Updated Jan. 22, 2024 at 12:05 p.m.
On this day in 1970, the Boeing 747, the world’s first “jumbo jet”, enters commercial service in on a Pan Am flight from New York to London.
How much did the Boeing 747 cost?
Pan Am head Juan Trippe sought an efficient way to place 400 passengers on one plane. By 1968, the program cost billion, or over billion today.
What was the reaction to the Boeing 747?
Some described it as being as big as a church, while the San Francisco Chronicle called it a “bulbous-nosed whale with wings”. People were generally in shock about the size of the plane, impressed that it could carry hundreds of passengers.