Inside the Archive #21 | Boeing 747

Looking back on our trips through the archive, we were surprised to discover that we hadn’t yet covered perhaps the most iconic passenger aircraft of all time: the “Queen of the Skies”. This, we felt, simply would not do – so here, at last, is our hagiography on the mighty Boeing 747.

Conceived in the mid-1960s as the jet age was flourishing, the 747’s genesis is inextricably linked to one of its most iconic operators: Pan American Airways, or Pan Am. Looking for a way to boost capacity beyond the limits of the then-dominant Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8, Pan Am president Juan Trippe went to Boeing looking for a new jet two and a half times the size of the 707, able to transport international passengers en masse with a 30 per cent lower cost per unit of passenger-distance. After a few iterations, Boeing engineers under Joe Sutter produced the first-ever prototype 747-100 – N7470, “City of Everett”, which rolled off the production line in 1968.

Pan Am, which had already ordered 25 747-100s for US$525 million in 1966, had a massive influence over the design of the 747, with Japan Airlines and Lufthansa soon following suit with their own orders. The first commercial 747 was christened by US First Lady Pat Nixon on 15 January 1970, with the inaugural passenger flight, from New York to London, taking off aboard “Clipper Victor”, registration N736PA, a week later.

Over the course of its lifespan, the 747 has seen service with airlines all over the world from Air France to Cathay Pacific, and has famously served as Air Force One – but of course, here in Australia, it most famously saw service with both Ansett and Qantas, to the point where the Flying Kangaroo for years operated an all-747 fleet starting with the retirement of its last 707 in 1979. Qantas’ 747s flew for 49 years from their inception in 1971 to their retirement in 2020, with VH-OEJ “Wunala” the last 747 to fly for the airline.

Today, the 747 has largely been superseded by smaller and more efficient twinjets like the 787 and A350, with the type no longer manufactured by Boeing since 2022; however, there are still quite a few in cargo service due to their monster capacity, while four airlines still operate passenger variants including the 747-400 and 747-8: Rossiya Airlines, Korean Air, Air China, and the largest 747 operator, Lufthansa.

Snapped here by Damien Aiello is Qantas’ first 747-400, VH-OJA “City of Canberra”, on its final flight from Sydney on 8 March 2015. The aircraft, on its initial non-stop delivery flight from London to Sydney in 1989, set the record for the longest unrefuelled flight by a commercial aircraft at 20 hours and 9 minutes, covering just over 18,000km. In this photo, it’s setting another record for the shortest 747 flight – just 12 minutes to Shellharbour – where it has resided at the HARS Aviation Museum for 11 years. Fittingly, the first of Qantas’ new Project Sunrise A350-1000 aircraft, “Vega”, will also bear the VH-OJA registration when it begins the marathon commercial Sydney–London services next year.