Also, sometimes ads need final approval before they're allowed to publish... Or, the advertiser only wants say "6 ads, no closer than 2 weeks together) which gets them roughly 3 months of ads.
One shouldn't forget, that the 747 was designed "old school"- with slide rules, log tables, scientific calculators, and PAPER Blueprints. Practically no computer aided design tools, let alone the kind of computer modeling available today.
In the late 1990's I was stranded in a snowstorm at Vancouver Airport, looking out at the 747 that hundreds of passengers were waiting to board. I struck up a conversation with a man sitting next to me to happened to be a Boeing engineer who was a part of the 747's current design team. He pulled out drawings from his briefcase of the plane and started describing the incredible engineering that the 747 had accrued over the decades and continued to accrue. He then told me, "It is my opinion that this plane is the greatest thing man has ever built. It can reliably transport hundreds of people and cargo thousands of miles in record time and in great comfort. It has bridged continents and cultures and has made trade easier. It has improved human lives ways its designers never envisioned. It transformed the world."
It transformed the world by making intercontinental travel by the public affordable. A middle class kid could pay his own way to Europe for a 2 week tour (my story). A semester abroad was not a one-percenter thing, but an aspiration of the middle class. The internationally well traveled set now could include most college graduates.
Worked there and it is huge. Hearing vs seeing it in person is way different. I agree he should do a video on it Edit: still sad about the 747 lost because of bad riveting that took off the tail in Japan.
@@Chris-cv1ll It wasn't bad riveting. But the story goes as this. THE JAPANESE CAN'T FLY. And had dropped that 747s tail on the runway 3 times. After the 3rd. The rear pressure dome needed more repairs. But on a seem that later was determined needed 3 rows of rivets. But unfortunately the ok'd repair only consisted of 2. Which eventually ended in failure of the pressure dome. Severing hydraulics and damaging the vertical stabilizers. The rest you know.
@@My-Pal-Hal if you look at the report (even the one Boeing showed during orientation) they cut the plate and gave each side one row of rivets and pack sealed it. It actually lasted longer then isthmus was calculated to be able to withstand
@@Chris-cv1ll That's because that "Pack Seal" as you call it. Is 5-95 B2. And you could probably build and airplane with that stuff. But it is the most used sealant on all Boeing aircraft. And I remember orientation. Haven't heard that for a while 😂 Mine was in 1978 when I started in final assembly in Everett on the 747. And worked on most Everett produced aircraft thru 1991. Including the 707 military projects. It was a great time... And that's just what I remember from my AOG days ☺
Suggestion: do the Everett facility. You touched on it but there's so much more to it then just the assembly building. And the logistics of getting all the separate components of an airliner into one place is an impressive feat.
And just the numbers involved with the Paint Building are impressive. I worked at Everett in the 80s until just before the expansion project in the 90s for the 777 line.
@@CorwinPatrick I work there now. Did you ever get into the tunnels under the factory? The expansion (for 777) has a full network that links a number of them so you can get across the factory without having to dodge forklifts. There's also the new Composite Wing center (built where the old brick "flat-tops" used to be) that are where the composite wings for the new 777X are being built, so the Everett factory site is still growing.
Fun fact, the 747 has a hardpoint on the left wing near the root which can be fitted with a 5th engine. Although the hardpoint has no provisions for making the engine function while in flight, it was a key design feature that allowed airlines to transport replacement engines to their maintenance facilities without the need for a separate cargo flights. BONUS FACT: Virgin Galactic recently used this hardpoint to launch one of their test rockets from under the wing of their retired 747.
In 1970 Pan Am was not allowed to fly domestic routes, hence the international flight to London. It was the shortest Pan Am route that could handle the 747 at the time.
As someone who builds the 747 i love this. The plane is truly special and a dream to work on. 11 left to build as of today. hopefully the plane will live on :)
He has a channel called side projects or something like that and I couldn't even watch it. It was too much. We both know I'll circle back around to it, but right then, Simon seemed like a youtube stalker. He's around every corner.
Dude, really? Air Force One? I was stationed in the Mojave Desert and one Saturday morning watched a 747 fly overhead with a space shuttle strapped to its back. If that isn't special, and two megaprojects for the price of one; then I don't know what is.
When I was in elementary school I was in Florida, the teachers had us all go out side to watch the Space shuttle piggy backed on the 747 coming back from its first flight. Because of how close the school was to Kennedy Space Center the plane was already flying low, and it was so big it made several of us duck by instinct! It was fabulous!
I overnighted at Edwards AFB en route to 29 Palms at got to see the Enterprise on top of its 747! It was at night and the plane+shuttle were virtually encased in scaffolding and lit up like daylight! Talk about awe-inspiring!
Saw one of the firefighting 747 Supertankers flying only a few hundred feet overhead at the Sonoma and Napa wildfires this past Summer. Watching something big enough to have its own zip-code flying almost on the deck is incredible!
Boeing took the B-29 fuselage and added a second, wider fuselage on top of it to create the Boeing 367/377 airliners from the '50's. Then, in 1953 they took this figure-8 shaped fuselage cross section, filled in the recesses, and produced an egg shaped fuselage section for their new 367-80 aircraft. The 367-80 had another name: Boeing 707.
Suggestions for future Megaprojects: The construction of the Pentagon. The construction of the first large airports. The Taj Mahal. The construction of Disneyland and Disney World. Las Vegas, from small sleepy desert town to the gambling capital of the world. Greek and Roman temples. Buckingham Palace.
Las Vegas When the incompetent commie boy Castro cut off future billions and billions of US tourist jet travel dollars.....Vegas with legal gambling and jet travel was created. Think how wealthy Cuba would be today if it wasn't for the nutcase Castro. Before jet travel, Vegas was almost totally dependent on visitors driving in from LA.
@@Terri_MacKay I believe that was due to Castro taking over many US owned businesses without compensation to the owners. Plus, Castro coming out as an extreme communist, when the US was worried about communism taking over the whole world. Castro didn't see the great tourist age coming.
You should've mentioned some of the other special versions of the 747, such as the 747SP shortened version, the one the USAF turned into a giant flying laser cannon to shoot down missiles, or the 2 modified Shuttle Carrier Aircraft used by NASA to ferry space shuttles around. After they retired the space shuttle they used the SCA one last time to carry Discovery to Dulles Airport and they did a low altitude flyby over the Mall in Washington DC. I was there at the time and there were crowds of people outside cheering as Discovery passed overhead about 3 times aboard the 747 with a fighter jet flying formation, before peeling of to the west to land at Dulles.
The original P&W turbofans made a sound like no other. Instantly recognizable as a 747. I grew up under the flight path of one of Chicago O'Hare's runways during the 1970s and heard thousands of those marvelous machines fly by overhead. They were an instant favorite of mine.
I feel the most interesting feature of the 747-100 was the wing twist that the engineers put into place after the first flight to aid in stability for the passengers and control of the aircraft. They designed this solely out of necessity because of the instability of the flight characteristics originally. Its a feature carried through each version until the wing redesign for the 747-800.
I remember the piano 🎹. Right on the second floor. I was like 7 years old, I think. I don’t remember exactly how I got there. Probably going to the bathroom and taking a detour to the stairs.
On March 27, 1977, the deadliest aviation accident in history occurred when KLM Flight 4805 collided on the runway with Pan Am 1736 in heavy fog at Tenerife Airport, resulting in 583 fatalities. Both aircraft were 747s. There were 61 survivors, all from the Pan Am 747. The Pan Am aircraft was the first 747 that entered commercial service
I had the decided great fortune to command Qantas’ last 747 commercial flight so I viewed with considerable nostalgia your well presented video.....thank you...
