Introduction

In 1958, Pan American Airways asked Boeing to design an aircraft that would be two and a half times larger than any passenger aircraft had ever been before. The 747's design process was a nightmare; the original concept of a double deck or fuselage was junked as was the original idea of a high wing. No one could figure out how to evacuate 560 passengers from such a plane in 90 seconds, which was FAA code. That 747 you're sitting in is made of six million component parts - each wing alone requires 40,000 rivets. And all because a few executives had some vision and guts, some engineers had imagination and talent, and thousands of workers took pride in their crafts as one