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Jumbo B.747
Next big step after the 707 was the introduction of Boeing’s 747 in 1970, known as the “Jumbo”. It was the first wide body airliner, with two and a half times the capacity of the 707, but not abandoning its successful principle with four engines in individual underwing positions. Development started in 1965, after competitor Lockheed and not Boeing got the order for a twin-deck military transporter, then known as the C-5 “Galaxy”. A twin-deck seemed too big for commercial use and so Boeing and chief engineer Joe Sutter had to change the concept to 1 ˝ deck. The cockpit was positioned on the upper-deck level, giving space for a freighter version front-door, but only a few airlines ordered such a dangerous door. In 1969 test pilot Jack Waddel undertook the maiden flight at Paine Field near Boeing’s new Everett factory. In January 1970 initiator Pan American with the “Clipper Young America” opened commercial service with 325 passengers on board, covering the distance New York – London in 7 hours. John Turner wrote in Pictorial History of Pan American World Airways: “When Juan Trippe personally has placed his order for 25 Boeing 747s in 1966, history repeated itself after the fashion of that memorable day in 1955 when the airline took the first step into the big-jet age”. For shorter routes the 747-100SR was developed with a maximal passenger number of 498, first ordered by Japan Air Lines. With 2.6 cent per seatmile the 747 became the most economic airliner of its time. One reason for its success were the high-bypass engines of Pratt & Whitney, then also General Electric and Rolls-Royce. The upgraded 747-200 was introduced in 1971, first by KLM. Freighter versions followed. Commercially less successful was the shrunk 747 SP version for long-distance non-stop flights, introduced in 1976 by Pan American on Los Angeles – Tokyo flights, followed by Japan Air Lines on the 12,600km New York –Tokyo route. Also a triple-engined derivative had come into consideration. A full-length upper-deck version would have been too big for the epoch and so the enlarged 747-300 appeared with a slightly extended upper deck. The further upgraded 747-400, with a range up to 13,500 km, winglets and a two-man cockpit, was first introduced in 1989 by Northwest, becoming almost the standard on heavy-traffic long-distance routes. The 747-400D domestic version appeared without winglets. “What Boeing did with the 747 was an incredible feat at the time. Bill Allen was the man” said Juergen Thomas, head of Airbus Large Aircraft division, which three decades after the 747 undertook a similar leap forward. Boeing’s first response was a freighter 747-8F, an upgraded 747 version after more than 35 years of “Jumbo” history. For the passenger version 747-8I of the stretched “Jumbo”, a standard layout for 467 passengers was announced, the type then being listed as 747-800, beautiful without winglets. Lufthansa astonished becoming the launch costumer in 2012, despite employing the competing A380. Then orders slowed down.
 Boeing 747-357, Swissair, advertisement
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