Honestly, the Leopard and Challenger are better, or rather more interesting projects in my opinion. Reason being that the Abrams for the large part has always been a success. Not the most successful or the absolute best at all areas, but it's done it's job and it's done it well. The Challenger I and Leopard 2 had some. . . . interesting features that ended up changing or not appearing in Challenger II and Leopard 2. I'd include the Leclerc, but the French are so uptight about it that we hardly have any hard data on it.
I'll always remember flying on this as a little kid in '71. Our seats were by the wing. The stewardesses gave me and my friend colorform sets, etc. and we played with them on the large floor space in front of our seats.
Megaproject Suggestion. Longest deep bore ice core in Antarctica. Took years, loads of drama with it and they found some cool stuff like a fresh water lake under the ice containing previously unknown lifeforms. Would go Well with the other hole projects that are popular Speaking of deep holes, how about the Kidd Mine as well?
Megaprojects suggestion: the Arecibo radio telescope. It isn't the biggest anymore, but it set the standard for radio frequency observation of the stars.
The 747 is really an amazing aircraft with an amazing history. It's 4 engines is a big reason it was selected to again be the base for the new versions of "Air Force One".
At 6:04 you show a 747, the ‘City of Everett’. That is actually the very first one made, 747-001, same plane shown at 7:45 for the unveiling. It is on display at Boeing’s Museum of Flight at Boeing field, Everett Wa. It was so weird stepping into the first one made vs more recent ones!
And that airframe was a testbed for many research projects. If you go on board and walk back to the tail you'll see a setup for mid-air refueling, a leftover from when they were considering using the 747 as a tanker, and for additional development work on Boeing's 'Flying Boom' refueling system. When I was stationed in Germany (1978-1981) one of the guys in my unit flew home to New Jersey for his father's retirement party. He flew over, attended the retirement and dinner, and flew back. His flight back was on a Lufthansa 747, and he was the only passenger, with the entire cabin crew at his disposal (think for a moment about what *that* per-passenger fuel cost must have been!). The aircraft and crew were going from JFK in NY to Frankfurt, and it was an unscheduled repositioning flight where he somehow managed to grab a seat. The relocated him from his assigned seat in the main cabin up to the lounge deck and he and most of the cabin crew had a pretty good overnight party crossing the Atlantic.
I was lucky enough to fly one of the first 10 747's on Pan Am flights 1 and 2 in 1970. They gave kids tours of the hump and had models for every parent that requested them. As a youngster, it was just the coolest aircraft ever. I can still recall how mind-blowing that hump was.
West Edmonton Mall. Biggest in the world when it was built. Still has the largest indoor Waterpark in the world, and I think one of the worlds larger indoor roller-coaster
Simon, you missed one of the best features of the 747 with Pan Am: Dine in the Sky! The upper deck had a round table, that if I remember seated about 12 first class passengers for a gourmet dining event. Truly the epitome of non-private air travel .
The one time I had a chance to fly on a 747, from Atlanta, they overbooked and I got bumped to a DC-10. Though those are pretty impressive craft as well.
The 747 is just a legend amongst passenger airliners. It's amazing to think that, although its obviously being constantly updated and modified, in line with new technology, it's still basically the same aircraft, and is still in production, although this apparently ceases, just next year in 2022, it's a testament to just how well designed these aircraft were in the first place. It will be a sad day in aviation history, but at 53 years old what an incredible production run it will have had, with many staying in service for a long time to come.
I got to help the 747-8 happen (I was on a design team considering the viability of this last re-invention)... and yes, it's absolutely a Mega Project. The original airplane came out when I was 13 (I got to watch the roll out ceremony on my grandmothers TV), and helping it make this airplane program last into its 50th year was just amazing. Thanks for the run-down on it's history. You did a good job of it.
I think the Everett facility would be a great Mega projects there's a lot of little facts such as the overpass that crosses over Boeing freeway to Paine Field that Boeing only uses at night to transport Jets from one location to the other because it has caused some car accidents do to people thinking that Jets a crash landing on the freeway
the SCA or the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft prob could have an episode of it's own. It was bought through a front company, 2 were actually purchased, and extensively modified for the mission. I actually got to go abord one of the SCA's at Kennedy Space Center and we shot an interview in the cockpit for a project about the space shuttle about 10 years ago. Fun Times.
@@robertc.fisher3214 I live in Palmdale, Ca. Just South of Edwards AFB. One of the planes mentioned, is parked at an air-park down the street from us. They couldn't get their hands on a Shuttle for the park, but did the plane that carried the shuttle. It is so big, driving up the 14 frwy from Los Angeles, you can see it from across the valley.
@@lynnmccurdythehdmmrc2561 They decommissioned one of the SCA's after the last shuttle was delivered and kept another for a high altitude research telescope. There was a press day at Edwards years ago that I missed about that craft.
@@My-Pal-Hal You are correct. The two SCAs are a 747-100-N905NA, the first, and the second which is N911NA is a 747SR which is much longer than the 747SP. N911NA is actually a spare parts donor for SOFIA. N905NA is on display in Houston. I just remember they had mentioned using one of the SCAs for the SOFIA program. This was in 2011 so everything changes.
12:38 - The wing sweep is actually one of the more interesting features of any aircraft flying today (albeit with its days numbered). 37.5 degrees is considerably more than almost any aircraft today (25-30 is most common, although it's been creeping back up lately); and this is one of the features you can use to distinguish them from the ground. Because of this wing sweep, their maximum Mach number is quite a bit higher than most airliners built since, and although they are usually flown much slower to conserve fuel, they are probably, in principle, at least, the fastest airliner still flying today. Of the subsonic airliners, it's likely only the 727, which also had a pretty good wing sweep and was massively overpowered, was faster.
Simon you should do a video on the Boeing Everett facility in general, its the largest building in the entire WORLD by volume. It was so massive that clouds would accumulate near the ceiling, before they developed a new cutting edge HVAC system. Would be super, super interesting to us.
@@well_as_an_expert_id_say Never said that there weren't HVAC systems, the factory floor (you know, the largest part of the building's volume) is not air conditioned. science.howstuffworks.com/transport/flight/modern/boeings-everett-facility-is-largest-building-on-earth.htm
@@well_as_an_expert_id_say I understand, you're not an expert at google. Feel free to post a link that features the factory's HVAC system www.bbc.com/future/article/20181211-what-its-like-to-work-in-the-biggest-building-in-the-world
As a lifelong lover of aviation and a licensed pilot, air traffic controller, and dispatcher (and having worked in the airline industry and ATC for a combined 20+ years), I can say that the 747 is among the most beautiful, graceful, and amazing airliners ever. It has beautiful lines that the A380 (the engineering marvel that it is) just doesn't have. Sure, it doesn't fit all markets, it makes sense that airlines are phasing it out, and possibly its time as a passenger aircraft are almost behind it, but not many people counter love and admiration for the P-51 Mustang by saying it's obsolete. The 18 wheeler that is the 747 will always be remembered fondly in the aviation industry!
She will always been the Queen of the skies. Such a gorgeous aircraft. It will be a sad day when she is finally retired. Hopefully AirForce One will keep a couple in the skies for another couple decades.
Simon, here's an underrated and unspoken "megaproject" that you covered, kinda, in a TIFO video. Seatbelts. The whole project Colonel John Stapp did. The whole production of seatbelts is probably very minuscule in the scheme of things, but having a human repeatedly uh. . . . . Rocket-sled-chair-handled couldn't have been on a dollar special. Er, I guess it'd be a quid special for you locally.
