When you board a flight, you virtually always enter through the galley. This is usually located at the passenger doors and runs across the aircraft. There is a variation that was once seen on some Boeing 747s, which were referred to as longitudinal galleys.

The width of the jumbo jet meant you could have a galley that ran parallel to the side of the plane. That probably made for a very spacious working environment for the crew.

Longitudinal Galleys on the 747SP

Shorter than the standard aircraft, the Boeing 747SP was designed for ultra long range flights, entering service with Pan Am on 25 April 1976. This is where we find our first longitudinal galleys, which appear as far back as 1973 on the planned interior configuration.


You can see that it runs down the starboard side of the B cabin section. On the other side of the galley was a wall, and if you sat there you had a wall to one side and an aisle on the other.


Other operators of the Boeing 747SP with this galley type included Qantas, South African Airways, Iran Air and United Airlines (who inherited their planes from the Pan Am Pacific Division sale). I thought that was the end of the story, until I discovered some more.

The Boeing 747-400 Had These Too!

Thai Airways (see the image at the top of this article), KLM and Garuda elected to have longitudinal galleys on their Boeing 747-400 aircraft. These were located in the same place as on the 747SP, the B cabin between doors 2 and 3.


The efficient Dutch airline seems to have blanked out the windows and used both sides for the galley. A shame their crews didn’t have the windows on one side like others!

Overall Thoughts

Well, now you know all about longitudinal galleys. With most Boeing 747s having been retired, you probably won’t ever be able to see one when you’re flying next.

Still, it’s nice to know they existed. I do wonder what the benefits were using this type of arrangement over a traditional galley layout on board an aircraft. Anyone know?

Have you ever worked in one of these galleys or seen one inflight? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Featured image by Fabian Gysel on Airliners.net.
1973 Pan Am interior arrangement via wernerga3 on Airliners.net.
Pan Am 1977 Annual Report image via Pan Am Museum Foundation on Facebook.
Iran Air Boeing 747SP by Sam Chui on Airliners.net.
KLM 747-400 galley by Sam Chui.
Garuda 747-400 B Cabin Wall by Sam Chui on Airliners.net.