Boeing 747-400: The Mega-Top (Osprey Civil Aircraft) [Paperback]

Robbie Shaw (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 15, 1999 | Series: New Colour Series

Currently the world's heaviest and most powerful airliner, the 747-400 features a state-of-the-art Electronic Flight Instrumentation System (EFIS)that renders the flight engineer's position obsolete, while engine options from Rolls-Royce, Pratt & Whitney, and General Electric permit take-off weights of up to 875,000 pounds. Despite a price tag of around $95 million each, the 400 has been an overwhelming success with global operators -- more than 45 airlines around the world have 400s in service or on order.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

This lavishly illustrated series from Osprey is packed with detailed cutaways and glorious full colour photography, including specially sourced air-to-air pictures, depicting both civilian and military aircraft.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Osprey Publishing (July 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1855328933
• ISBN-13: 978-1855328938
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 8.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,037,397 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars General Text With Nice Photographs, December 7, 2006

By 

Robert I. Hedges - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Boeing 747-400: The Mega-Top (Osprey Civil Aircraft) (Paperback)

This book by Robbie Shaw is a general history of the Boeing 747-400 current through 1999. The text is generally accurate, but is not especially detailed. Instead Shaw focuses on selecting beautiful color images of the 747-400 from around the world, with Asia being especially well represented.

The book will be appreciated by airliner fans, and especially fans of aviation photography. One notable and peculiar shortcoming is that there are no flight deck photographs anywhere in the book, though Shaw does pay modest attention to the flight deck upgrades in the text. Given that the two-man flight deck was the single most involved and distinguishing upgrade from the 747 classics, that seems a strange oversight. Despite this drawback, I gave the book four stars for photographic coverage of the Queen of the Boeing fleet.

3 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Photos! and discriptive captions., December 28, 1999

By 

D. Aaron (Utah,USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Boeing 747-400: The Mega-Top (Osprey Civil Aircraft) (Paperback)

The photograghs are spectacular! A very entertaining and informative book,But buy it for the photos.

0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Boeing 747-400: The Most Beautiful Aircrafts, April 9, 2002

By 

Matthew M. Yau "Voracious reader" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Boeing 747-400: The Mega-Top (Osprey Civil Aircraft) (Paperback)

The Megatop is actually a registered trademark of Singapore Airlines, which along with Cathay Pacific Airways and Japan Airlines, operate the largest fleet of Boeing 747-400s. The cover of this spectacular book shows a 747-400 owned by Cathay Pacific Airways. Since its first delivery in late 1960s, the Boeing 747 family had evolved into many variations: the 747-100, 747-200, 747-200 Freight, 747-300, 747-300 Extended Upper Deck (also known as the Bigtop), 747-SP (the shorter version), 747-400, and 747-400 Freight. In this volume, Shaw has written the indiers of this modern jetliner. The coverage features planning, development, certification, survey of operators, technical specifications, and ***PLENTY*** of pictures (both exterior and interior) of the jetliners. The pictorial also includes information of airlines operation. I personally think that the 747-400 series represents the most efficient and anesthetic piece of flying equipment. The architectual beauty of the aircraft surpasses any of its counterparts. The small flap that extend and tilt at the tip of the wings distinguish the 400 series from the rest of the family. No other models has such distinct feature and architecture. Think about how the Airbus 340, the Boeing 767, the Boeing 777-they all look alike. In this pictorial, the beauty of the Boeing 747-400 jetliner is captured in numerous pages of colored photos. I highly recommend the book for gift. Aviation enthusiasts must have.