
• First flight video

How it ended

The freighter carried the programme. Airlines largely stopped buying very large passenger aircraft during the 747-8’s sales life, and the Intercontinental attracted few customers — Lufthansa was the only airline to order it in quantity. The freighter, with its nose door and main-deck volume, had no direct equivalent and kept the line open until the last aircraft was handed to Atlas Air on 31 January 2023.