“Sutter is survived by three children, five grandchildren, three great grandchildren—and 573 jumbo jetliners. His wife, Nancy, died in 1997.” Thus ended the obituary in Wall Street Journal of Joe Sutter. Sutter didn’t own any of those jumbo jets. He created them, doodling on a napkin! Sutter is better known as the father of the world’s first jumbo jet, 747, which aircraft maker Boeing manufactured in hundreds as it became the most sought after airplane in the world. Sutter passed away on August 30 in Seattle, aged 95. The 747 became so popular in the 1970’s and the 1980’s, before the Airbus A320 took away some of the sheen, that it became a generic name to represent aircraft of any type.

To a large number of its innumerable fans, 747 was also the most photogenic as its characteristic exterior with the hump at the front became synonymous with commercial aircraft, according to a KLM airline blog.

During its time, the aircraft was considered the safest to travel and presidents of several countries including that of India used it as their official carrier.

The manufacture of 747 has an interesting history. In 1965, Joseph Frederick Sutter, an engineer with Boeing was asked to create a model for a military cargo aircraft for a defence contract it was bidding for. The contract eventually went to Lockheed but the head of Pan Am wanted something similar for his passengers. Thus was born the 747.

The first few models of 747 aircraft was a 231-ft, 10-inch machine, which could easily carry 600 passengers, nearly three times more than the biggest aircraft at that time. Initially, Sutter could not convince his customers that there could be a two-aisle aircraft which could seat 10 passengers in a single row.

But Sutter persisted, and several cardboard models later, he prevailed.

Ray Conner, the Vice Chairman of Boeing and president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes in a statement recalled that Sutter and his team, along with thousands of other Boeing employees (about 4,500 of them) involved in the project, became known as the Incredibles for producing what was then the world’s largest airplane in record time – 29 months from conception to rollout. “It remains a staggering achievement and a testament to Joe’s “incredible” determination,” Conner said in a tribute.

India has some bitter memories of the 747 though its national carrier, AirIndia has 31 of them. The first tragedy which befell Air India involved the Boeing 747 Kanishka, which was blown up by militants in 1985, during a Toronto-Mumbai flight. A year later, flight purser Neerja Bhanot gave up her life to save 360 passengers on board a PanAm flight, hijacked by militants.

According to a recent report, Boeing might wind down production of the 747s due to poor sales. Perhaps, it was apt that its creator called it a day before his aircraft became history.

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