747: Creating the World's First Jumbo Jet and Other Adventures from a Life in Aviation Paperback – May 1, 2007

747 is simply a must for anyone in the aerospace design industry, or for people who are just interested in how the 747 was built. Joe Sutter, the airplane's director of engineering and the one most responsible for its actual design, has written a trim, quick, and enjoyable to read history of the 747 program encased in a semi-autobiography.After a few chapters exploring the author's early life, including his college time and Navy life, the book spends its bulk on a 50,000 foot overview of what was going on with the 747 development program from its inception until its most recent incarnation to fly in the form of the 747-400 family of derivatives. The final chapters sweep the remainder of the author's professional career including his service on the Challenger Disaster commission. Joe (and after reading the book you definitely get the feeling he would prefer to be called that then Mr. Sutter) has certainly led a very interesting life, and has had the privilege of experiencing a truly gilded age of aviation from the peaks of its ambitions and the lows of its difficulties and uncertainty. But the star of the book is truly the magnificent 747 aircraft and even his more autobiographical chapters tie into the aircraft and its design.Much of the author's life exerted an inexorable influence on the design philosophy he brought to the plane. As an early child he grew up in Seattle and watched, literally from his neighborhood, as Boeing would roll out new aircraft through the twenties and thirties and try to push aviaiton forward and make the world a smaller place. Caught up in the majesty of flight Joe wanted very badly to design airplanes, but as WWII dawned when he was in college that would have to wait for more important world events to be sorted out. Joining the Navy he became a deck officer on a destroyer escort in the Atlantic, where he had a formative experience. Returning to Boston Harbor his ship started to become glazed with rapidly growing layers of thick ice in the midst of a storm, making the ship dangerously top heavy. With no anti-icing system and no ability to get people out on deck to hack off the ice the crew had to just ride out the storm praying they wouldn't die. From this moment on the author decided safety would be a primary criteria of anything he designed.The legacy of the 747 is one of carrying on Boeing's legacy of leading the pack in aviation with an unparalleled record of safety, thanks to smart design and brute force quadruple redundancy. (Brute force is by no means meant perjoratively here!) The 747 came about during an amazing time in aviation history. It was the first wide body airliner (against the initial full double decker narrow body wishes of its launch customer), the first turbofan (or fanjet as they are sometimes called) powered airliner, and it was designed by a slimmed down workforce in the shadow of the ill fated 2707 SST, while the 727 and 737 were also absorbing significant company resources, and while Lockheed's L-1011 and Douglas' DC-10 provided competition. The story of how this giant came about and triumphed in spite of the decidely low expectations Boeing clearly had for it at the begining is a truly fascinating one, filled with such aviation luminaries as Juan Trippe, Bill Allen and Charles Lindbergh. Joe's life on the program is also filled with equally amazing events including state department sponsored dinners with the Soviets in Paris at the height of the Cold War (in the spirit of "Detente"), and trips all over the world ranging from the expected places like Japan and New York, to Baghdad.In addition to being a great story well told, there are real gems here for aviation program managers and aircraft designers about how to make a successful airplane. Absolutely worth reading, and would be something I would like to see as a textbook for aeronautical engineers, perhaps in an aerospace history course, to give them some real world perspective that is so often lacking in modern engineering degrees.An outstanding book, highly recommended!

Joe Sutter describes the development of the Boeing 747 from his point of view as a member of the engineering and management team that made it happen. The book delves deeply into the influences that shaped the 747 to become the plane it did, such as the head of Pan American Airlines. As such, it offers interesting insights into the politics at the Boeing company, at least as seen by Mr. Sutter.Some have criticized the book as disjointed, etc. but that is a disservice to Mr. Sutter. After all, he's describing the development of the 747 from his point of view. This is not meant to be a end-all comprehensive tome that chronicles all the development stages of the plane in a manner that allows all who partook in it to have a voice (which is inherently impossible for a project of this size). Instead, it is a sampling of the engineering and political challenges that Mr. Sutter faced during his tenure with the 747, which I found incredibly interesting.The 747 was a big gamble that almost bankrupted Boeing. One of the reasons it got off the ground at all was because the decision-makers at Boeing were willing to bet the farm that this type of airplane would find broad use in a market that had yet to fully develop. From Mr. Sutters point of view, it was this bold and intuitive decision-making that put Boeing on the path to dominate its domestic and foreign rivals.I would love to see further analysis from Mr. Sutter in this area of expertise... the challenge of Embraer and Comac is looming and I wonder what he makes of the Boeing/Airbus response to a challenge to their bread and butter market.

