Boeing and Lockheed bid for the US Air Force jet large-scale long-range transport aircraft project (CX-HLS) at 1960s. As a result, the US military chose Lockheed (C-5 "Galaxy").
At that time, Pan Am, a customer of Boeing, hoped that Boeing could provide a passenger plane twice as big as Boeing 707. So Boeing revised the original transport plane design. The original design was a double-deck engine room, but it was quickly changed to a wide-body fuselage design. The general view in the late 1960s was that civil aviation was about to enter the supersonic era. Considering that Boeing 747 can be used as a cargo plane in the future, the cab of Boeing 747 is put on the upper floor in the design, so that the front cargo door with "nose lift" can be used as a cargo plane. However, supersonic civil aviation eventually became a flash in the pan because of problems such as fuel, aircraft price and noise. The sales of Boeing 747 also far exceeded expectations, which brought considerable income to Boeing. The upper cabin, which was originally only used as a crew member and a first-class lounge, was extended to business class. [3]
Pan Am, the first customer of Boeing 747, ordered 25 planes at 1966, and the delivery time was 1970. At this time, a famous episode happened. Because Boeing 747 is too big, it is doubtful whether it can fly. At that time, Juan Terry Trippe, the president of Pan American, was worried that the Boeing 747 plan would die, so he hoped that Boeing would implement the 747 plan before placing an order. For the same reason, Boeing feels that the 747 plan involves a huge amount of money, and Lockheed's plan to win a large US transport plane failed. If Pan Am is willing to place an order, Boeing can successfully implement the 747 plan. In order to avoid losing everything, Boeing 747 is a gamble for Boeing and Pan Am. As a result, this gamble made Boeing brilliant, and Pan Am was the beginning of its decline. Not to be outdone, bill allen, president of Boeing Company, asked Pan Am to place an order before production. At that time, Pan American Chairman Tripp said to Boeing President Allen: "As long as you make it, I will buy it." Allen's answer is: "As long as you buy it, I will build it." Boeing's factory doesn't have enough space to produce Boeing 747. Boeing Company visited several locations, and finally purchased 780 acres (about 3. 16 square kilometers) of land in the north of Seattle, Washington in 1966 to build a brand-new factory, which was the largest factory in the world at that time. Pratt &; Whitney) also developed a brand-new engine for the 747, when Boeing 747 was equipped with four JT9D-3 turbofan engines. It took only four years from accepting the order to delivering the 747, and this project became a commercial gamble of Boeing. In order to invest in 747, Boeing almost went bankrupt. At that time, the main competitors' products were Douglas DC-10, Lockheed L-101Samsung aircraft. Many airlines initially held a wait-and-see attitude towards the 747, worrying whether such a large plane can adapt to airports around the world and whether the fuel consumption of four-engine aircraft will be much higher than that of three-engine aircraft. It turns out that Boeing 747 is a very successful design.
1969 When Boeing 747-1 flew into the sky in February, the R&D and production cost of Boeing 747 exceeded10 billion US dollars, exceeding the company's own net worth. However, 26 airlines have ordered 150 Boeing 747s, each worth $25 million (now the price of a brand-new 747-400 is1500,000).
Boeing 747 has prepared a wide-body design with two aisles from the beginning to shorten the fuselage length. Boeing * * * has considered 50 schemes, and Pan Am requires the whole deck to facilitate loading. They predict that the future air travel will be dominated by supersonic passenger planes, while the 747 is big and slow and can be used as a cargo plane at any time. 1969 how long did it take? Many airlines found that Boeing 747 was too big and many routes were full. To make matters worse, the oil crisis broke out in 1973, the expected passenger growth was dashed, and the price of jet fuel rose by 10 times. Pan-American's cash went down the drain with one 747 after another, and was finally destroyed by poor management in the future. The oil crisis also damaged Boeing. From 1972 to 1976, Boeing only receives 20 orders for 747s every year. [3] In the first 10 years of 747 service operation, many airlines used their internal space to set up luxury facilities such as bars, lounges or restaurants, but with the increase of passengers, air travel became "bus-like".
On July 27th, 20 16, Boeing said in a regulatory document that it might stop producing Boeing 747 aircraft, thus ending the production history of this aircraft for nearly half a century.