Today, February 9, 2019, is the fiftieth anniversary of the first flight of the Boeing 747, aptly nicknamed the Jumbo Jet (after an enormous nineteenth century Sudanese bush elephant in PT Barnum’s circus). Like Jumbo, the 747 was unique for its size, doubling the passenger count, cargo payload, maximum takeoff weight, and wingspan of the 707, Boeing’s first jetliner and the defining hardware of the Jet Age’s first decade, the 1960s. With passenger numbers booming, Pan Am president Juan Trippe … Continue reading First Flight of the Boeing 747: Fifty Years Ago Today