Wikipedia:Today's featured article/May 18, 2015
The Boeing 757 is a mid-size, narrow-body twin-engine jet airliner. Boeing Commercial Airplanes designed and built 1,050 of them for 54 customers from 1981 to 2004. The twinjet has a two-crewmember glass cockpit, a conventional tail, a low-drag supercritical wing design, and turbofan engines that allow takeoffs from relatively short runways and at high altitudes. Intended for short and medium routes, variants of the 757 can carry 200 to 295 passengers for a maximum of 3,150 to 4,100 nautical miles (5,830 to 7,590 km). The 757 was designed concurrently with a wide-body twinjet, the 767, and pilots can obtain a common type rating that allows them to operate both aircraft. Passenger 757-200s (the most popular model) have been modified for cargo use; military derivatives include the C-32 transport, VIP carriers, and other multi-purpose aircraft. All 757s are powered by Rolls-Royce RB211 or Pratt & Whitney PW2000 series turbofans. Eastern Air Lines and British Airways were first to place the 757 in commercial service, in 1983. The airliner had recorded eight hull-loss accidents, including seven fatal crashes, as of April 2015. (Full article...)