Boeing 747 'Jumbo Jet'

The Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet was the largest passenger aircraft in operational service in the world for almost forty years, until in October 2007 the Airbus A380 took over this position. The 747 was the first widebody aircraft to fly and being much larger than its predecessors like the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 meant a revolution in air transport. The history of the 747 started halfway the 1960s. Boeing lost the competition for the development of a large airlifter for the US Air Force in 1965 to Lockheed's C-5A Galaxy and sought ways to apply the experience gathered on this project to a big airliner. In March 1966 the Boeing board of directors decided to go ahead with the 747 programme and one month later Pan American World Airways announced the purchase of 25 aircraft. Many airlines followed, not always because had enough passengers to fill the aircraft, but often because their managements feared that the Jumbo Jet would make the DC-8 and 707 look obsolete in the eyes of the travelling public. The first designs of the intended 747 looked much like a military transport. The drawings showed a high-wing and room for up to 800 passengers on two decks. Boeing concluded, however, that such an aircraft would be too big for the aviation world of the 1970s. The engineers took a clean sheet of paper and designed a smaller aircraft for up to 500 passengers and a low, relatively small wing for fast and efficient cruising and a sophisticated system of flaps for low speed and good handling characteristics. These high-lift devices were even a step beyond the already very advanced systems used on the 727. The 747 is the first civil aircraft fitted with high-bypass turbofan engines, which are more powerful and economical than earlier jet engines and less noisy.