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‘Father’ of Boeing 747 Dead at 95
Jesse Tabit August 31, 2016
At the age of 95, Joe Sutter, the man who led the engineering team that developed Boeing’s 747, passed away Tuesday.
“His team, along with thousands of other Boeing employees involved in the project, became known as the Incredibles for producing what was then the world’s largest airplane in record time — 29 months from conception to rollout,” said Ray Conner, CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
The iconic plane – known as the “queen of the skies” – made its debut in 1970 and, according to CNN, over 1,500 747s have been delivered.
For more information on this story, visit CNN.
[Photo: Boeing]
RIP, Joe. My first 747 flight was from JFK to LAX back in the 70s. I remember wondering how something this big was going to get off the ground. But it did. It was back in the old days when the 747s had "lounges" in the second deck. I had my first glass of champagne and my parents each had Manhattans.
He is mentioned a lot in the excellent full-length documentary on the Smithsonian Channel -- 747: The Jumbo Revolution.