Glo - A few misconceptions here, I believe, As far as I recall, Boeing were putting all their eggs in the supersonic basket. The supersonic programme nearly bankrupted Boeing, and after they scrapped it they scrambled for anything that might save the company, Joe Sutter was working on a dedicated very large freighter (the 747) and the execs at Boeing quickly got him to change focus and switch the 747 to a pax aircraft. I may have this all wrong, but I thought that was the background when I read Joe Sutter's book many moons ago,