Boeing's big bird

Exam or no exam, there was no way I was going to miss this. I dumped my books with relief and took the lift up to the terrace of our building. Sprawled below me, Mumbai, then Bombay, basked yellow gold in the early morning sun. I scanned the hazy blue skies, and checked the time. It was due any minute now. And suddenly, there she was: A large red and white and silver airliner sporting Air India's colours and logo, wafting over the city. Its whale like snout and silhouette were unmistakable as was its soaring rudder. So this was the fabled Jumbo Jet, the great 747 that had recently taken the world by storm. The plane in question was Air India's first Jumbo, the Emperor Ashoka (if I remember right) and it had been escorted over Bombay by two IAF fighter jets. This was way back in the early 1970s.

A few years later, I took my first look inside one. Vikramaditya I think it was (or Chandragupta Maurya?) And was amazed. By God, this was no flying cigar cylinder. This was an airborne auditorium. Even today, every time I watch one take off, I wonder: how does such a gigantic, clumsy looking, dinosauric, ponderous contraption manage to get off the ground? I mean it's easy to imagine the Concorde flying, but the 747? Nah!

But flying it has been, for over 30 years and over 32 billion kilometres, and carrying a total of 2.2 billion people (40 per cent of the world's population) - me included - in great comfort and luxury. Over 1215 have been delivered to airlines around the world and you can have one they say, for around $170 million (multiply that by 46 for the price in rupees): about the cost of one good solid defense scam.

Strangely enough, the 747 were first envisaged as a large military transport aircraft for which Boeing had been bidding on a contract for one such offered by the U.S. Government. They lost the contract but had already done considerable work on the development of a giant airliner. Fortunately this was a time (around 1966) when world airlines were looking for something larger than the standard cigar cylinder 707. Pan American Airways approached Boeing with the idea, and Boeing came up with their 747 programme. Pan Am jumped on board almost immediately, placing a $550 million order for 25 new 550-seat jets. Boeing got to work post haste and built a huge $200 million plant in Everett, just north of Seattle in which to assemble its big new bird.

The first gleaming plane, the 747-100, rolled out of the plant on 30 September, 1968 and flew on February 9, 1969. Commercial flights, (between New York and London) started with Pan Am on January 22 1970.

The new airliner was monstrous. The fuselage was 225 feet long, the tail as tall as a six-story building. The anti-Jumbo lobby said it would never fly and would damage airport runways. If one crashed, the death toll would be horrific. To be sure, there were teething troubles galore. The first flight took off seven hours late in a replacement aircraft after the original one developed trouble with its door and then an overheated engine. Subsequent engine trouble in other 747s soon earned the Jumbo, the nasty nickname, Dumbo Jet. Eventually, these problems were sorted out and by July of 1970, the Dumbo Jet had carried one million passengers. There was no looking back. It was fast becoming the flagship airliner of airlines around the world.

But Boeing was not content to rest on its laurels. In September 1970, the 747-200 lumbered out of the factory, a heavier plane with a longer range. In May 1975 the 747-SP (Special Performance) was introduced, more suited to shorter flights. In September 1982, the 747-300 rolled out of the factory to be followed by the 747-400 in January 1988, which is the current model. This one has electronic instruments and fly by wire technology, and needs two crewmembers to fly it, instead of the earlier three. The six-foot tall winglets at the wing tips improve lift without having to increase the width of the plane and causing parking problems at airports. The 400 D (no, not Diesel for God's sake!) can carry 566 passengers. Propelling this behemoth are its four huge engines, either from Rolls Royce, Pratt & Whitney or General Electric that can produce between 26,000 and 28,700 kgms of thrust. Its fuel tanks hold 216,840 litres, enough for over 7000 Marutis. It has a maximum range of 13,570 km and can cruise at 910 kmph at 10,000 metres.

The big jet has made its impact felt in other ways. The President of the United States has two 747-200s at his disposal. (Perhaps a Mumbai stockbroker has half a dozen tucked away somewhere!) In February 1977, the Jumbo carried the U.S. Space shuttle piggyback for the first time, and has ever since. True there have been several horrific crashes involving 747s, but it remains probably the safest commercial airliner ever built. You are far safer flying in a 747 in a raging thunderstorm than you are crossing the road in any Indian city on a Sunday afternoon. Lately, Boeing has apparently jettisoned plans for a successor to the 747, a super jumbo, while archrivals Airbus, has gone ahead with its Airbus 3XX plan. Whether this will make Boeing's big bird fly into the sunset remains to be seen. At the moment, I'm still surprised when I see one lumber across the runway, lift its great nose off the ground and climb into the sky...

Text and pictures by RANJIT LAL

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