747-8 vs 747-400

From a distance the two look alike. That was intentional — Boeing wanted an aircraft that fitted existing 747 gates, ground equipment and pilot pools. Underneath, most of the important parts are new.

The differences that matter

	747-400	747-8
Length	231 ft 10 in	250 ft 2 in
Wingtip	Upright winglets	Raked wingtips
Wing	747-400 design	New, higher aspect ratio
Engines	PW4000 / CF6 / RB211	GE GEnx-2B only
Flight deck	CRT displays	LCD, 787-derived
Type rating	—	Shared with the 747-400

How to spot one

The quickest tell is the wingtip. The 747-400 carries upright winglets; the 747-8 replaces them with raked tips that sweep back rather than up. After that, look at the engines — the GEnx-2B nacelles have serrated chevron trailing edges, which no earlier 747 has — and at the upper deck, which on the 747-8 runs slightly further back.

What stayed the same

The height is the same, the wingspan stays inside the same airport gate box, and the type rating is shared. An airline flying both could run one pilot pool across the two, with roughly three days of differences training to convert a 747-400 crew.

That commonality was central to the sales case. It meant an operator could add 747-8s to an existing 747-400 fleet without rebuilding its training, spares and ground handling around a new type.