My great great uncle Frank Albright was in charge of designing the landing gear for the 747. He also was the project engineer on the Vought f4u Corsair
Yeah, that was my reaction too... maybe not as famous as the VC-25, but SOFIA has to be the coolest thing ever done with a 747. Of course, he didn't mention the Shuttle transport either...
Speaking of special variants, worth mentioning the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft which were modified 747-100s that carried the Shuttle Orbiter, NASA's SOFIA, which is a telescope built into a 747SP, and the 747 Supertanker, which is used for firefighting. There were also a number of interesting concepts that were never built.
The 747 is amazing and just plain cool. Just the building they made the 747 in might be considered a mega project. At the time of construction it was the largest building in the world and it even started generating cloud formation inside it till they installed a massive air conditioning system
@Michael Jones There anything but shitty, DeHaviland Comet for example is a fascinating aircraft it was the first commercial jet aircraft and as a result of early accidents it revolutionised the way in which air crash investigations were conducted and through the discovery as a result of the airplanes design it changed how airplanes were designed had it not been for the Comet disasters the American jets such as the 707 & DC-8 would of had the same issues
One of my great friends (now deceased), who worked at Boeing, was instrumental in the success of the program intended to transition the 747 into extended cargo purchase contracts . . . likely extending the longevity of the aircraft an additional 20-30 years. I absolutely love the impact the 747 has had on the aircraft industry.
I've been fortunate in my life to have flown all over the world on business and all my flights to Asia were on 747s. Singapore Airlines is by far my favorite airline and sitting up in the Big Top in business class is off the scale pampering. Once though, I was heading to Singapore on a Northwest jet and was in the first row downstairs. Tons of leg room in that seat!!! It's also way in front of the nose gear and as the plane taxied out for take-off, when he made a left turn my seat was already past the tarmac and swung out over the grass! It was something I hadn't quite thought about until it happened! Another time I was in Heathrow catching a flight home and it happened to be the day after Iraq invaded Kuwait. It was a BA flight on a brand new -400 and the only time I ever flew over the pole. Now I can say I've seen icebergs! ;-) Great memories of flying in that jet!!! P.S. Our Business Class lounge was over the BA 1st class lounge and lo and behold there was a Concorde parked which taxied out before we boarded our jet. I had no idea that the Concorde had after burning engines which they used to get it taxiing! Talk about LOUD!!! Since then, I've always wondered why they didn't use s tug to taxi the plane out to its runway to save some of the gas! That plane is as loud as an F-4 Phantom!! Stunning plane to see in action and in person!
The 747 is the aircraft model everyone has _heard of_, but I would argue that the 737 is more iconic in other ways. It's so common (roughly ten times as common as the 747) that people don't even know its model number; it's just pretty much the one and only model of plane that people think of when they think of a generic "passenger jet", not the glamorous huge 747 but just a regular ordinary workhorse passenger aircraft -- the 737 is the de facto "regular" airplane.
Every single time i have heard a none aviation person talk about airliners without using the word "plane", they said 747, as if it was synonymous. If you show anyone a picture of a 747 they will recognize it as such. If you ask anyone to name an airliner they know, they will say 747. There isnt a single way in which the 73 is more iconic, it being more common does not make it an icon. Thats what you said too, its generic, the 747 is not generic, its the best there is, thats why everyone knows it.
@@AnnicK.Zoloft What I mean is, if you ask a hundred thousand random people off the street to each draw an airplane, most of them are going to say "I can't draw" and refuse to try, and most of the ones who do try are going to draw something too simple and stylized to be any specific model of plane; but of the people who do draw a recognizable airplane, most of them are going to draw a 737, a couple of people may draw a 727, and the rest will draw various military planes (the F-15, the F-117, the Fokker Dr.I, the A6M Zero, the A-10, etc.)
@@jonadabtheunsightly If they drew a generic looking twin jet, why would that automatically make it a 737, instead of any other generic looking twin jet? Doesnt make sense to me.
I helped build those for 10 years. I made about 100 of them, but some guys on the line had done over 700. It was not easy to put together. A lot of things didn't fit very well due to substructures and parts being made on old tooling, and the vague, sometimes not very precise original drawings. Over the years instructions to shim and/or trim items were added to our work orders to avoid having to contact engineering every time something didn't fit. It was said on the line if you could build a 747, you could work on any other line and find things easier. Being an older design, the 747 was "overbuilt". Today's computer aided design allows to more precisely calculate loads and stresses. Back then, extra strength was added to structures to account for unforeseen loads. As an example, take China Air 006, where a short fuselage 747 went into a dive, pulled 5Gs during recovery, and although the wings were permanently bent upward a few inches, was deemed airworthy after some repairs elsewhere on the craft. The 747 was the last Boeing plane to still have control cables. If you lost your hydraulics, you still had some control of the aircraft. The lubrication on those cables is really stinky, by the way. It's really a safe plane to fly in. Concerning the JAL 123 accident, it was a repair that didn't conform to the engineering instructions that caused the accident, and it was OUR GUYS that did it. Google it, please. They still talk about it on the line. It's still a big deal. And tail strikes are really common on 747s whether you are a Japanese pilot or any other nationality. There were high hopes that airport overcrowding would bring back demand for larger planes on fewer flights, but it didn't materialize in time. Having four engines didn't help, either. But keep in mind the old saying, "The difference between obsolete and state-of-the-art is that obsolete works." Remember that on your next 787 flight. (just kidding) It was a great plane, and made the world smaller for everyone, everywhere. I'm proud to have worked on the program, and every time the new Air Force One is shown on the evening news, I'll point and say, "Hey, I helped build that"!
The Boeing 747 is my all time favorite airliner. I used to live closer to JFK than I do now (still living in New York City though), and whenever I got the chance, I would try to con my mother into going near JFK so that I could see them land. As much as I love the Concorde, the 747 will always have my heart. One of my bucket list dreams was to be able to fly first class on a British Airways 747, but now that their last one has been grounded due to the pandemic, that's no longer possible. Still, she lives on in my heart. 😊
I was always impressed by British Air's fleet of 747s. Back in the 1990s (and maybe until today) many European airports were expanding and arriving or departing from the gate most often involved hopping onto a shuttle bus. Getting off the shuttle bus onto the tarmac and looking down a line of a dozen or more identical 747s is an amazing sight.
Great work coming up with methods to visually show metric & and imperial, and original cost vs 2020-cost. This really helps minimize distractions over the numbers.
What a great combination. Malcolm Stamper was President of Boeing in those days, and he was a Georgia Tech engineer, so he knew how to support the great Joe Sutter and stay out of his way, if need be. "Can do" types of people, who knew what they were doing. Sutter and Stamper weren't clueless sociopath posers, like Boeing's last president!
As a child, I grew up near the Everett airfield in the 80's and thank you so much for this mega project! It absolutely qualifies. Idea for another mega project. I heard a story about the making of the original lunar Rover. My brother's an electrical engineer and he told me this fascinating story about the making of the batteries for it. He said that can never be recharged without exploding and that the bi-product of making said batteries was so toxic, a spoonful could kill all living organisms in Lake Washington in Seattle. I'd love to know the truth.
The conversion of the 747 to the world's greatest fire bomber would make a FANTASTIC video!!! Esp if you did a collab with Kelsey, a 747 pilot & RUclipsr (74Gear) The Global Supertanker is one bad ass fire fighting machine & definitely a bad ass megaproject! They have a website & twitter account. It's also the unofficial State Bird of California 🤣🤣 Love your work!! Or maybe how they built the Golden Gate Bridge to help pull us out of the Great Depression. It's one of the most iconic bridges in the world & the unofficial symbol of California.
