747: Creating the World's First Jumbo Jet and Other Adventures from a Life in Aviation
Language: English
Pages: 304
ISBN: 0060882425
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
747 is the thrilling story behind "the Queen of the Skies"—the Boeing 747—as told by Joe Sutter, one of the most celebrated engineers of the twentieth century, who spearheaded its design and construction. Sutter's vivid narrative takes us back to a time when American technology was cutting-edge and jet travel was still glamorous and new. With wit and warmth, he gives an insider's sense of the larger than life-size personalities—and the tensions—in the aeronautical world.
Zipp, George, 8 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am grateful first and foremost to my friend Larry Dickenson, senior vice president of sales at Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Larry feels that this story should be told, and agrees with me that it may inspire young men and women to pursue careers in aerospace. Thank you, Larry, for single-handedly doing so much to see this book come into being. My gratitude also goes to Pierre Vellay, a senior vice president of Air France. A friend of many decades,
the 747 program. More than just teaching me about leadership, my navy service reinforced the value of teamwork, keeping a cool head at all times, and working on the problem—whatever it might be—to the best of my ability. Ironically, it was that ice storm on our shakedown cruise that taught me the most valuable lesson of all. Reflecting back on our total helplessness in its fierce grip, I vowed to design airplanes that—to the greatest degree humanly possible—would continue to provide options and
the engines. Steiner’s point of departure was having pylon-mounted engines on the aft fuselage like every other small jetliner. But because the 737 would be short and wide, the intakes of these aft-mounted engines would be close to the trailing edge of the wing and thus subject to its disturbed airflow. Those engines would also have to be spaced wide apart to keep them out of the affected airflow of the fat fuselage. That in turn brought the penalties of a heavy mounting structure and large
at St. George, the small Catholic grade school we attended. Our teachers were nuns. Our principal was Sister Mary Alice. We were terrified of her in particular. She and her staff members used to rap our knuckles. A student whose last name was Sperdutti sat behind me in the sixth grade. One day he must have been bored because he started poking me in the back with the eraser end of his pencil. I tried to ignore it but he just kept on poking, so I turned around and ordered him to quit it. The
event showed us we had made the right decisions. At the time of Pan Am’s accident, the world’s next two widebodies—the Douglas DC-10 and Lockheed L-1011—were poised to enter airline service. They are both excellent machines but neither has more than three hydraulic systems. The 747 has been in service for well over three decades now and has amassed a superb safety record. There have been quite a few more cases where airplanes came home safely despite failures caused by external factors. It’s