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Aviation glossary

Jumbo jet

Also: jumbo, Boeing 747, queen of the skies

The aircraft

Popular nickname for the Boeing 747, the first wide-body airliner, sometimes applied to other very large passenger aircraft.

What it is

The name was born with the Boeing 747, whose sheer size astonished the public when it entered service in 1970: it more than doubled the capacity of the largest jets of the day, and its hump, housing the flight deck and an upper deck, made it unmistakable. The word itself comes from Jumbo, a celebrated nineteenth-century circus elephant whose name came to mean anything huge.

The 747 brought down the cost of long-haul travel and helped popularise international tourism. Boeing built it for more than five decades in passenger, freighter and combi versions, and most examples of the final model, the 747-8, were built as freighters. The Airbus A380, the largest passenger aircraft ever built, with two full-length decks, is sometimes called a jumbo too.

On Vuelopedia

The Boeing 747 model page on Vuelopedia sets out its history, specifications, variants and fleet.

Boeing 747 Airbus A380

Related terms

Wide-bodyAirliner with two cabin aisles and usually seven to ten seats per row in economy; the dominant type on long-haul routes. Four-engine aircraftAircraft powered by four engines, the classic layout for large long-haul airliners before twins took over those routes. FreighterAircraft used solely to carry cargo, with no passenger cabin, a strengthened floor and a large cargo door on the main deck. CombiAircraft that carries passengers and cargo together on the main deck, separated by a partition, and fitted with a large cargo door. Passenger capacityNumber of passengers an aircraft can carry, which varies with the cabin layout chosen by the airline and is capped by a certified maximum.
Whole glossary

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This page was last updated on October 9, 2026

APA

Vuelopedia. (2026, October 9). Jumbo jet. Retrieved October 16, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/jumbo-jet

MLA

“Jumbo jet.” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 9 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/jumbo-jet. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

Chicago

Vuelopedia. “Jumbo jet.” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 9, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/jumbo-jet.

Harvard

Vuelopedia (2026) Jumbo jet. Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/jumbo-jet (Accessed: 16 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{vuelopedia_en_glossary_jumbo_jet,
  author       = {{Vuelopedia}},
  title        = {{Jumbo jet}},
  publisher    = {Fundación Poderia},
  year         = {2026},
  date         = {2026-10-09},
  url          = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/jumbo-jet},
  howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/jumbo-jet}},
  urldate      = {2026-10-16},
  note         = {Accessed 2026-10-16}
}

Wikipedia

{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/jumbo-jet |title=Jumbo jet |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-09 |access-date=2026-10-16 |language=en}}

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