We have more airline stories for you today and this time, it is the famous Boeing 747. It was on this day, back in 1970, that the world's first ‘jumbo-jet’ entered into commercial service. The first flight was on the New York-London route and was offered by Pan Am airlines. It was introduced by Boeing in order to democratise air travel by reducing the seat cost up to 30 per cent. This was made possible because the jet was designed to be two and a half times the size of Boeing's 707 aircraft. The plane can typically accommodate 366 passengers across three travel classes. Despite being so heavy and large, it can still cruise at 900 km/h.
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It was the world's largest airliner until 2007, when it was surpassed by the humongous A380 designed by Airbus. Boeing 747 also has the dubious distinction of being involved in the most deadly air disaster of all time when in 1977, not one but two 747s crashed into each other on the runway at Tenerife island, Spain, on a foggy day that caused visibility issues for the pilots. As many as 583 lives were lost on that fateful day. Despite this and 60 other Boeing 747 aircrafts being lost in accidents till date, which has taken a total of 3,722 lives, Boeing 747 continues to be in aviation service across the world. However, no new 747s will be manufactured after 2022.
Macintosh makes its debut
From the world of aircraft on to the next. The date January 22 is also significant for computing geeks as Apple's Macintosh captured people's imagination after it was introduced in a commercial during the broadcast of Super Bowl XVIII in the USA in 1984. It became famous because it was the first consumer computer to popularise the computer mouse and have a graphical user interface. The computer was released as Apple Macintosh initially and has since come to be known as Macintosh 128K.
It was introduced at an initial selling price of $2,495, which is equivalent to $6,220 in today's worth. The computer came with a nine-inch screen, a keyboard and a mouse. In less than four months from its release, the company sold a handsome number of units, 70,000 to be exact. Living in a world today where even smartphones have multiple GBs of RAM, it is difficult to envisage that this computer had just 128 kilobytes of RAM. That's right, not MB but KB! It was discontinued in 1985 after its successor Macintosh 512K was released.