I have a slight fascination with airplanes - especially commercial passenger aircraft and this was my first read about the industry and how one is created. Written from the point of view of the chief engineer, it is a can do, will do, i did (but let me give perfunctory congrats to my team) read. Nothing earth shattering here. No grand insights into "wow - that almost happened." Sutter does doe a good job of keeping the reader (at least this one) from getting lost in the technical aspects. He also provides enough background story to personalize the creation of this technical behemoth and makes a good case for its importance as a turning point in aviation history. In fact, that could stand as my great new understanding. This was and is quite an important plane having made movements of large numbers of people over large parts of the world possible. In fact, credit the 747 for giving rise to economy class travel around the world. I would be interesting to note the economic impact on many Asian Pacific countries (such as Thailand and the Philippines) that derive so much of their income from tourism. Did the 747 lead and facilitate this boon or was it just there when it occurred for other reasons? Sutter also drops in enough information about Boeing's history to contextualize the development of the craft as well as pique my curiosity about some of the other creations. I am a bit disappointed there isn't more attention paid to Boeing's chief rival - Airbus. From Sutter's point of view - there isn't much of a rivalry - Boeing stands far and away ahead - but sales probably don't support that contention today. This was written in 2006 so perhaps the rivalry had not reached the heated point it is today. He makes an ever so brief mention of the A380 as a 747 competitor - wonder what he is thinking/saying now that it has entered service? I don't know when I'll take the time to read another aviation related book (I have one waiting on my shelf) but this was certainly a good entry level start. I think I have a good background on the industry now to ad to any further reading I do.

Eine wunderbare Autobiographie von einem Ingenieur, der das größte Flugzeug, welches jemals gebaut wurde, zum Fliegen gebracht hat.Interessant, wie dieser Mann seine Kindheit und Jugend verbracht hat.

This book is a great read. I couldn't put it down. It is a first hand look of the creation of the jumbo jet by the man who headed the design team. A lot of people can write a book based on research they've done with opinion and maybe some first hand experience on the subject mixed in but this is the real deal. It not only touches on the history of the 747 but is also a good insight of the aviation industry and the process involved in designing an airplane and brining it to market. It also gives you a look at Joe Sutter himself and how he followed his dream to get to where he is today.You don't have to be an engineer to read this book, it is well written in a way that anyone can follow. If you are interested in airplanes, the 747 or Boeing you'll appreciate this book and what it has to offer.

Ever fly in a Boeing 747? Ever wonder how a Boeing 747 actually flies? Then if you are remotely interested in the most successful jumbo jet of all time, read this book. Joe Sutter was the man responsible for it's long and troubled birth, but once it took off it became a smash and now over 40 years later it's still the Queen of the skies. A great read about a great plane.

L'histoire d'un avion, surtout celui là, par celui qui l'a fait c"est rare et très instructif

ジェット機の開発をエンジニアとして実際に第一線に立っていた人の言葉で学ぶことことができます。ジェット機という巨大システムを、エアラインとの関係、社内の開発体制との関係、エンジンメーカとの関係を安全・経済性をバランスととりながらまとめることの苦労が伝わってきます。また機体メーカとして初フライトをライト兄弟が初めて飛行した１９０３年１２月１７日にちなんで１９６８年１２月１７日を狙っていたのは、興味深かったです。結局間に合わなかったのですが。。。しかし、初フライトの時の感動は色あせることはなく、やはりこの本のハイライトではないかと思います。家族を離陸地点に待機させ、初めて地上から飛び立つ様を見せるというのは、やはりエンジニアとして最高の喜びではないかと思います。評価で星ひとつ落としたのは、冒頭でちょっと自分史が多く、その分がマイナスイメージとなりました。