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[narrator] The Boeing 747.
It opened up the world to long-range flight.
It carries millions of passengers per year
along with millions of tons of cargo,
and it's widely regarded as the most successful large aircraft ever built.
But with fuel prices climbing higher and higher,
the question became, could Boeing make the "Queen of the Skies" even better?
Could the 747 become a model of modern fuel efficiency?
The 747-8 is an all-new airplane [David Loffing, Boeing Engineer/Designer 747-8 Wings]
that is really built off the backbone and the foundation of the iconic 747.
[narrator] To remake the 747, Boeing took the world's best performing large airframe
and updated it with the advanced technology developed for the 787 Dreamliner.
In addition to adding powerful 787-type engines,
Boeing engineers developed an ultra-advanced wing
designed with complex curves and raked wing tips.
[Loffing] At one point during the design,
we reached a point where we were really concerned we couldn't form the wing skins
into the shapes needed with our traditional building processes.
So we brought a team together that brought in a new technology to form the wing skins
on the 747-8, and it's been very successful.
[narrator] With its advanced new wing and engines
and a host of other improvements,
the 747-8 offers the lowest operating costs and best fuel efficiency
of any passenger plane or freighter in its class.
In fact, the new 747-8 can boast a double-digit improvement in fuel efficiency
from the previous model.
[Loffing] The 747-8 represents a lot of big milestones for The Boeing Company.
It is the biggest commercial airplane that we've ever produced,
it's the world's fastest commercial airliner,
and it's one of the most efficient new large airplanes out there in the marketplace.
At the same time, we wanted to create a really quiet airframe
that also lands in the same airports and can take off from the same airports as the 747-400.
[narrator] In remaking the 747 for a new era,
Boeing engineers showed that sometimes, innovation means finding a way
to make the best even better.
When you change the wing on an airplane,
you effectively are creating an all-new airplane.
[narrator] The result is a next-generation aircraft
that sets a new benchmark for large aircraft fuel efficiency and noise reduction.
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