Mega-project Suggestion: Virginia-class submarines (the the first warship designed with the help of computer-aided design (CAD) and 3-D visualization). Note the huge savings in weight and storage space on-board for the blueprints. Now on a few computer disks rather than a closet full of paper.
Do you think you could do a video on the Nevada-Class Battleships as both ships had interesting careers. One of which USS Nevada tried to escape Pearl Harbor, fought at D-Day , Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, and survived 2 atomic bombs. I would say that's a mega ship. Awesome video. Hope more videos are coming.
I don't recall seeing 747s, but I've seen couple A380s. When you see one of those things land far away , you think "meh, not that impressive"... then couple minutes later parks next to your terminal and you go "holy F! That thing is ginormous!"
Since you're a fan of planes,and you mentioned it,do the C5A. Saw the first 1 to land at MacDill AFB,in Tampa, back in the 70s. Step-dad was a Lt. Colonel, so we got the tour. Awesome...
Awesome! My father was one of the lead engineers on the 747 way back in the day. He actually gave me the blueprints to the 747 being built for the king of Saudi Arabia that they were building at the time. Thanks Simon for bringing back good memories of my dad!
Its kind a emotional and inspiring to think that one of the last 747s in the air will be carrying the president of the country which introduced flight to mankind
i wish you were my professor / teacher in school. your ability to keep on talking on a subject without stopping is awesome. how do you cramp all that into your brain??? and kept doing new episodes very frequently!!! you could write a lot of theses.
I distinctly remember the first time I ever saw a 747. I was working outside when I saw this gigantic plane make several slow approaches to the Billings, Montana airport, only to pull up and go around. It was later reported by the local news that Billings was being tested as a designated emergency landing site for 747 passenger planes. The Billings runway was built longer than necessary for a small regional airport because there was a Montana Air National Guard unit collocated at the airport, and Billings was the only such runway long enough to accommodate an emergency 747 landing between Seattle and Minneapolis.
Was on flight test program for 747. 5 planes to test for one year to get it certified. Great plane . Flew down to NM to test the landing gear and brakes. No thrust reverses during test, fully loaded complete stop three times with out flaring the plane on landing. Looked like the wings flapping when landing.
I dont know who would think planes aren't mega projects. Those things have to meet such tight engineering guidelines just to fly in the first place. Now to be to SAFE while flying? Its so expensive and time consuming and you can't even be 100% sure its safe until its been operating for a while since not all issues are always readily apparent.
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Lol, "2 weeks ago"
@@stickmann7363 Yeah, they upload it privatised, make sure everything is good to go, and then set it on a timed release. Tons of youtubers do it.
Also, sometimes ads need final approval before they're allowed to publish... Or, the advertiser only wants say "6 ads, no closer than 2 weeks together) which gets them roughly 3 months of ads.
@@damekids ohhhh...whoops.
Nice video
But please do the Airbus a380 :)
One shouldn't forget, that the 747 was designed "old school"- with slide rules, log tables, scientific calculators, and PAPER Blueprints. Practically no computer aided design tools, let alone the kind of computer modeling available today.
There was a joke, partly tongue-in-cheek, that the blueprints outweighed the finished aircraft.
1965? Yeah, no scientific calculators and no computer aided drafting. Period.
Haha I like what you said.
Not to mention the manual machining, welding, and metal work.
Where have these skills gone?
Welding? No, no, RIVETS. BY HAND. No automatic riveting robots...
In the late 1990's I was stranded in a snowstorm at Vancouver Airport, looking out at the 747 that hundreds of passengers were waiting to board. I struck up a conversation with a man sitting next to me to happened to be a Boeing engineer who was a part of the 747's current design team. He pulled out drawings from his briefcase of the plane and started describing the incredible engineering that the 747 had accrued over the decades and continued to accrue. He then told me, "It is my opinion that this plane is the greatest thing man has ever built. It can reliably transport hundreds of people and cargo thousands of miles in record time and in great comfort. It has bridged continents and cultures and has made trade easier. It has improved human lives ways its designers never envisioned. It transformed the world."
It transformed the world by making intercontinental travel by the public affordable. A middle class kid could pay his own way to Europe for a 2 week tour (my story). A semester abroad was not a one-percenter thing, but an aspiration of the middle class. The internationally well traveled set now could include most college graduates.
@@jeffreypierson2064 It's a one percenter thing these days again :(
@@jeffreypierson2064 don’t need to be middle class to afford a flight ticket buddy...
@@conorf8091 Pretty much do to be able to afford the rest of the trip expenses, though.
And it will be one percenter thing eventually. Back to how it was. Travelling only for the rich.
The Boeing Everett factory could be its own Megaproject. Been there, had a cousin work there for a while. It's awe inspiring.
Worked there and it is huge. Hearing vs seeing it in person is way different. I agree he should do a video on it
Edit: still sad about the 747 lost because of bad riveting that took off the tail in Japan.
@@Chris-cv1ll
It wasn't bad riveting.
But the story goes as this.
THE JAPANESE CAN'T FLY.
And had dropped that 747s tail on the runway 3 times. After the 3rd. The rear pressure dome needed more repairs. But on a seem that later was determined needed 3 rows of rivets. But unfortunately the ok'd repair only consisted of 2. Which eventually ended in failure of the pressure dome. Severing hydraulics and damaging the vertical stabilizers.
The rest you know.
And the Everett Plant is the largest structure under one roof in the world.
And can have it's Own Weather.
Spent 11yrs there 🤗 pretty damn cool
@@My-Pal-Hal if you look at the report (even the one Boeing showed during orientation) they cut the plate and gave each side one row of rivets and pack sealed it. It actually lasted longer then isthmus was calculated to be able to withstand
@@Chris-cv1ll
That's because that "Pack Seal" as you call it. Is 5-95 B2.
And you could probably build and airplane with that stuff. But it is the most used sealant on all Boeing aircraft.
And I remember orientation. Haven't heard that for a while 😂
Mine was in 1978 when I started in final assembly in Everett on the 747. And worked on most Everett produced aircraft thru 1991.
Including the 707 military projects.
It was a great time...
And that's just what I remember from my AOG days ☺
Suggestion: do the Everett facility. You touched on it but there's so much more to it then just the assembly building. And the logistics of getting all the separate components of an airliner into one place is an impressive feat.
And just the numbers involved with the Paint Building are impressive. I worked at Everett in the 80s until just before the expansion project in the 90s for the 777 line.
@@CorwinPatrick I work there now. Did you ever get into the tunnels under the factory? The expansion (for 777) has a full network that links a number of them so you can get across the factory without having to dodge forklifts. There's also the new Composite Wing center (built where the old brick "flat-tops" used to be) that are where the composite wings for the new 777X are being built, so the Everett factory site is still growing.
Pretty funny, I’m actually watching this video from inside the Everett main factory lol
@@spottedcrow1126 get back to work! Lol
Mega project suggestion: the catacombs of Paris. Moving millions of corpses in the middle of the night. Definitely a mega project.
Yeah good call, agreed.
Already been done on one of his other channels. Geographics, I think. It's a good watch.
Yep, this was done on Geographics. Super great episode.
Sounds cool.
Already done on Geographics channel. You should subscribe to all (except business blaze) for the full experience.
Fun fact, the 747 has a hardpoint on the left wing near the root which can be fitted with a 5th engine. Although the hardpoint has no provisions for making the engine function while in flight, it was a key design feature that allowed airlines to transport replacement engines to their maintenance facilities without the need for a separate cargo flights.
