Passenger aircraft, 1968
Development:
First Model 747 prototype was completed on September 30, 1968. It made its first flight on February 9, 1969.
Modifications:
Model 747-100 - first production version, seating for 500, first flight January 22, 1970
Model 747-100B - CF6-45A2 engines, first flight June 21, 1979
Model 747-200B - increased payload capacity, first flight November 18, 1974, entered service March 1975
Model 747-200C - convertible passenger/cargo version, first flight March 23, 1973, entered service December 5, 1973
Model 747-200F - cargo version with opening nose (similar to C-5 or An-124), first flight November 30, 1971, entered service April 19, 1972
Model 747-300 - extended upper deck, first flight January 1983
Model 747-400 - increased range, passenger capacity, first flight April 29, 1988
Model 747-SP - smaller, long-range version with seating for 400 and range of 11000 km
Model 747-SR - short-range version of Model 747-100
VC-25A - Air Force One special transport based on Model 747-200B, first flight September 6, 1990
Service:
With American Airlines, Continental Airlines, United Airlines, Pan American, Federal Express, TWA, Northwest Airlines.
Data for Model 747-100B
Crew: 3
Wingspan: 59.6 m
Length: 70.5 m
Height: 19.3 m
Wing area: 511.0 sq. m
Empty weight: 238820 kg
Takeoff weight: 322050 kg
Engines: 4xPratt & Whitney JT9D-7, 193.5 kN of thrust each
Max. speed: 1024 km/h
Cruise speed: 963 km/h
Landing speed: 260 km/h
Climb rate: 10.2 m/s
Cruise ceiling: 13715 m
Takeoff roll: 2896 m
Landing roll: 1875 m
Range: 9580 km
Payload: 452 passengers

(The following information has been extracted from various news reports about TWA Flight 800 and other crashes. My comments are in parentheses)

THE FINAL DAY OF A BOEING 747-100
Wednesday, July 17
11:32 a.m. (Athens time): The 747-100, Flight 880 from J.F.K. in New York, arrives in Athens, Greece.
It spends two hours in Athens. The plane is guarded by police while on the ground, and all the luggage and carry-on baggage is passed through security
checks.
1:25 p.m.: The plane, now Flight 881, takes off for its 10-hour flight to J.F.K. airport. It arrives in New York at 4:38 p.m. (local time).
8:02 p.m.: After the engine-pressure radio gauge is replaced, the plane, now Flight 800, leaves the gate bound for Paris, with 230 people aboard.
8:48 p.m.: The plane disappears from radar, and witnesses see an explosion off the southern coast of Long Island.

Most of the 230 people aboard doomed TWA Flight 800 were killed quickly in mid-air by ''phenomenal whiplash'' when the plane exploded, the medical examiner said Monday.

Suffolk County chief medical examiner Charles Wetli also told county legislators that he personally believed the Boeing 747 was brought down by a bomb, but added he had not seen any forensic evidence to support that belief.

But law enforcement and aviation officials were particularly perplexed by an unidentified ''blip,'' signaling the presence of some object, that appeared on air traffic control radar near the plane just before the crash, a senior law enforcement source said. Authorities were repeatedly replaying recordings of the radar transmission ''but we are stymied,'' the source said.

A senior administration official said the best guess among government investigators was that the radar blip was ''an anomaly,'' or irregularity, on the radar screen.

The radar blip, and some eyewitness accounts describing something resembling a ''shooting star'' near the plane before it exploded, fueled speculation that
the plane might have been struck by a surface-to-air missile, according to sources familiar with the probe.

Until the fourth engine has been brought ashore and examined, officials won't discuss their examination of the other engines, Francis said. He refused to disclose why they are focusing on the engine closest to the fuselage on the right wing.

Investigators gave no hint of whether they are also focusing on seats from that area. But a source familiar with the investigation said that none of the bodies recovered from rows 18 through 22, which are above the center fuel tank and near where right wing joined fuselage, show any trace of the explosion.

The engines on the right side of the plane both suffered more damage than those on the left, but the recovery of all four diminished the possibility that a heat-seeking missile caused the crash by destroying an engine. Investigators repeated, however, that they had not eliminated any theory -- bomb, missile or mechanical failure -- and noted that it was still conceivable that a radar-guided missile hit the plane.

Investigators have said the right side of the Boeing 747, near where the wings meet the fuselage, suffered the most smoke and fire damage. The right inboard engine was relatively intact but suffered ``foreign object damage'' from debris sucked inwhile it was apparently still running. That material, recovered Tuesday, was still being analyzed in federal labs yesterday.

Investigators completed a meticulous tear-down of the right inboard engine of TWA Flight 800 yesterday and sent debris that had been sucked into the apparently still-running engine to FBI and National Transportation Safety Board labs in Washington.

