Flight Craft 24: Boeing 747: The Original Jumbo Jet

BoeingS 747 Heavy Has Achieved A Fifty-Year Reign Of The Airways, But Now Airlines Are Retiring Their Fleets As A Different Type Of Long-Haul Airliner Emerges. Yet The Ultimate Development Of The 747, The -800 Model, Will Ply The Airways For Many Years To Come.Even As Twin-Engine Airliners Increasingly Dominate Long-Haul Operations And The Story Of The Four-Engine Airbus A380 Slows, The World Is Still A Different Place Thanks To The Great Gamble That Boeing Took With Its 747. From Early, Difficult Days Designing And Proving The WorldS Biggest-Ever Airliner, The 747 Has Grown Into A 400-Ton Leviathan Capable Of Encircling The World. Boeing Took A Massive Billion-Dollar Gamble And Won.Taking Its Maiden Flight In February 1969, Designing And Building The 747 Was A Huge Challenge And Involved New Fields Of Aerospace Technology. Multiple Fail-Safe Systems Were Designed, And Problems Developing The Engines Put The Whole Program At Risk. Yet The Issues Were Solved And The 747 Flew Like A Dream Said Pilots - Belying Its Size And Sheer Scale.With Its Distinctive Hump And An Extended Upper-Deck Allied To Airframe, Avionics And Engine Developments, 747 Became Both A Blue-Riband Airliner And, A Mass-Economy Class Travel Device. Fitted With Ultra-Efficient Rolls-Royce Engines, 747S Became Long-Haul Champions All Over The World, Notably On Pacific Routes. Across The Atlantic In January 1970, 747 Became The Must-Have, Four-Engine, Long Haul Airframe. Japan Airlines, For Example, Operated Over Sixty 747S In The WorldS Biggest 747 Fleet.By The Renowned Aviation Author Lance Cole, This Book Provides A Detailed Yet Engaging Commentary On The Design Engineering And Operating Life And Times Of Civil AviationS Greatest Sub-Sonic Achievement.