The Boeing 747 was the world’s first wide-body airliner. Actually, the jumbo jet with its huge wingspan of almost 60 meters was not developed for passenger traffic at all, but for the US Air Force – with an easy-to-open bow door out of which the tanks and military vehicles were supposed to roll. But the Pentagon opted for Lockheed’s “Galaxy”. So a passenger variant was needed.
The 747 was born, within just four years of development. The much wider fuselage with two aisles in the passenger cabin for the first time meant a quantum leap for aviation. This jet doubled the number of seats compared to the Boeing 707. “If you buy it, I build it,” said then-Boeing boss William Allen to then-PanAm boss Juan Trippe. The once legendary US airline ordered 25 copies from the drawing board in 1966.
But in the meantime, wide-bodied jets with four engines, which consume a lot of kerosene, are among the dinosaurs of aviation. Even before the corona pandemic, many airlines said goodbye to this type of aircraft with the distinctive hump. The latest version, the Boeing 747-8, proved to be an economic flop in the passenger variant – only Lufthansa (19 examples) and Korean Air (10 examples) bought double-digit numbers. Now the last 747 has been handed over to its buyer.
Boeing 747 – the “Queen of the Skies”
To say goodbye to the “Queen of the Skies”, as the 747 is also known, the two aviation journalists Andreas Spaeth and Geoffrey Thomas the opulent picture book “Boeing 747 – memories of a giant” was published by Delius Fine Books, which, in addition to the story about the development of the aircraft, shows many photographs and advertising posters published for the first time.
The photo book, fortunately published in two languages (German and English), traces the technical innovation of the aircraft in eight chapters, how the jumbo jet revolutionized flying and made it more affordable for the masses.
The bibliophile edition with its longer texts on silver-backed pages is dedicated in particular to the design of the early 1970s, the legendary lounge on the upper deck and the marketing of the flying giant.
This makes the book an optical bible for the Boeing 747 and a homage to a major chapter in civil aviation that is not yet closed – you can still book flights on the Boeing 747 with some airlines.
Also look at the following series of photos:
– Ferry flight Boeing 747-8: In the empty jumbo jet across the Atlantic
– A jumbo jet pimped for NASA goes star hunting
– Travel back in time to the 1960s: a visit to the retro lounge above the rooftops of Manhattan
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