40th anniversary of the jumbo jet

A jumbo jet flies in front of the moon. The 747 first went into service with Pan Am on 22 January 1970, flying from JFK in New York to London Heathrow Photograph: Marcus Brandt/AFP/Getty

The first Boeing 747 under construction in Everett, Washington in 1968. The 747 was two and half times the size of the Boeing 707s it superseded Photograph: Dean Conger/Corbis

One half of the windscreen for the Boeing 747-100 is closely examined by engineers in 1969. The cockpit was sited high to ensure that 747s could be converted into freighters, with doors at the front, if and when they were replaced by supersonic airliners Photograph: Alan Band/Getty Images

Thousands of employees and guests surround the Boeing 747 shortly after its rollout at Boeing's Washington plant in September 1968 Photograph: AP

Pan Am was Boeing's first customer for the jumbo jet, ordering 25 planes at a cost of $525m (£369m). This publicity shot, taken in December 1969, shows the Pan Am stewardesses posing onboard. A month later, the first of the fleet entered active service Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis

A stewardess serves drinks in the economy section of a Pan Am World Airways 747. The typical Pan Am allowed for 58 first-class seats and 304 economy seats Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis

Meanwhile, champagne is served in the first-class cabin of a Boeing 747 Photograph: Tim Graham/Getty Images

A BOAC Boeing 747 takes off at Heathrow in 1971 Photograph: Fox Photos/Getty

First-class passengers in a BOAC Boeing 747 tuck into their lunch Photograph: Fox Photos/Getty

Staff of a 747 Aer Lingus aircraft prepare for a special passenger in 1979: Pope John Paul II. The pope had a private suite on the plane Photograph: Bettmann/CORBIS

Nice parking job ... a Boeing 747 in New York in 1970. The design of the first 747 required 75,000 engineering drawings Photograph: Bettmann/CORBIS

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini steps down from the Air France plane that brought him to Tehran in 1979 after 15 years of exile Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis

The aftermath of a collision between two Boeing 747 aircraft at Los Rodeos, which killed 583 people Photograph: Rex

A policeman walking near the cockpit of the 747 Pan Am Boeing that exploded above Lockerbie in 1988, killing all 259 passengers on board and 11 people on the ground Photograph: Letkey/AFP

Employees of Lufthansa Cargo loading freight onto a Boeing 747 at Frankfurt airport in 2002. The 747 fleet has flown 3.5bn people, equivalent to half the world's population Photograph: Alexander Heimann/AFP/Getty

A Boeing 747 lands at Kai Tak airport in Kowloon Photograph: Russ Schleipman/Corbis

A plan to convert a number of 747s into airborne Cruise missile carriers was abandoned Photograph: John Gress/Reuters

A jumbo jet flies over Munich's snow-covered runway. The maximum speed of a 747-400 is Mach 0.92 (608mph, 978km/h) Photograph: Klaus Leidorf/Corbis

Nuts picked from Amazon rainforests helped fuel the world's first commercial airliner flight powered by renewable energy in 2008 Photograph: Luke MacGregor /Reuters

The world's first commercial biofuel flight gets underway to Amsterdam Photograph: Luke MacGregor /Reuters

Pilots inside the cockpit of a commercial passenger 747-400 airplane. Pilots are faced with 365 lights, gauges and switches in 747-400 models, compared with 971 on early models Photograph: Brooks Kraft/Corbis

The world's first commercial 747 jumbo jet is honoured on an American postage stamp in the 1970s Photograph: US Postal Service/AP

A Boeing 747-400 flying by the moon. A 747-400 is 70.6 metres long, 64.4 metres wide and 19.4 metres high Photograph: Charles O'Rear/Corbis

A 747-400 is 70.6 metres long, 64.4 metres wide and 19.4 metres high Photograph: Regis Duvignau/Reuters

The Boeing 747-400 is unveiled in 1988. The jet delivered more range, better fuel economy and lower operating costs than its predecessor, the 747-300 Photograph: Roger Ressmeyer/Corbis

Local manager Gisela Olsson in the cockpit suite of the Jumbo Hostel, reportedly the world's first hostel in an airplane, at Arlanda airport in Stockholm in January 2009. There are 74 beds in the retired Boeing 747-200 and a wedding suite in the cockpit Photograph: Fredrik Sandberg/AFP

Saudi Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal Al Saud during a visit to Paris in 2005 Photograph: Jerome Sessini/Corbis

The Space Shuttle Atlantis takes off atop its modified Boeing 747 carrier aircraft in California in 2007. Two 747s were modified to carry the Space Shuttle in this piggyback style Photograph: Mark J. Terrill/AP

The space shuttle Endeavour, fresh from the STS-126 mission and mounted atop its modified Boeing 747 carrier aircraft, flies over California's Mojave Desert on its way back to the Kennedy Space Center in 2008 Photograph: AP

The Spice Girls pose after naming a Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 plane 'Spice One' in 2007 Photograph: Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty

A 747-400 has 6m parts Photograph: Air New Zealand/Getty

In 2007, a Boeing 747 was used for the first-ever nonstop flight between Washington DC and Beijing Photograph: Paul J. Richards/AFP

In Tokyo in January 2009, a Boeing 747-300 used a blend of 50% biofuel and 50% traditional Jet-A (kerosene) fuel in a demo flight Photograph: Itsuo Inouye/AP

Air Force One, the air traffic call sign of the US president's plane, is normally one of two specially adapted 747s Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP

George Bush boards Air Force One, the blue-and-white Boeing 747 which serves as the presidential aircraft, in July 2008 Photograph: Nicholas Kamm/AFP

US President Barack Obama walks off Air Force One on 5 February 2009 Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

A man makes chapatis as an Air India passenger jet flies over the Jari Mari slum before landing at Mumbai airport Photograph: Daniel Berehulak/Getty

A worker waves from inside a Boeing 747 Dreamlifter, whose tail is designed to swing open for a huge payload Photograph: Elaine Thompson/AP

The 747 was the world's heaviest airliner until it was ousted by the Soviet Antonov An-124 in 1982. With the 747-400ER, Boeing regained the record in 2000 Photograph: Alisdair Macdonald/Rex

A British Airways Boeing 747 takes off from Heathrow in London. The range of a 747-8, yet to see service, will be 9,200 miles compared with the first 747s' 6,100 miles Photograph: Russell Boyce/Reuters