I can't speak to the 747 or 777, but I can the 767 and L-1011. There is
always controversy about it, but the truth is in watching the autopilot do
an auto-land. It's all crab until about 150 feet, HAT, where the autopilot
goes into align mode; that is it transitions from crab to wing down into the
wind with a slight amount of upwind rudder. This last throughout the flare
to touchdown.

Good pilots manually land those models using the same technique. So long as
the certificated cross-wind limits are observed and the technique is done
correctly you won't scrape an engine.

The most critical airplane with which I was familiar for scrapping an
outboard engine was the 707. There, you had to observe a 5-degree bank angle
limit, so in a 30 knot cross-wind some combination slip and crab became
necessary. If it is just crab it is really tough to "kick it out" at the
last moment without it becoming a spectacular event.

Matt Whiting wrote:

This isn't an IFR topic, but I figure there might be a heavy iron pilot
or two reading this. There's a thread on the FS group about landing
747/777 class airplanes. I've read that they typically kick out the
crab right before touchdown much as some lighter airplane pilots do.
Slips are out because of the risk of dragging an engine. However, a
number of folks there claim that the airliners are simply landed with
the crab angle held during the approach.

I know that the B-52 has gear designed to align for a crab landing and I
think one or two models of the 747 may have this as well, but everything
I've read always said that standard procedure with airliners was to
remove the crab before touchdown. And this is certainly what has been
done on almost all airline flights I've made.

Any '47 or '77 or similar pilots here who can comment on the generally
accepted technique for crosswing landings in the heavy machines?

I searched around this evening and found a number of sources that
claimed both methods are the "right" method, but no source that I'd
consider authoritative.

Matt