747:40
THE icon of the jet age, the most alluring and attractive of all widebody airliners (A380 designers take note), the 747 is 40 years old this week and Flight International has a slightly geeky yet quite readable history to date - and there are still more than 100 on order.
Having already travelled in seat 1A this year I can report there is still something novel and exciting sitting in the very tip of an airliner, with the windows curving into the nose. (I’m enough of a bore to know that the ‘bubble’ idea grew out of Boeing’s bid to build what became the C-5 Galaxy, but didn’t realise that this was a feature of the 747 since in the late 60s it was expected that most passenger transports would soon be supersonic aircraft, and the 747s would have to be converted to cargo lifters. They got that one wrong…)
If you’re still in the ‘air travel is allowed’ camp, then you’ll appreciate the marvel of the Jumbo Jet. And to think it was designed by hand! (Via Flight International paper edition)
