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This Happened—January 22: The World's First "Jumbo Jet"
On this day in 1970, Boeing 747, the world's first "jumbo jet", enters commercial service in on a Pan Am flight from New York to London.
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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 $1 billion, or over $7 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.
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