| Issue 11 | Volume 146 | Tuesday, November 29, 2016 | theavion.com |
Photo Courtesy: Jordi Cucurull
The Death of the Jumbo Jet Why the “Queen of the Skies” Will Soon Be Dethroned
Henry Neiberlien News Editor
What’s Inside
The Boeing 747 has been known as the “Queen of the Skies” for over 40 years. It was the first jumbo jet, carrying 500 passengers at speeds exceeding 7,000 NMI. However, the 747 is on its way out. Multiple airlines are retiring the Queen of the Skies, and they are not replacing it with a bigger jumbo-jet like the Airbus A380. No, in fact, airlines now demand long range and fuel efficiency over four fuel guzzling engines and very high capacity aircraft such as the 747 and A380. Boeing saw the writing on the wall years ago and began development of the 787 Dreamliner, which has become increasingly popular in both domestic and international routes. The 787 was designed around extreme efficiency, using lightweight composite materials and brand new super fuel efficient engines. Airlines pres-
sured Airbus for a comparable aircraft, and so the A350 was born. Flying for this first time this past Thursday the largest variant of the A350, the A350-1000 is designed to give the Boeing 777 a run for its money. The A350 is branded as an extra wide body or XWB, and it can carry the same number of passengers a full 1,000 NM further when compared to the Boeing 777300. Long haul airlines like Emirates adore the 777 for its high-capacity and range, and now a new player has stepped into the ring. Boeing was not going to let that go unanswered, though, with an even longer 777 variants called the 777x series. Utilizing technologies from the 787 Dreamliner, the 777-8 will be the longest commercial airliner in history. It will be capable of seating over 350 passengers, the same number as the A350-1000XWB, to a maximum range of 8,700 NMI. That means the 777-
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8x can fly nonstop from Orlando to Sydney, or from Daytona to Honolulu and back without refueling. The 777-9 is so large its wing-tips will even fold to fit into airport gates. The Queen of Skies will carry its last passengers in the next few years, and airlines have lost interest in the A380 superjumbo. This is due to a major shift in priorities by the aircraft manufacturers and the airlines them-
selves. Jumbos are expensive to operate and are not as fuel efficient as aircraft with two engines instead of four. New technologies and innovations have led to aircraft engines being more powerful and more efficient than ever before. New aircraft like the 787 and A350 are powered by these new engines and their lightweight construction lead to very low fuel costs when compared
to the jumbos. While it is sad to the jumbos go, it will lead us into a new era in commercial aviation. One where efficiency and green technology are preferred over the excessively large aircraft of the past. Multiple flights with one tank with a modest capacity instead of high capacity on one tank. Saving fuel saves the airlines money, which saves you money, and it also saves the environment.
These new planes will also allow very long nonstop flights; shrinking the world once again. Although twenty hours in economy class is not my idea of a good time, it will make it easier to fly to farther destinations instead of making multiple stops along the way. Highly efficient twin jets send commercial aviation into the future, but that means leaving the iconic jumbos in the past.
Billy Nguyen/The Avion Newspaper Concerns about fuel efficiency led to a decrease in demand for jumbo jets, like the Airbus A380, pictured above. The A380 can carry up to 850 people.
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