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A comment on Joe Sutter, who guided creation of the Boeing 747, has died. Parent comment

Re:Joe Sutter, who guided creation of the Boeing 747, has died by FigBug on Friday September 02, 2016 @09:08AM (#12412719)
I never understood why Boeing risked it all on the 747. The Boeing 2707 was supposed to be the future of passenger travel and the 747 was supposed to get relegated to freight. Why risk it all for what was expected to be a stop gap product?

For the first wide body, why not start with something 767 sized? Why start with the biggest?

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Re:Joe Sutter, who guided creation of the Boeing 747, has died by sjm-lbm on Friday September 02, 2016 @09:23AM (#12412820)
You answered it yourself: freight. Basically everything about the 747 was optimized around requirements for transporting freight (including fuselage width and placing the flight deck above the main level).
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Re:Joe Sutter, who guided creation of the Boeing 747, has died by ak217 on Friday September 02, 2016 @12:53PM (#12414396)
The requirements for the 747 were largely driven by the USAF and then Pan Am. If I understand right, both customers were so influential that Boeing felt it had to accommodate them.
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Re:Joe Sutter, who guided creation of the Boeing 747, has died by WalterBright on Friday September 02, 2016 @02:19PM (#12415043)
The USAF never did buy any 747s.
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Re:Joe Sutter, who guided creation of the Boeing 747, has died by hga on Friday September 02, 2016 @05:05PM (#12416284)
Formally, there's the Civil Reserve Air Fleet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Reserve_Air_Fleet and in general these planes can be used in emergencies. The transport planes the US military tends to buy have additional requirements that aren't conducive to civil air fleet profitability.
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Re:Joe Sutter, who guided creation of the Boeing 747, has died by emp_zealoth on Friday September 02, 2016 @04:17PM (#12415953)
The Space Shuttle never flew any polar missions either
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Re:Joe Sutter, who guided creation of the Boeing 747, has died by ak217 on Friday September 02, 2016 @07:17PM (#12416903)
Right, because Lockheed won the bid, and Boeing had to shop their design around to Pan Am and civilian freighters.
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