Boeing 747-200
Same shape, more muscle — the long-haul Jumbo of the 1970s · First flight 1970 · In service 1971
From the outside the 747-200 looks exactly like the -100. The difference is inside: more powerful engines, more fuel and a maximum take-off weight raised to as much as 378 tonnes, which stretched the range to about 12,150 km. The passenger -200B first flew on 11 October 1970, and launch customer KLM flew the first revenue service from Amsterdam to New York on 14 February 1971.
The -200 was the first 747 offered with engines from all three big manufacturers — Pratt & Whitney, General Electric and Rolls-Royce — and it came in passenger (-200B), freighter (-200F, with the hinged nose door), convertible (-200C) and combi (-200M) versions. Lufthansa launched the first 747 freighter service with the -200F in 1972.
393 were built before production ended in 1991. The -200 also holds two famous load records: a Qantas 747-238B carried 674 people out of Darwin after Cyclone Tracy in December 1974, and in 1991 an El Al 747-200C flew 1,087 passengers during Operation Solomon.
