February 23, 2019

LIVING
How Boeing’s first 747 took off — and changed the world forever
By Eric Spitznagel

February 23, 2019 | 12:49pm

The first 747 is rolled out of Boeing's plant in Washington state for display in 1968. The plane finally took off in February 1969.
Courtesy of Boeing
Fifty years ago this month, on Feb. 9, 1969, the Boeing 747 was officially introduced to the world. But as the wide-bodied jumbo jet taxied down the runway for its inaugural flight from Paine Field, just north of Seattle, not everybody in the crowd was convinced it would be a success.

The plane, which would soon be dubbed “Queen of the Skies,” was big — maybe too big. At twice the size of the Boeing 707, it was by far the largest civilian passenger jet ever conceived: 231 feet long with a 196-foot wingspan — enough room to play regulation basketball on each wing — and a tail as tall as a six-story building. Impressive to look at, but would it fly? //

Between 1970 and 2017, more than 3.5 billion people have flown on a 747, more than half the world’s population, according to the Smithsonian. 747s have carried Space Shuttles for NASA, been the choice for Air Force One since 1990 and was Richard Branson’s first plane when he launched Virgin Atlantic in 1984. There has never been a more iconic passenger plane, one that even casual travelers can recognize by sight, thanks to its teardrop-shaped “hump” above the main deck.

Its success is a little ironic, given that the 747 was created with the assumption of failure. In the late ’60s, supersonic airplanes like the Concorde, capable of cruising at more than twice the speed of sound, were widely predicted to be the future of commercial air travel.

“The thought was 747s would eventually be converted into cargo planes,” says Lombardi. “They would become freighters.”

So they designed it with cargo in mind, not passengers. By placing the cockpit above the fuselage on a second deck, creating that distinctive hump, the nose of the plane could become a front-loading door. The wide body design allowed for even more cargo room.