When the 747 was being designed, the prevailing vision of air transport was that SSTs would be transporting pax around while large lumbering a/c would haul freight, hence the hump and front loading nose. The 747 was pitched for an U.S. Air Force freighter competition against the Lockheed C-5 which ultimately won (low to the ground, more versatile for non-concrete runway and lack of ground support mssions).
Originally Posted by flyclub
The Japanese have a Special Range (SR) derivative which is more capable weight-wise and has a high density seating (think charter layout) for busy Japanese Domestic routes. The only market in the world to offer them, I believe. However you are correct, I believe they are wing tip-less.
SRs are actually derived from/limited to the -100/200. The 747D/-400D is the short range version of the -400 (semantics, but still). The vison is that these a/c will be changed to LR 747s as their cycles increase. FWIW, NH is using 773s (not ERs) in 500+ capacity layouts these days.