BONUS FACT:
Virgin Galactic recently used this hardpoint to launch one of their test rockets from under the wing of their retired 747.
Didn’t know either of those facts
@@studinthemaking I am full of useless knowledge that would only be useful in Simon's videos lol
Bonus bonus fact, they reached orbit two weeks ago. Woohoo !!!!
In 1970 Pan Am was not allowed to fly domestic routes, hence the international flight to London. It was the shortest Pan Am route that could handle the 747 at the time.
Very important point! I forget "deregulation" of airlines used to actually be a political issue.
As someone who builds the 747 i love this. The plane is truly special and a dream to work on. 11 left to build as of today. hopefully the plane will live on :)
megaprojects suggestion : How Simon Whistler took over youtube.
He is waiting to his next channel: conspiracy theories. 😜🤣🤣🤣
He has a channel called side projects or something like that and I couldn't even watch it. It was too much. We both know I'll circle back around to it, but right then, Simon seemed like a youtube stalker. He's around every corner.
Stop it.
Oh, so you mean he hasn't already?
Hahahahaha yep
Dude, really? Air Force One? I was stationed in the Mojave Desert and one Saturday morning watched a 747 fly overhead with a space shuttle strapped to its back. If that isn't special, and two megaprojects for the price of one; then I don't know what is.
When I was in elementary school I was in Florida, the teachers had us all go out side to watch the Space shuttle piggy backed on the 747 coming back from its first flight. Because of how close the school was to Kennedy Space Center the plane was already flying low, and it was so big it made several of us duck by instinct! It was fabulous!
I overnighted at Edwards AFB en route to 29 Palms at got to see the Enterprise on top of its 747! It was at night and the plane+shuttle were virtually encased in scaffolding and lit up like daylight!
Talk about awe-inspiring!
Too bad the shuttle was kind of wasted money since it didn't really inspire the public to continue funding space missions with impunity!
@@Thros1 because it was a bad design. also least safe space craft 14 people died on it.
Saw one of the firefighting 747 Supertankers flying only a few hundred feet overhead at the Sonoma and Napa wildfires this past Summer. Watching something big enough to have its own zip-code flying almost on the deck is incredible!
Since we are at the subject of Boeing, Simon you should do a megaproject for the B-29 (especially) and the B-17
Boeing took the B-29 fuselage and added a second, wider fuselage on top of it to create the Boeing 367/377 airliners from the '50's. Then, in 1953 they took this figure-8 shaped fuselage cross section, filled in the recesses, and produced an egg shaped fuselage section for their new 367-80 aircraft. The 367-80 had another name: Boeing 707.
We peaked at 5 a day out of Renton. Pretty good for a swamp on the edge of a lake.
Suggestions for future Megaprojects:
The construction of the Pentagon.
The construction of the first large airports.
The Taj Mahal.
The construction of Disneyland and Disney World.
Las Vegas, from small sleepy desert town to the gambling capital of the world.
Greek and Roman temples.
Buckingham Palace.
Las Vegas
When the incompetent commie boy Castro cut off future billions and billions of US tourist jet travel dollars.....Vegas with legal gambling and jet travel was created. Think how wealthy Cuba would be today if it wasn't for the nutcase Castro.
Before jet travel, Vegas was almost totally dependent on visitors driving in from LA.
I am honestly HERE for more airports to be covered on this channel.
The building of Disney parks is covered in Disney+ imagineering series. It's really indepth.
@@ziggy2shus624 I thought that in 1962 Kennedy imposed a full trade embargo on Cuba and prohibited all Americans from travelling to Cuba. 🤔
@@Terri_MacKay I believe that was due to Castro taking over many US owned businesses without compensation to the owners. Plus, Castro coming out as an extreme communist, when the US was worried about communism taking over the whole world. Castro didn't see the great tourist age coming.
You should've mentioned some of the other special versions of the 747, such as the 747SP shortened version, the one the USAF turned into a giant flying laser cannon to shoot down missiles, or the 2 modified Shuttle Carrier Aircraft used by NASA to ferry space shuttles around. After they retired the space shuttle they used the SCA one last time to carry Discovery to Dulles Airport and they did a low altitude flyby over the Mall in Washington DC. I was there at the time and there were crowds of people outside cheering as Discovery passed overhead about 3 times aboard the 747 with a fighter jet flying formation, before peeling of to the west to land at Dulles.
See my reply to Simon Leblanc on the same subject.
I aslo think there are a couple of 747's that have been made into private jets
The original P&W turbofans made a sound like no other. Instantly recognizable as a 747. I grew up under the flight path of one of Chicago O'Hare's runways during the 1970s and heard thousands of those marvelous machines fly by overhead. They were an instant favorite of mine.
The 747 will always be the Jumbo Jet. Not the old or new, just 'The Jumbo'.
I feel the most interesting feature of the 747-100 was the wing twist that the engineers put into place after the first flight to aid in stability for the passengers and control of the aircraft. They designed this solely out of necessity because of the instability of the flight characteristics originally. Its a feature carried through each version until the wing redesign for the 747-800.
I remember when the 747s were introduced and the big advertising gimmick was a piano bar in the airplane.
I remember the piano 🎹. Right on the second floor. I was like 7 years old, I think. I don’t remember exactly how I got there. Probably going to the bathroom and taking a detour to the stairs.
On March 27, 1977, the deadliest aviation accident in history occurred when KLM Flight 4805 collided on the runway with Pan Am 1736 in heavy fog at Tenerife Airport, resulting in 583 fatalities. Both aircraft were 747s. There were 61 survivors, all from the Pan Am 747. The Pan Am aircraft was the first 747 that entered commercial service
Damn, I didnt know it was the first one. Tenerife disaster was unreal.
Just so happens I'm watching this at the Boeing site in Everett.
GET BACK TO WORK!
Lol
Any way you can get this to play instead of the really cheesy "pre-flight" instruction video? I feel like I'd learn more every time.
@@moose2577 it's my day off... But had to get a new badge before Monday 🤦
I was going to laugh about the "Lazy B", but you are on your day off.
What line? I was on 767 aft assembly until the first layoffs on july 31st...
Now so one the 747 assembly building at Paine Field Everett, WA.
Also the A380 is out of production, the 747 is still in production, 50 years.
I had the decided great fortune to command Qantas’ last 747 commercial flight so I viewed with considerable nostalgia your well presented video.....thank you...
I think a good project idea would be the us m1a1 main battle tank. Or the other variants.
Good one👌
just do the Leopard 2A7 way better... because you know... it's made from Kruppstahl xD
Yes tanks.
Honestly, the Leopard and Challenger are better, or rather more interesting projects in my opinion. Reason being that the Abrams for the large part has always been a success. Not the most successful or the absolute best at all areas, but it's done it's job and it's done it well. The Challenger I and Leopard 2 had some. . . . interesting features that ended up changing or not appearing in Challenger II and Leopard 2.
I'd include the Leclerc, but the French are so uptight about it that we hardly have any hard data on it.
M1a2 abrams or the new M1a3!
I'll always remember flying on this as a little kid in '71. Our seats were by the wing. The stewardesses gave me and my friend colorform sets, etc. and we played with them on the large floor space in front of our seats.
Megaproject Suggestion. Longest deep bore ice core in Antarctica. Took years, loads of drama with it and they found some cool stuff like a fresh water lake under the ice containing previously unknown lifeforms. Would go Well with the other hole projects that are popular
Speaking of deep holes, how about the Kidd Mine as well?
