The 747 – Boeing’s Biggest, Boeing’s Best

The Story of the World’s Most Successful Wide-Bodied Jetliner

Almost every superlative written about commercial aircraft is embodied in the Boeing 747 or as it is affectionate­ly known, The Jumbo Jet. The giant Aluminium Sky now darkens at least 325 patches of blue around the world every waking day.

Born a loser, the 747 rose from the ashes of the US Air Force design re­quirement for a strategic transport of outsize capability, which was won by Lockheed’s model CSA Galaxy.

Boeing’s design work was not in vain, however. A team of over 500 engineers had made comprehensive designs and submissions with aircraft of gross weights ranging from 400,000lb to 1,000,000lb and they were well positioned to adapt their designs to the requirements of their market research department for an airliner twice the size of the 707. In fact, Boeing knew too much, had done their homework well, and their costings were almost spot on. This now gave me time to prepare for the plane of the century. As Qantas had discovered, they would have needed over 30 707s by 1970, and with the boom in air travel proliferating because of the jets, the skies would soon be overcrowded even with stretched 707s.

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