A LOOK AT WHAT'S COMING UP THIS YEAR—AND BEYOND

These days, few new planes generate the sort of buzz that the original jumbo the Boeing 747—or the supersonic Concorde did back in the 1970s. After all, when First Lady Pat Nixon cracked a bottle of Champagne over the first bulbous-nosed 747 in 1970, it literally launched the era of mass tourism across the Atlantic. But many aviation insiders say that while the latest jets coming off the assembly line may not have the distinctive look of those early icons, they will have as great an influence on the way we fly—if not more so.

"For years, the airline industry has been seeking game-changing aircraft,” says John Grant, London-based senior analyst at OAG, the airline research and publishing firm. “Now they’re finally arriving and are genuinely changing the way that carriers are able and willing to launch new services and frequencies.” Specifically, Grant says the latest machines can take us farther, faster, and move us in greater comfort than ever before. And in the process, they’ll burn less fuel—meaning that even if airfares don’t drop as a result, they probably won’t go up as fast as they would otherwise.