The twin-engine, medium-range Boeing 757 commercial transport first flew Feb. 19, 1982 and was up to 20 percent more fuel efficient than the 727s it was designed to replace. The 757-200, also offered as a freighter, can carry 239 passengers, in two classes, up to 4,520 miles. In September 1996, Boeing launched the 4,000-mile-range 757-300, a stretched model that seats from 243 to 279 passengers. During its first 18 years of operation, the 757 carried more than 1.3 billion passengers, more than four times the population of the United States and Canada combined and flew the equivalent of nearly 25,000 roundtrips between the Earth and the Moon.