Wow so kids actually come from the kid mine?
@@xavierz6687 my kids come from a kid mine, though my wife hates it when I call it that.
I know of a few deep holes I can also direct you towards
@@u0aol1 Well I know of the Kola super deep hole and the Gottshard tunnel, chunnel and so on but new deep holes are always appreciated.
Ah yess the Kidd Mine the boot camp that turns a profit with approved labor
Megaprojects suggestion: the Arecibo radio telescope. It isn't the biggest anymore, but it set the standard for radio frequency observation of the stars.
And quite relevant considering the recent mishap there.
First flight of the 747 "Let's fly across the Atlantic...", and it made it 20 minutes faster.
*White Star Line has left the chat*
The 747 is really an amazing aircraft with an amazing history. It's 4 engines is a big reason it was selected to again be the base for the new versions of "Air Force One".
At 6:04 you show a 747, the ‘City of Everett’. That is actually the very first one made, 747-001, same plane shown at 7:45 for the unveiling. It is on display at Boeing’s Museum of Flight at Boeing field, Everett Wa. It was so weird stepping into the first one made vs more recent ones!
And that airframe was a testbed for many research projects. If you go on board and walk back to the tail you'll see a setup for mid-air refueling, a leftover from when they were considering using the 747 as a tanker, and for additional development work on Boeing's 'Flying Boom' refueling system.
When I was stationed in Germany (1978-1981) one of the guys in my unit flew home to New Jersey for his father's retirement party. He flew over, attended the retirement and dinner, and flew back. His flight back was on a Lufthansa 747, and he was the only passenger, with the entire cabin crew at his disposal (think for a moment about what *that* per-passenger fuel cost must have been!). The aircraft and crew were going from JFK in NY to Frankfurt, and it was an unscheduled repositioning flight where he somehow managed to grab a seat. The relocated him from his assigned seat in the main cabin up to the lounge deck and he and most of the cabin crew had a pretty good overnight party crossing the Atlantic.
I like big Boeings and I cannot lie, other commenters can’t deny, when a plane goes to land with triple slotted flaps I have to stand up and clap ....
Well done, sir. Well done.
You don't want to deploy those early.
@Tediuki Suzuki I was making a joke based on a song. It’s intentionally wrong to match the lyrical pacing.
I've said it once, I'll say it again: US Interstate System!
Why? Just make the roman or even better the mongolian road system. It was way bigger and way more impressive.
@@pottierkurt1702 But can you land bombers on those brick roads? Jk, they are pretty badass though
That would b awesome
Yes!!
@@pottierkurt1702 Impressive for the time maybe but the Interstate system is probably the biggest project ever conceived to date. I love the I-10 :)
I was lucky enough to fly one of the first 10 747's on Pan Am flights 1 and 2 in 1970. They gave kids tours of the hump and had models for every parent that requested them. As a youngster, it was just the coolest aircraft ever. I can still recall how mind-blowing that hump was.
West Edmonton Mall. Biggest in the world when it was built. Still has the largest indoor Waterpark in the world, and I think one of the worlds larger indoor roller-coaster
And the Boeing Everett Plant,
Being the largest structure under one roof in the World.
Has it's Own Weather 😂 really
Simon, you missed one of the best features of the 747 with Pan Am: Dine in the Sky! The upper deck had a round table, that if I remember seated about 12 first class passengers for a gourmet dining event. Truly the epitome of non-private air travel .
This was my favorite plane ever since I rode it as a kid. And the as a teen for probably the last time. I wish I savored that moment
The one time I had a chance to fly on a 747, from Atlanta, they overbooked and I got bumped to a DC-10. Though those are pretty impressive craft as well.
Yes, I don't know what it was about the DC-10, but I enjoyed flying on it more than the 747. Even so, the 747 was great to fly on!
The 747 is just a legend amongst passenger airliners. It's amazing to think that, although its obviously being constantly updated and modified, in line with new technology, it's still basically the same aircraft, and is still in production, although this apparently ceases, just next year in 2022, it's a testament to just how well designed these aircraft were in the first place. It will be a sad day in aviation history, but at 53 years old what an incredible production run it will have had, with many staying in service for a long time to come.
Suggestion: The zeppelin hangar in Akron, Ohio. - It's own weather, indoor skydive practice, connection to roswell and/or the atomic bomb and more.
I got to help the 747-8 happen (I was on a design team considering the viability of this last re-invention)... and yes, it's absolutely a Mega Project. The original airplane came out when I was 13 (I got to watch the roll out ceremony on my grandmothers TV), and helping it make this airplane program last into its 50th year was just amazing. Thanks for the run-down on it's history. You did a good job of it.
I'm so excited for this one, my dad helped work on the onboard computers on these and !!!! Thank you, simon and crew, you guys are the best 🖤
I think the Everett facility would be a great Mega projects there's a lot of little facts such as the overpass that crosses over Boeing freeway to Paine Field that Boeing only uses at night to transport Jets from one location to the other because it has caused some car accidents do to people thinking that Jets a crash landing on the freeway
"Special" editions of the 747, and no mention of the version that carried the Space Shuttle?
the SCA or the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft prob could have an episode of it's own. It was bought through a front company, 2 were actually purchased, and extensively modified for the mission. I actually got to go abord one of the SCA's at Kennedy Space Center and we shot an interview in the cockpit for a project about the space shuttle about 10 years ago. Fun Times.
@@robertc.fisher3214 I live in Palmdale, Ca. Just South of Edwards AFB. One of the planes mentioned, is parked at an air-park down the street from us. They couldn't get their hands on a Shuttle for the park, but did the plane that carried the shuttle. It is so big, driving up the 14 frwy from Los Angeles, you can see it from across the valley.
@@lynnmccurdythehdmmrc2561 They decommissioned one of the SCA's after the last shuttle was delivered and kept another for a high altitude research telescope. There was a press day at Edwards years ago that I missed about that craft.
@@robertc.fisher3214
You may be referring to "SOFIA".
Which is a 747SP ☺
@@My-Pal-Hal You are correct. The two SCAs are a 747-100-N905NA, the first, and the second which is N911NA is a 747SR which is much longer than the 747SP. N911NA is actually a spare parts donor for SOFIA. N905NA is on display in Houston. I just remember they had mentioned using one of the SCAs for the SOFIA program. This was in 2011 so everything changes.
9:00 That back-up plane later crashed at Tenerife in the worst air crash in the history of aviation.
The Queen of the Skies! Sad to see them getting retired
12:38 - The wing sweep is actually one of the more interesting features of any aircraft flying today (albeit with its days numbered). 37.5 degrees is considerably more than almost any aircraft today (25-30 is most common, although it's been creeping back up lately); and this is one of the features you can use to distinguish them from the ground. Because of this wing sweep, their maximum Mach number is quite a bit higher than most airliners built since, and although they are usually flown much slower to conserve fuel, they are probably, in principle, at least, the fastest airliner still flying today. Of the subsonic airliners, it's likely only the 727, which also had a pretty good wing sweep and was massively overpowered, was faster.
Simon you should do a video on the Boeing Everett facility in general, its the largest building in the entire WORLD by volume. It was so massive that clouds would accumulate near the ceiling, before they developed a new cutting edge HVAC system. Would be super, super interesting to us.
Sorry, but there is no factory wide HVAC system. Only the office/enclosed areas have conditioned air. As it is the electrical bill is $65k/day.
@@jphilm I forgive you
@@jphilm You're 100% wrong as I've found out. There are definitely hvac systems and you really tried to sway me with false information lol nice.
