Hats off to the B747
Posted on Mercredi 4 février 2009 at 13 h 21 min and filed under Magazine.The venerable Boeing 747 has been operating for 40 years, beating all records. By Marc Branchu
The Boeing 747, the first widebody airliner ever built, instantly broke all records of commercial air transportation: the seating capacity was three times that of other aircraft and it was the largest civil plane ever made. Nicknamed the Jumbo, it remains the aircraft of the 20th century. More than 15 versions have been made in the 40 years since the first 747 was rolled out. Twenty-two Jumbos are now in service on Air France routes, 13 for passenger transportation (the 747-400s) and 9 for cargo (the 747-400 ERF and BCF).
Boeing, a successful reconversion. In the 1950s, Boeing produced military aircraft for the U.S. Air Force; no one imagined that this company would be a pioneer in commercial aviation. Urged by his friend and golf partner Juan Trippe, president of Pan Am Airways, William Allen of Boeing turned to civil aviation, creating the B707. This long-haul jet was a huge success in the 1960s, and was adopted by every airline, not least Air France. Juan Trippe anticipated an exponential growth in airline traffic; he calculated that passenger traffic for international flights would triple between 1965 and 1980. He wanted to equip Pan Am with the supersonic aircraft then in the planning stages on both sides of the Atlantic. Yet he needed an aircraft that could handle the immediate increase in long-haul passengers. The perfect aircraft would be a 500-seat airliner. Boeing engineers were less than enthusiastic about this project, preferring the development of the SST, the supersonic transport. The situation changed in 1965, when Lockheed snagged a U.S. Air Force contract from Boeing for a giant transport plane, the C5a.
The largest aircraft, built in the largest plant. This setback convinced Allen to pursue civil transportation and Trippe’s pharaonic idea. No aircraft manufacturer had ever undertaken such a vast project. But Allen was ambitious and liked challenges: to design a cabin for 500 people (while the B707 carried only 180); to develop engines capable of lifting this giant off the ground and carrying it over oceans; and to mass-produce it. Despite a risk of bankruptcy, the project went forward. In just 16 months, a huge production plant was built in Everett, north of Seattle. (The building was so immense it had its own microclimate: some days, clouds formed inside the hangars.). Design of the prototype began, and in April 1966, Trippe ordered 25 aircraft. The aircraft began to take shape, laboriously: 15,000 hours of tests were required to fit the wings to the body.
The Jumbo takes off. On Sunday, February 9, 1969, four enormous Pratt and Whitney engines lifted the largest civil aircraft ever built (160 tons, empty) for a 76-minute flight, without mishap. On June 4 of that year, the B747 made its first Atlantic crossing, flying to the Le Bourget Air Show. In the meantime, a recession had set in, and orders for all aircraft had dropped to 164 in 1969 (from 368 in 1968). Allen had to cut costs and many observers thought the Jumbo would be the end of the Seattle firm. Yet the airlines remained steadfast—Air France had already ordered ten B747s—banking on the Jumbo’s capacity to lower the operating cost per seat by 30 percent and considerably increase its clientele. But the passengers didn’t show up: “This plane is five to ten years ahead of its time,” lamented the owner of TWA. Yet Boeing held out, and the Jumbo made its first commercial flight for Pan Am in January 1970, on the New York to London route. People became familiar with its distinctive curvy shape and hump over the fuselage, which housed luxury services such as a restaurant or piano bar. The first Air France B747s went into service in May 1970.
Translation: Elizabeth Ayre, Lisa Davidson et Alexandra Keens
