Boeing 747-400 Introduced a Two-Pilot Flight Deck
The 747-400 entered service with Northwest Airlines in February 1989, bringing a two-pilot flight deck to Boeing's jumbo-jet family.
FlyMarshall Newsroom1 min read
Representative image. Photo: Maurice King / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Northwest Airlines began commercial service with the Boeing 747-400 on February 9, 1989. The model used a captain and first officer on the flight deck, replacing the three-person arrangement found on earlier 747 generations.
Key details
- The 747-100, -200 and -300 included a flight engineer alongside the two pilots.
- Electronic displays and integrated avionics presented flight and aircraft-system information to the 747-400’s pilots.
- Boeing produced 694 747-400 aircraft.
- The later 747-8 also used a two-pilot flight deck.
Boeing produced 694 examples of the 747-400.
Why it matters
On earlier 747 models, flight engineers monitored systems such as engines, fuel, electrical power and hydraulics. On the 747-400, electronic monitoring and alerts, including EICAS, helped present system information for the pilots to assess. The change brought the two-pilot configuration to a jumbo jet and carried it through to the 747-8.
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