Everything you wanted to know about… The Boeing 747

The Queen of the Skies is the ultimate avgeek icon, but its mythology can be overawing. Here, Daniel Croft examines its legacy to get the newbie up to speed.

The 747 was developed by Boeing in response to the massive demand for air travel in the 1960s. Pan Am World Airways, which was the largest international air carrier in the United States at the time, saw the success of the 707 and wanted to cheapen the per-seat cost of air travel and bring it to the masses. The airline requested a plane that would have 2.5 times the capacity and be able to take on true long-haul routes. Shelling out US$525 million in 1966 (worth over US$4.6 billion or AU$7.1 billion today) for 25 planes, Pan Am became the primary customer of what would be the first jumbo jet — the 747-100.