Those pieces -- and evidence of what investigators call "FOD," or foreign object damage, in the engine -- could pinpoint the location of the explosion that brought down the Paris-bound Boeing 747 on July 17.

The foreign-object damage to the right inboard engine also supports the theory that the engines continued to run for a short time after the front of the fuselage broke off, sucking up the first debris to fly off the plane.

Bob Barlett, spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, said investigators continue to concentrate on retrieving perishable evidence, but intend to "review the history of all similar cases," including the Madrid crash, in due course.

(Bombs go off in 747s but they do not tear nose off. They tear a hole and the plane lands safely.)
#31 11.08.82 Boeing 747-121
N754PA Pan American World Airways (USA)
1() Hawaii; 140mls (USA)
On a flight from Tokyo one passenger was killed when a bomb, located under
the seat cushion, exploded. The explosion also resulted in a hole in the
floor and damage to the ceiling and overhead racks. A safe landing was made
at Honolulu.

#34 18.01.84 Boeing 747
Air France
0(261) Karachi, 70mls (Pakistan)
An in-flight explosion after leaving Karachi blew a hole in the right rear
cargo hold and caused a loss of cabin pressure. An emergency descent to
5000ft was made and the aircraft returned to Karachi.

#47 10.12.94 Boeing 747-283B
EI-BWF Philippine Air Lines (Philippines)
1(293) Minami Diato Isl.; nr. (Japan)
On a flight from Manila to Tokyo via Cebu, a bomb exploded in the passenger
cabin beneath seat 26K. A succesfull emergency landing at Okinawa was made at
12.45h.
The muslim group Abu Sayyaf claimed responsibility.

The 747's lower-lobe baggage and cargo handling system can load or unload 3850 kg. (85,000 pounds) of baggage - the equivalent of 3,400 pieces of luggage - in less that seven minutes.

