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