Originally Posted by
parabellum
Thanks tdracer, I have happily followed the crowd for years, without checking, and thought the story about the C5A v. B747 was true!
Was the 747 ever offered up as an alternative to the C5A or is it pure mythology from start to finish?
Boeing made a serious proposal for what became the C5A, but it lost out to the Lockheed proposal. I don't know specifics (this was all before my time, although I knew many people who were involved), but the 747 development was more or less independent of the C5. Granted, many of the engineers involved in the 747 development worked the C5 proposal so there was certainly some common thinking - for example the idea of the raised cockpit to allow a nose cargo door freighter was very likely a carry over. But the part about Boeing building the 747 from their losing C5 proposal was a complete myth. In fact, I never hear much complaining that the USAF had picked the wrong proposal for the C5 - but lots of bitching that Boeing's proposal for the B1 was hugely better than Rockwell's - to the point that they alleged that the USAF basically gave Rockwell the Boeing proposal for the B1 and said 'build this'...
That sort of cross pollination between development programs is common - much of the groundwork for what became the 777 started out with the 7J7 ( rear engine unducted fan - never got past the concept stage). Similarly much of the never launched 'Sonic Cruiser' work ended up being incorporated into the 787.
When the USAF was preparing to buy the second batch of C5 aircraft in the early 1980s - Boeing made a serious bid for the 747 Freighter instead - but it never got very far because the 747 doesn't have the outsized cargo capability of the C5, nor the unimproved field capabilities.