>We did, actually. Which is why the 777 is still being built, and the 747 is not The 777 design itself is over 3 decades old by this point - not exactly an arg

>We did, actually. Which is why the 777 is still being built, and the 747 is not The 777 design itself is over 3 decades old by this point - not exactly an argument for how better we fare now. That would be for the 787 - if such an argument could be made. As for 777X, it'ss still facing issues before even launching. As for the 747 design, far from a failure, it served for like 60 years or so, and 747 models were still being produced until recently (and for 373, there are also more in service than any later model). >*Actually, the rate of airline accidents and deaths has decrease drastically since the 60s. The improvements still occurred with the majority of the planes in 2011-2021 still being the same old 40 and 50+ year old runs (they are not merely explained away by new designs replacing the old). So what part of it was improvements in radars, monitoring, ATC, and so on rather than new plane designs? And how many of the airliners in the olden years were smaller propeller aircraft and not the jet designs under discussion? (most routes in my parts sure were still up to 1990 at least).