I'm not just an engineer's daughter; I'm also a former Pan Am flight attendant's daughter. These two threads come together in my fetish for all things flight-related (as well as my travel bug), so I'm excited to note that the Boeing 747-100 jumbo jet celebrated its 40th birthday early last month. Jonathan Glancey explains why the plane is a genuine design classic:
To say that the Boeing 747 revolutionised civil aviation would be an
understatement. Not only was the aircraft huge – a mechanical elephant
- but it promised lower fares for millions of people who may never have
flown at all, let alone long-haul. For better or worse, the jumbo jet
did its bit to democratise air travel. And yet at the time of its debut
it was widely assumed that the plane would be built in limited numbers
and with a relatively short life in passenger service. Of the 400
Jumbos initially planned, many were expected to become long-distance,
heavy-duty freighters as an even more revolutionary generation of
supersonic airliners reached for the sky, cutting journey times across
the Atlantic in half.
We know how that turned out: The Concorde has been decommissioned, while the newest iteration of the 747 is preparing to enter service. Click here for a fantastic gallery of jumbo jet photographs, including some classic pictures from the Pan Am archives. My mom is not featured, alas.
