40 years ago today...

[gonadz]

The first flight of the 747......

"Wide Body - making of the 747" page 262

Couldn't let it pass unnoticed :)

[old,not bold]

I looked that up, because I was married exactly 40 years ago today, and I could have sworn the B747 had been seen flying before then.

And you are absolutely right, of course...here's what I looked up, for the whole chronology (http://www.boeing.com/commercial/747family/background.html)

[Corsairoz]

At least one of the papers marked the day in excellent style. Here is the online article from the Times yesterday.

The day Boeing brought the world to everyone's door - Times Online (http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/transport/article5689482.ece)

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00483/Boeing_483228a.jpg

It is February 9, 1969, and a Boeing 747 takes off on its first flight, watched by
anxious engineers. "You have built a good flying machine," the pilot radioed

[Stationair8]

1969 must have been an aviation year, the flight of the mighty B747 and then man's conquest of the moon.

That period from the end of the second world war to the late 1960's was a golden era in a lot of ways, breaking the sound barrier, development of the jet fighter, long range jet bombers, civil aviation going from DC-3/4/6/7 through to the mighty Viscount and Electra then the B707/DC-8, development of the Concorde, Cessna, Piper and Beechcraft massing producing light aircraft and the advancement in flight systemes etc