@@well_as_an_expert_id_say Never said that there weren't HVAC systems, the factory floor (you know, the largest part of the building's volume) is not air conditioned.
science.howstuffworks.com/transport/flight/modern/boeings-everett-facility-is-largest-building-on-earth.htm
@@well_as_an_expert_id_say I understand, you're not an expert at google. Feel free to post a link that features the factory's HVAC system
www.bbc.com/future/article/20181211-what-its-like-to-work-in-the-biggest-building-in-the-world
As a lifelong lover of aviation and a licensed pilot, air traffic controller, and dispatcher (and having worked in the airline industry and ATC for a combined 20+ years), I can say that the 747 is among the most beautiful, graceful, and amazing airliners ever. It has beautiful lines that the A380 (the engineering marvel that it is) just doesn't have. Sure, it doesn't fit all markets, it makes sense that airlines are phasing it out, and possibly its time as a passenger aircraft are almost behind it, but not many people counter love and admiration for the P-51 Mustang by saying it's obsolete. The 18 wheeler that is the 747 will always be remembered fondly in the aviation industry!
How about doing one on the Very Large Array in New Mexico?
Just watch season one of X-Files and you'll be set.
She will always been the Queen of the skies. Such a gorgeous aircraft. It will be a sad day when she is finally retired. Hopefully AirForce One will keep a couple in the skies for another couple decades.
Simon, here's an underrated and unspoken "megaproject" that you covered, kinda, in a TIFO video. Seatbelts. The whole project Colonel John Stapp did. The whole production of seatbelts is probably very minuscule in the scheme of things, but having a human repeatedly uh. . . . . Rocket-sled-chair-handled couldn't have been on a dollar special. Er, I guess it'd be a quid special for you locally.
I'm going to suggest Boeing's Everett facility as the next project.
I’d love to hear some stuff about NATO during the Cold War, war games, plans for if the Soviet Union invaded etc
My great great uncle Frank Albright was in charge of designing the landing gear for the 747. He also was the project engineer on the Vought f4u Corsair
Aw. No mention of the SOFIA telescope.
They cut a hole in a 747 to point a massive telescope out of.
Another missed oppurtunity!
Yeah, that was my reaction too... maybe not as famous as the VC-25, but SOFIA has to be the coolest thing ever done with a 747. Of course, he didn't mention the Shuttle transport either...
Or the 747SP
@@mikecowen6507 SOFIA is a 747SP.
@@apolloniaaskew9487 Yes! But an SP is not SOFIA
Speaking of special variants, worth mentioning the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft which were modified 747-100s that carried the Shuttle Orbiter, NASA's SOFIA, which is a telescope built into a 747SP, and the 747 Supertanker, which is used for firefighting. There were also a number of interesting concepts that were never built.
Boeing 747 is a megaproject that shaped the airline industry
The 747 is amazing and just plain cool. Just the building they made the 747 in might be considered a mega project. At the time of construction it was the largest building in the world and it even started generating cloud formation inside it till they installed a massive air conditioning system
Megaprojects suggestions:
The early jets, the Dehaviland comet and the gloster meteor of you haven’t done a video about them already
@Michael Jones There anything but shitty, DeHaviland Comet for example is a fascinating aircraft it was the first commercial jet aircraft and as a result of early accidents it revolutionised the way in which air crash investigations were conducted and through the discovery as a result of the airplanes design it changed how airplanes were designed had it not been for the Comet disasters the American jets such as the 707 & DC-8 would of had the same issues
One of my great friends (now deceased), who worked at Boeing, was instrumental in the success of the program intended to transition the 747 into extended cargo purchase contracts . . . likely extending the longevity of the aircraft an additional 20-30 years. I absolutely love the impact the 747 has had on the aircraft industry.
Megaproject topics: Very Large Array in New Mexico, Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona and the Morenci Copper Mine also in Arizona.
The kennecott copper mine as well. One of the few you can see from space
I've been fortunate in my life to have flown all over the world on business and all my flights to Asia were on 747s. Singapore Airlines is by far my favorite airline and sitting up in the Big Top in business class is off the scale pampering.
Once though, I was heading to Singapore on a Northwest jet and was in the first row downstairs. Tons of leg room in that seat!!! It's also way in front of the nose gear and as the plane taxied out for take-off, when he made a left turn my seat was already past the tarmac and swung out over the grass! It was something I hadn't quite thought about until it happened!
Another time I was in Heathrow catching a flight home and it happened to be the day after Iraq invaded Kuwait. It was a BA flight on a brand new -400 and the only time I ever flew over the pole. Now I can say I've seen icebergs! ;-)
Great memories of flying in that jet!!!
P.S. Our Business Class lounge was over the BA 1st class lounge and lo and behold there was a Concorde parked which taxied out before we boarded our jet. I had no idea that the Concorde had after burning engines which they used to get it taxiing! Talk about LOUD!!!
Since then, I've always wondered why they didn't use s tug to taxi the plane out to its runway to save some of the gas!
That plane is as loud as an F-4 Phantom!! Stunning plane to see in action and in person!
I’m ok with a video on every plane, just saying.
Except your plane of existence!
Was that even funny? No? Sorry.
Fellow aviation geek nodding head in complete agreement.
OK, lets get on with it!
Aviation geek in training, totally ok with this.
Keep on with the plane videos Simon, they're brilliant and fascinating. Really hoping to see one on the B2 Spirit stealth bomber!
The 747 is the aircraft model everyone has _heard of_, but I would argue that the 737 is more iconic in other ways. It's so common (roughly ten times as common as the 747) that people don't even know its model number; it's just pretty much the one and only model of plane that people think of when they think of a generic "passenger jet", not the glamorous huge 747 but just a regular ordinary workhorse passenger aircraft -- the 737 is the de facto "regular" airplane.
Every single time i have heard a none aviation person talk about airliners without using the word "plane", they said 747, as if it was synonymous. If you show anyone a picture of a 747 they will recognize it as such. If you ask anyone to name an airliner they know, they will say 747.
There isnt a single way in which the 73 is more iconic, it being more common does not make it an icon. Thats what you said too, its generic, the 747 is not generic, its the best there is, thats why everyone knows it.
@@AnnicK.Zoloft What I mean is, if you ask a hundred thousand random people off the street to each draw an airplane, most of them are going to say "I can't draw" and refuse to try, and most of the ones who do try are going to draw something too simple and stylized to be any specific model of plane; but of the people who do draw a recognizable airplane, most of them are going to draw a 737, a couple of people may draw a 727, and the rest will draw various military planes (the F-15, the F-117, the Fokker Dr.I, the A6M Zero, the A-10, etc.)
@@jonadabtheunsightly If they drew a generic looking twin jet, why would that automatically make it a 737, instead of any other generic looking twin jet? Doesnt make sense to me.
I helped build those for 10 years. I made about 100 of them, but some guys on the line had done over 700. It was not easy to put together. A lot of things didn't fit very well due to substructures and parts being made on old tooling, and the vague, sometimes not very precise original drawings. Over the years instructions to shim and/or trim items were added to our work orders to avoid having to contact engineering every time something didn't fit. It was said on the line if you could build a 747, you could work on any other line and find things easier.
Being an older design, the 747 was "overbuilt". Today's computer aided design allows to more precisely calculate loads and stresses. Back then, extra strength was added to structures to account for unforeseen loads. As an example, take China Air 006, where a short fuselage 747 went into a dive, pulled 5Gs during recovery, and although the wings were permanently bent upward a few inches, was deemed airworthy after some repairs elsewhere on the craft. The 747 was the last Boeing plane to still have control cables. If you lost your hydraulics, you still had some control of the aircraft. The lubrication on those cables is really stinky, by the way. It's really a safe plane to fly in.
