By Julie Johnsson | Bloomberg
The first and final 747 jumbo jet models both started with a handshake deal.
Back in the mid-1960s, the leaders of Boeing Co. and PanAm came to an agreement that if the US planemaker pushed ahead with the audacious new design, the airline would in turn go ahead and buy the giant jetliner.
That gentleman’s agreement would kick-start one of the most successful programs in civil aviation, singlehandedly transforming the way the world flies and giving the Queen of the Skies, as the 747 came to be known, the undisputed reign over the world’s flight paths for decades to come.
No other airplane captured the public imagination quite like the hump-backed jumbo jet, nor illustrated the rewards that can flow from breathtaking risk on developing a new aircraft from the ground up. The 747 was an emblem of an era when US innovation was defined by pushing technical boundaries with moonshot projects like the Saturn V rocket — another Boeing effort.
A team led by Boeing engineer Joe Sutter designed and built the jumbo in less than two-and-a-half years, an unimaginable feat by today’s standards. They trailblazed concepts that forever changed long-distance travel: from the 747’s twin-aisle layout to overhead bins and inflight entertainment. Early models redefined luxury travel with a spiral staircase to a swanky upper-deck lounge.
Now, following a 54-year run, Boeing has ended production of the 747. When the last of the jets flies away from its Seattle-area factory on Feb. 1, the curtain will fall on the four-engine era, after Airbus already gave up its ill-fated attempt at a rival jetliner. It axed the A380 double decker in 2019.
In total, Boeing built 1,574 of the 747 model, from passenger versions to freighters to special editions like a NASA-commissioned version that carried the Space Shuttle or the Air Force One for US presidents. . Over the past decade, the giant aircraft was eclipsed by smaller, more nimble models like Boeing’s own…
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