Inside the 747

The 747 has had two quite different cabins in its life, separated by about forty years and a complete change in what airlines wanted from the space.

The lounge era

The earliest 747-100s carried a lounge behind the flight deck rather than a cabin, reached by a spiral staircase. Airlines competed over what to put in it — American fitted a piano bar, others fitted swivel chairs and standing bars.

The 747-200 options list gives a sense of how open the question was: a 15-place lounge, or eight first class seats plus an 11-place lounge, or 16 first class sleeper seats, or 32–45 economy seats. The same physical space, sold four different ways.

Two things ended it. The oil shocks of the 1970s made unsold floor area indefensible, and the 747-300 arrived in 1983 with a stretched upper deck and a straight staircase in place of the spiral — both changes made specifically to fit more seats in.

There is film of the classic cabin schemes, including the lounges, in the blog.

The 747-8 cabin

The last generation borrowed heavily from the 787: curved overhead bins, a sculpted ceiling, windows 16 percent larger than the 747-400’s, and solid-state LED lighting that can be set from sunrise to sunset across a flight.

The most visible change was a sweeping curved staircase to the upper deck, replacing the straight, narrow stair of the -300 and -400.

• The 747-8 interior in detail
• The upper deck lounges — piano bars and swivel chairs
• Three staircases — spiral, straight, then sweeping
• First class on the 747 — sleeper seats to lie-flat beds
• Galleys and crew rest — the parts nobody sees

Seat maps

Actual airline layouts — British Airways, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines and United — are collected under seating layouts.

Related

• Everything about the Boeing 747-8
• The 747-8 Intercontinental
• Photo album