{"id":13820,"date":"2018-10-01T03:27:17","date_gmt":"2018-10-01T03:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=13820"},"modified":"2018-10-02T03:28:47","modified_gmt":"2018-10-02T03:28:47","slug":"50-years-of-the-boeing-747-how-the-queen-of-the-skies-reigned-over-air-travel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/50-years-of-the-boeing-747-how-the-queen-of-the-skies-reigned-over-air-travel\/","title":{"rendered":"50 years of the Boeing 747: How the ‘queen of the skies’ reigned over air travel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Janet Bednarek<\/a>, University of Dayton<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

On Sept. 30, 1968, the first Boeing 747<\/a> rolled out of its custom-built assembly plant in Everett, Washington. From the beginning, everything about the plane once known<\/a> as the \u201cqueen of the skies\u201d was big. <\/p>\n

It was the first wide-body \u201cjumbo jet\u201d ever built, involving<\/a> about 50,000 construction workers, mechanics, engineers and others who took it from an idea to the air<\/a> in just 16 months in the late 1960s. Until 2007 and the introduction<\/a> of the Airbus A380<\/a>, it was the largest civilian airplane in the world. <\/p>\n

Versions of the 747 have been used in a variety of famous ways. In 1990, for example, a pair of 747-200s began operating<\/a> as Air Force One<\/a>, the plane that ferries around the U.S. president. <\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a>
\n The prototype 747 was first displayed to the public on Sept. 30, 1968.<\/span>
\n Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Just to produce the 747, Boeing first had to erect what was and still is<\/a> the largest building by volume<\/a> ever constructed \u2013 big enough to hold 75 football fields or all of Disneyland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been researching and teaching<\/a> the history of American aviation for more than a quarter-century. Even though all U.S. airlines have retired their 747s, marking the end of an era, I believe it\u2019s worth remembering the amazing story of the airplane that helped make international air travel affordable. <\/p>\n

The jumbo jet is born<\/h2>\n

The story of the 747<\/a>, like those of many other aircraft, began with a military request. <\/p>\n

In 1963, the U.S. Air Force issued a proposal<\/a> for a very large transport aircraft to carry heavier loads and have a longer range than then-existing transport aircraft such as the C-141.<\/p>\n

Although Boeing lost its bid for what is now known as the C5 Galaxy, the designs and studies that went into its proposal didn\u2019t go to waste. That\u2019s because around the same time, Juan Trippe, the hard-charging president of Pan American World Airways, wanted<\/a> Boeing to build an airliner twice the size of the first-generation jet airliner, the 707. <\/p>\n

It would be \u201ca great weapon for peace, competing with intercontinental ballistic missiles for mankind\u2019s destiny,\u201d he insisted<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n First Lady Pat Nixon ushered in the era of jumbo jets by christening the first commercial 747 in 1970.<\/span>
\n White House Photo Office<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A big risk<\/h2>\n

But at the time, it was a very risky endeavor. <\/p>\n

Many in the aviation industry \u2013 including at Boeing<\/a> \u2013 believed that the future of air travel belonged to the fast, not the large. They envisioned new fleets of supersonic aircraft \u2013 such as the Concorde<\/a>, which began flying in 1976 \u2013 that would make the existing subsonic flight obsolete, especially on the long routes the 747 was designed to fly<\/a>. For comparison, the Concorde could make the trip from London to New York in about three hours<\/a>, while a flight on a 747 (or any other subsonic commercial airliner) could take eight to 10 hours<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But Boeing plowed ahead with the project anyway<\/a>. The new plane had its first test flight on Feb. 9, 1969, and debuted to a world audience at the Paris Air Show later that summer. By the end of the year, the Federal Aviation Administration declared it airworthy, and Pan Am took delivery of its first 747 on Jan. 15, 1970.<\/p>\n

Although the 747-100 at full capacity promised the airlines cost efficiency, the plane rarely flew that way, with 400 passengers. In part, this was because the 747 had the misfortune of launching during a recession and the first oil crisis<\/a>, both of which resulted in fewer passengers.<\/p>\n

In addition, the project\u2019s size itself almost threatened the aerospace company \u2013 and its banks \u2013 with bankruptcy because the aircraft\u2019s development required Boeing to take on US$2 billion in debt<\/a>, or about $20 billion in today\u2019s dollars. <\/p>\n

Fortunately for Boeing, it hedged its bets<\/a> by designing the aircraft to function both as a passenger airliner and as an air freighter. It was the freighter variant that required the \u201chump\u201d at the top of the fuselage to hold the cockpit so that the nose section could swing open.<\/p>\n

Since then, Boeing has built over 1,500 747s<\/a>, and about 500 still fly today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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