747: Story of the Boeing Super Jet

Here, written in exciting, narrative style, is the behind-the-scenes story of the birth of the world's largest commercial jetliner and the history of The Boeing Company's many contributions in the building of the greatest transportation system the world has ever known - the international family of scheduled airlines. You ride with the founder, William Edward (Bill) Boeing on the rickety wings of a vintage 1914 Curtiss hydroplane and share with him the vision of great wings to come. You get to meet and know the dreamers and doers - designers, engineers, test pilots, production planners, the executive decision-makers, factory workers - who made the wings grow stronger. You share with them the pride of craftsmanship, courage and technological know-how that started a revolution and evolution in the design, development and manufacture of the Boeing family of commercial airliners which make up more than half of the scheduled airline fleets that roam the world's skies. You help write history in the first Stratoliner that introduced the pressurized cabin over the weather flying; the first U.S. built commercial jetliner, the famous 707. and the 747 itself, on a flight New York to London, pioneering The Spacious Age aloft. Right before your eyes, inside the world's largest building, birthplace of the 747 Super Jet at Everett, Washington you see the pieces come together in a moving panorama of pictures and text describing The Incredible Happening. You ride up front with the test pilots on the maiden flight of the largest commercial airliner, and take part in subsequent tests on the ground and in the air that pronounced her safe and sound, and ready to take her place in the transportation family. There's all this and more in these pages as the Diary of a Sky Queen reveals the secrets of her past, present, and future.