Concerning the JAL 123 accident, it was a repair that didn't conform to the engineering instructions that caused the accident, and it was OUR GUYS that did it. Google it, please. They still talk about it on the line. It's still a big deal. And tail strikes are really common on 747s whether you are a Japanese pilot or any other nationality.
There were high hopes that airport overcrowding would bring back demand for larger planes on fewer flights, but it didn't materialize in time. Having four engines didn't help, either. But keep in mind the old saying, "The difference between obsolete and state-of-the-art is that obsolete works." Remember that on your next 787 flight. (just kidding) It was a great plane, and made the world smaller for everyone, everywhere. I'm proud to have worked on the program, and every time the new Air Force One is shown on the evening news, I'll point and say, "Hey, I helped build that"!
The Boeing 747 is my all time favorite airliner. I used to live closer to JFK than I do now (still living in New York City though), and whenever I got the chance, I would try to con my mother into going near JFK so that I could see them land. As much as I love the Concorde, the 747 will always have my heart. One of my bucket list dreams was to be able to fly first class on a British Airways 747, but now that their last one has been grounded due to the pandemic, that's no longer possible. Still, she lives on in my heart. 😊
Suggestion: Lake Pontchartrain causeway bridge. Longest continuous bridge over water in the world.
1:25 - Chapter 1 - Military roots
4:10 - Chapter 2 - Planning & production
10:10 - Mid roll ads
11:35 - Chapter 3 - Designs & features
14:30 - Chapter 4 - Commercial history
17:10 - Chapter 5 - Variations
18:20 - Chapter 6 - Legacy
0:17
Wait... what.. I thought this channel was the *Simon's Beard Fan Group*
Yea it very confusing lol
I was always impressed by British Air's fleet of 747s. Back in the 1990s (and maybe until today) many European airports were expanding and arriving or departing from the gate most often involved hopping onto a shuttle bus. Getting off the shuttle bus onto the tarmac and looking down a line of a dozen or more identical 747s is an amazing sight.
YES!!!! MORE PLANES MORE PLANES MORE PLANES MORE PLANES!!!!!
Thx Simon. I flew 8x in Boeing 747.It was between South Africa & England in years of 1998-2000 AD. I'll never forget the feeling.
Sideprojects idea, canceled warplanes, like the avro arrow
Great work coming up with methods to visually show metric & and imperial, and original cost vs 2020-cost. This really helps minimize distractions over the numbers.
RIP Joe Sutter. His legacy lives on.
AKA the father of the 747
What a great combination. Malcolm Stamper was President of Boeing in those days, and he was a Georgia Tech engineer, so he knew how to support the great Joe Sutter and stay out of his way, if need be. "Can do" types of people, who knew what they were doing. Sutter and Stamper weren't clueless sociopath posers, like Boeing's last president!
As a child, I grew up near the Everett airfield in the 80's and thank you so much for this mega project! It absolutely qualifies.
Idea for another mega project. I heard a story about the making of the original lunar Rover. My brother's an electrical engineer and he told me this fascinating story about the making of the batteries for it. He said that can never be recharged without exploding and that the bi-product of making said batteries was so toxic, a spoonful could kill all living organisms in Lake Washington in Seattle. I'd love to know the truth.
How about doing the de Haviland Comet, the world's first commercial jet airliner.
The conversion of the 747 to the world's greatest fire bomber would make a FANTASTIC video!!! Esp if you did a collab with Kelsey, a 747 pilot & RUclipsr (74Gear) The Global Supertanker is one bad ass fire fighting machine & definitely a bad ass megaproject! They have a website & twitter account. It's also the unofficial State Bird of California 🤣🤣
Love your work!!
Or maybe how they built the Golden Gate Bridge to help pull us out of the Great Depression. It's one of the most iconic bridges in the world & the unofficial symbol of California.
Mega-project Suggestion: Virginia-class submarines (the the first warship designed with the help of computer-aided design (CAD) and 3-D visualization). Note the huge savings in weight and storage space on-board for the blueprints. Now on a few computer disks rather than a closet full of paper.
Do you think you could do a video on the Nevada-Class Battleships as both ships had interesting careers. One of which USS Nevada tried to escape Pearl Harbor, fought at D-Day , Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, and survived 2 atomic bombs. I would say that's a mega ship. Awesome video. Hope more videos are coming.
The 747 will always be the Queen of the Skies.
I remember watching that huge aircraft at the airport when it was new.. awesome sight! Thanks folks.
I don't recall seeing 747s, but I've seen couple A380s. When you see one of those things land far away , you think "meh, not that impressive"... then couple minutes later parks next to your terminal and you go "holy F! That thing is ginormous!"
You didn’t talk about the one that piggyback the space shuttle
.....or the Stubby 747SP. Not many people have seen that one. I have seen 2.
Since you're a fan of planes,and you mentioned it,do the C5A. Saw the first 1 to land at MacDill AFB,in Tampa, back in the 70s. Step-dad was a Lt. Colonel, so we got the tour. Awesome...
Side Project: Tennessee Valley Authority
Has he done Grand Coulee yet.
@@anthonybanchero3072 I don’t think so
For so many years, a 747 with the red flying kangaroo on the tail was such an iconic site here in Australia.
Please make a documentary on the RT-2PM2 Also known as Topol-M (NATO: SS-27 Stalin Sickle B) Russia’s mobile nuclear missiles!
Awesome! My father was one of the lead engineers on the 747 way back in the day. He actually gave me the blueprints to the 747 being built for the king of Saudi Arabia that they were building at the time. Thanks Simon for bringing back good memories of my dad!
Its kind a emotional and inspiring to think that one of the last 747s in the air will be carrying the president of the country which introduced flight to mankind
What? A French man? (Thinking of the Montgomery brothers and first balloon flights).
i wish you were my professor / teacher in school. your ability to keep on talking on a subject without stopping is awesome. how do you cramp all that into your brain??? and kept doing new episodes very frequently!!! you could write a lot of theses.
Anyone else see the notification and think "I thought he would have done this by now?"
To be fair, he didnt do a skyscraper until like episode 15
MEGA project suggestion : ss normandie the largest turbo electric powered ship ever built
I distinctly remember the first time I ever saw a 747. I was working outside when I saw this gigantic plane make several slow approaches to the Billings, Montana airport, only to pull up and go around. It was later reported by the local news that Billings was being tested as a designated emergency landing site for 747 passenger planes. The Billings runway was built longer than necessary for a small regional airport because there was a Montana Air National Guard unit collocated at the airport, and Billings was the only such runway long enough to accommodate an emergency 747 landing between Seattle and Minneapolis.
I wish you would included the fact that a space shuttle can be strapped to the back of a 747. Try that with any Airbus.
Was on flight test program for 747. 5 planes to test for one year to get it certified. Great plane . Flew down to NM to test the landing gear and brakes. No thrust reverses during test, fully loaded complete stop three times with out flaring the plane on landing. Looked like the wings flapping when landing.
The tragedy that is the Berlin Airport would be interesting
I dont know who would think planes aren't mega projects. Those things have to meet such tight engineering guidelines just to fly in the first place. Now to be to SAFE while flying? Its so expensive and time consuming and you can't even be 100% sure its safe until its been operating for a while since not all issues are always readily apparent.
How about NASA's vehicle assembly facility?
Thanks Simon, you make 50 years seem like a long time. And I remember when the first one went into commercial use. Now I feel old..