A Mechanical Failure
The wire that carried electrical power from the cockpit to the tape recorder mounted in the rear of TWA Flight 800 ran down the right side of he airplane. The wire that carried power to the flight data recorder ran down the left side. Yet the two were severed within an instant, without any warning. Investigators seeking a mechanical explanation have had to wrestle with this reality since the two boxes were retrieved less than a week after the crash: The destruction of Flight 800 was sudden and complete, and inconsistent with other crashes caused by pilot error or faulty parts, where there were signs of technical trouble.
(Found the door)
Among the pieces recovered are the nose landing gear, the landing gear housing doors, the front cargo hold and a cargo hold door, parts of a galley and passenger seats, miscellaneous parts of the right wing, the tail and the fuselage. But the pieces from the front end are among the focal points for investigators, who believe that whatever happened to Flight 800 caused the nose of the plane to snap off and fall into the ocean first.
Investigators also said that a cargo door, presumably the front one, had been found significantly closer to Kennedy International Airport, where the flight originated, than almost all of the other parts located so far.
Among the pieces recovered are the nose landing gear, the landing gear housing doors, the front cargo hold and a cargo hold door, parts of a
galley and passenger seats, miscellaneous parts of the right wing, the tail and the fuselage.
But the pieces from the front end are among the focal points for investigators, who believe that whatever happened to Flight 800 caused the
nose of the plane to snap off and fall into the ocean first.
The engines?
Debris found in one of them, first termed "foreign matter" by investigators, turned out to be from the engine itself..
The black boxes? Oddly enough, the voice and cockpit data recorders showed exactly what bomb believers expected to see. Both ended
abruptly, with no sign of trouble indicated by pilots, and a loud, split-second noise on the voice recorder was similar to those from other plane
bombings. But investigators still called it inconclusive.
The front cargo hold? This had been a favorite of some investigators, a theory that could click the pieces of circumstantial evidence together
like a Rubik's cube.
It had precedents: That's where a bomb was planted in the two cases that seemed like eerie preludes to this one, Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988
and Air India in 1985. It could fit coroner's office findings that showed blast injuries on passengers coming from below them.
And it would explain one key, but puzzling finding: that the front of the plane actually fell into the water closer to Kennedy Airport than the
rest of it, indicating that the plane had been "decapitated." A bomb planted in a front cargo hold would be the perfect place to pop off the
plane's nose.
One by one, the four cargo bins that had been filled with luggage that night came up from the ocean battered and bent, and one by one, they
showed no evidence that a bomb had gone off inside.
The wire that carried electrical power from the cockpit to the tape recorder mounted in the rear of TWA Flight 800 ran down the right side of
the airplane. The wire that carried power to the flight data recorder ran down the left side.
Yet the two were severed within an instant, without any warning.
Investigators seeking a mechanical explanation have had to wrestle with this reality since the two boxes were retrieved less than a week after
the crash: The destruction of Flight 800 was sudden and complete, and inconsistent with other crashes caused by pilot error or faulty
parts, where there were signs of technical trouble.
One of the engines, which were manufactured by Pratt &
Whitney, showed signs of damage from an unidentified object that had apparently blown into the engine.
Investigators also said that a cargo door, presumably the front one, had been found significantly closer to Kennedy International Airport, where
the flight originated, than almost all of the other parts located so far.
That find tended to support the theory that a bomb exploded in the forward cargo hold, blowing off the door.
So far, investigators have been frustrated in trying to decipher the only audible evidence of the blast, a sound heard for 130 milliseconds, or just over
one-tenth of a second, before the recording abruptly ended. The sound lasts 20 milliseconds longer than the one heard from the high-energy explosive
planted in the front cargo hold of Pan Am Flight 103, which crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland.
When he prepared an
analysis of the cockpit voice recorder from Air India Flight 182, which crashed off the coast of Ireland in 1985, the Indian government refused to give him a
copy, he said. An Indian scientist eventually smuggled him one.
One pilot reported seeing a "streak of
light'' on the same trajectory as a shooting star. His remark was viewed by some as supporting the missile scenario. But the pilot, a Vietnam
veteran who has seen missiles fired in combat, dismissed that notion. He said the orange-red streak was descending across the sky and, as he
followed it, eventually erupted into the large fireball described by other witnesses.
While the pattern of destruction does not indicate whether the crash aboard TWA Flight 800 was caused by a bomb, missile or mechanical
failure - or whether the damage was done by the initial explosion at 13,700 feet or a fireball that was seen by witnesses about 5,000 feet
lower - it does confirm that something blew up inside the plane, a source close to the investigation said.
In all, a dozen of the 22 missing bodies were supposed
to be seated between rows 18 and 28, where
investigators are rebuilding a section of the aircraft
located over the center fuel tank.
In one spot on the right side of row 19, two missing
passengers were supposed to be seated, and a third
was seated a row behind them. Investigators have said
the right side of the aircraft has shown heavier
evidence of burning and charring.
Four more missing victims were assigned to another
spot in rows 22 to 24, within two seats of one
another.
A computer simulation of the final moments of Trans World Airlines Flight 800 has placed the blast that downed the plane in a small
site on the jet's right side, The New York Times reported Friday.
The simulation shows that almost everything in the first spray of metal, luggage and other material blown from the plane came from a confined area above and
ahead of the right wing.
White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta Friday night sent a letter to Defense Secretary William Perry ordering him to ''undertake a top to bottom review of all
operational aspects, including maintenance and training procedures'' of the Pentagon's executive support air fleet.
He asked that the review begin within the next 30 days ``to ensure that all necessary steps and safeguards are being taken to provide the safest possible
transportation.''
In a dramatic and costly new initiative to beef up security at U.S. airports, a vice presidential commission yesterday proposed spending more than
$300 million on new measures, including security assessments of every commercial airport in the nation and purchase of the latest
bomb-detection machines.
Expanded passenger profiling that would help identify those who might pose the greatest risk, so their luggage could get the most rigorous
screening.
Following the 1988 explosion of a Pan Am 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, investigators found blast damage on the skin of the plane's
fuselage, on the plane's left side near the forward cargo hold. The metal in that "shatter zone" had been blasted into small fragments,
many of which were never recovered.
Next to that area, large fuselage panels had been torn off in a starburst pattern, leaving ragged edges. On the inside of those pieces,
investigators found pitting and soot, "rather as if a very large shotgun had been fired at the inner surface of the fuselage at close
range," investigators wrote in a 1990 report by the British government's Air Accidents Investigation Branch. Forensic tests of the
soot revealed traces of explosive residues.
Also Tuesday, Boeing Co. and NTSB officials dismissed a report on German television that aircraft structural experts and engineers think structural
failure was more likely responsible than a bomb or missile.
The program ``Frontal,'' on ZDF Television, quoted the unidentified experts as saying a structural problem in the 25-year-old aircraft caused the crash.
Boeing has acknowledged there was such a problem.
Now, with some 70 percent of the plane recovered, the debris inside Plant 6 is taking on a recognizable shape in the form of a mockup of the
fuselage on specially built scaffolding. Nearly 80 feet long, a third of the length of the 747, the mockup extends from just behind the cockpit
to where the rear edge of the wings meet the fuselage, an area that includes the entire front cargo hold.
A computer simulation by investigators of the final moments before the crash placed the blast on the jet's right side, The New York Times reported on Friday.
The NTSB would not comment on the Times report.
The simulation showed almost everything in the first spray of metal, luggage and other material blown from the plane came from a confined area above and
ahead of the right wing, the newspaper said.
Francis said he spent two days studying the reconstructed wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people.