The Mighty 747

Australia's Queen of the Skies

By Jim Eames

Published by Allen and Unwin

ISBN 98781760877118

This book is about so much more than a story of the incredible 747 aircraft or “jumbo” by which most people know it.

Sure, this is the main focus of the book, but Jim Eames, a former leader in the airline, includes a rich history about aviation and the people involved in the design, maintenance, marketing/promotIon, innovation, leadership and of course the pilots and cabin crews.

He traces the early development of the jumbo, the first aircraft of this size and Joe Sutter the man who had the vision and guided the jumbo into existence.

The 747 has flown over 3.5 billion passengers. It has brought millions of people to Australia, overseas for work, back to their homelands, to holiday destinations, and out of danger.

The are stories that hark back to some of the pilots who flew as fighter pilots during the Second World War and who went on to become pilots for Qantas. A few hair raising moments, that will keep you on the edge of your seat including one that stands out includes a captain who had flown dodging the German Luftwaffe during the war and survived only to find himself embroiled in another peace time battle with the German air force while flying over Europe as they were on exercises. One can only imagine what went on in his mind,

Many of the innovations that we know about today were ideas that someone had thirty or forty years ago such as the idea of a Qantas executive in London who bought it would be a good idea to have a non-stop London to Sydney flight.

Another innovation was the development of the combis (passenger and cargo combinations) and the Special Performance versions which could fly non-stop to the USA. The 747-400 created a world distance record on its delivery flight from London to Sydney in 1989.

There are several stories of how the Qantas’ 747s have rescued people in the most dangerous of situations, some with some pretty hairy lift offs, as well as the many food and emergency aid drops needed around the world and going to the rescue and helping the survivors of Cyclone Tracy in Darwin, rescuing people out of China after Tiananmen Square, and more recently from Wuhan at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

The lengths to which safety is taken is comforting to know but as a mere passenger it makes fascinating reading to think of all the engineering work that must be constantly undertaken. There are a few paragraphs explaining vanes in the engines how they needed to be reshaped and how with some thought and planning the costs were reduced from $54,000 when outsourced down to $2000 when Qantas’ own lead engineers believed they could undertake the task just as well if not better.

Another story that will raise your eyebrows is when they needed another aircraft, a Learjet for the film crew making an ad for the 747as the advertising executive Bruce Tregenza was sitting unrestrained on a camera box and suddenly the pilot of the Learjet decided to do one of his “sign-offs”. Fortunately the centrifugal force kept him in place but apparently the look on his face at the shock of this was something to behold.

Whilst it is fascinating reading about the design and development at Boeing outside of Seattle, there are also some sad memories of 747s on their last journey to the desserts in the USA where they go to be dismantled for scrap.

Even if you are not an aviation enthusiast I’m sure you will enjoy reading many of these stories as I did and seeing the many photographs, .

This is independent review, I am not paid by the publishers, so.If you Liked this review, Buy me a coffee