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Journalism of Courage
September 30, 1968. It was Boeing’s finest hour as the first 747 was rolled out of the hangar at the company’s plant at Paine Field in Everett, Washington. Hundreds of people had gathered to watch the event but seemed unprepared for what they were about to just see. As the 747 emerged from the hangar, the onlookers were left stunned and awestruck, dwarfed by the jet’s massive size. Many in the crowd must have wondered, “Can it fly?”. Indeed, can it? No other jet so huge had been built before.
A few months later, on February 9, 1969, the same year man set foot on the Moon, the 747 prototype christened ‘City of Everett’, took off on its first flight, which was followed by a period of extensive tests before it entered service on January 22, 1970, ushering in the “jumbo jet” era.
After a production run that lasted 54 years, during which 1,574 jumbo jets were built, many of which continue to be in service, the last of the iconic jet — also dubbed ‘The Queen of the Skies’ — was on February 1 delivered to Atlas Air Worldwide. Unlike the first 747, which was a passenger jet, the last to roll off the assembly line is a cargo plane.
In size and capacity, the 747 dwarfed all passenger jets of its time. Also, it could fly further than other passenger jets, to far-off and exotic destinations. As they say, the 747 ‘shrunk the world’. It also redefined passenger comfort with luxurious interiors, movie screens, a bar, and an upper deck designed as a lounge. For passengers, it was more like being in a living room or, as a Pan Am advertisement said, on “a cruise ship” rather than an aircraft cabin.
If the Boeing 707 ushered in the passenger jet era, the 747 was a step change in passenger jet travel. The 707, which entered commercial service on October 26, 1958, over a decade before the 747, was a narrowbody with one aisle. The 747 was the first widebody passenger jet with two aisles and two decks to seat passengers.
The first 747 version (747-100) could carry over 400 passengers. It had a range of nearly 5,000 nautical miles. The 707 could carry less than 200 passengers and had a range of 3,000 nautical miles.
The original 747 was 225-feet long and the tail as tall as a six-storey building. When pressurised, a tonne of air filled the aircraft. The cargo hold could pack 3,400 pieces of baggage and could be unloaded in seven minutes. The total wing area was larger than a basketball court. To build the behemoth, Boeing first built a 200 million-cubic-feet large 747 assembly plant in Everett, Washington, the world’s largest building by volume, according to Boeing’s website.
Fans and admirers who had gathered at Everett on February 1 to see the last ‘Queen of the Skies’ roll out of the plant, may have wished it was a passenger jet and not a cargo plane. But a freighter model was always on Boeing’s mind during the development of the 747. The company had lost a contract for a military jet, the C-5A, for which a powerful engine technology had already been developed.
The military jet contract lost, Boeing was keen to build a new commercial jet taking advantage of the new engine technology.
Around this time, Pan Am President Juan Trippe, whose airline was already flying the 707s, asked Boeing President William Allen if he could build a plane twice the size of the 707. Trippe agreed to buy 25 airplanes for Pan Am at $20 million each.
Enter Joe Sutter, regarded as the father of the Boeing 747, who then set out with his team of engineers to design the massive and one of the most beautiful jets ever built.
The 747 is one of the most recognisable jets, and also among the most elegant, thanks to its ‘Hump’. While designing the plane, Sutter also had a freighter version in mind besides a passenger jet. For this reason, the cockpit was moved above the nose — a hinged nose would allow easier loading and unloading of cargo. For better aerodynamics, the bubble housing the cockpit was stretched back, giving it the shape of a humpback. At first, it was felt the area behind the cockpit could be used by the crew during breaks but Trippe turned it into a luxurious passenger lounge, accessed from the lower deck by an elegant spiral staircase.
The 747’s final design came in three configurations: all passenger, all cargo and a convertible passenger/freighter model.
The first flight of the 747 was piloted by Jack Waddell with Brien Wygle as co-pilot and Jess Wallick as flight engineer (Yes, earlier jets used to have an engineer on the flight deck).
On launch day, 26 flight attendants from each of the airlines that had placed orders for the 747 posed in front of the aircraft in Everett, Washington.
The 747 entered service with Pan Am on January 22, 1970. Christened ‘Clipper Young America’, it carried 335 passengers and 20 crew members from New York’s JFK Airport to London’s Heathrow.
The last of the iconic jet, a 747-8 freighter, was handed over to Atlas Air Worldwide. It will be used by Swiss transport provider Kuehne+Nagel’s Apex Logistics Division.
The 747 was once the mainstay of Air India’s fleet. The first 747 was delivered to Air India on March 22, 1971. Fans and passengers fondly remember the ‘Maharajah’ and the plane’s Rajasthan palace-style livery.
The two VC-25As, which have been serving as Air Force One since the nineties, are modified versions of the 747.
There were occasions when the Space Shuttle could not land at the Kennedy Space Center due to bad weather and had to land at alternative landing sites. The Shuttle would then be flown back to Cape Canaveral atop two specially modified 747s.
