Customer Reviews

747: Creating the World's First Jumbo Jet and Other Adventures from a Life in Aviation

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The above partial quote is plagerized from Joes book as he quotes Charles Linderbergh comments about the 747 which in its entirety was " This is one of the great ones "
I'm a retired Boeing Engineer, and while never meeting or dealing with Joe since I was working in other areas [supersonic transport, etc ] I did hear and work in later years with several who did have personal knowledge. Joe pretty much tells it like it WAS/IS.

I especially appreciated his efforts to avoid highly technical terms, and in few simple words explaining some of the basics of flight, powerplants, design criteria, safety concerns, etc. In some ways, it could be considered ' high school' level courses on flight and design criteria- but without ' talking' down to the reader.

It is an 'easy read' and does lift the curtain on a few, but not all the insider political games typical of Boeing and most other aerospace companies. [ I've also worked at Rockwell and Ling Temco Vought ]

Joe is definitely from the 'old school' as far as ethics and integrity, and his comments about serving on the Challenger Shuttle disaster commission and the NASA attitude re safety and risk in the last chapter seem as if they were written this week [ June 16,2006- see news items about safety concerns re the impending Shuttle flight in July 2006 ]. Hopefully, his comments and concerns will NOT be proven to be " deja vue all over AGAIN."

In my opinion - a keeper, and readable from Junior high up.

747 is simply a must for anyone in the aerospace design industry, or for people who are just interested in how the 747 was built. Joe Sutter, the airplane's director of engineering and the one most responsible for its actual design, has written a trim, quick, and enjoyable to read history of the 747 program encased in a semi-autobiography.

After a few chapters exploring the author's early life, including his college time and Navy life, the book spends its bulk on a 50,000 foot overview of what was going on with the 747 development program from its inception until its most recent incarnation to fly in the form of the 747-400 family of derivatives. The final chapters sweep the remainder of the author's professional career including his service on the Challenger Disaster commission. Joe (and after reading the book you definitely get the feeling he would prefer to be called that then Mr. Sutter) has certainly led a very interesting life, and has had the privilege of experiencing a truly gilded age of aviation from the peaks of its ambitions and the lows of its difficulties and uncertainty. But the star of the book is truly the magnificent 747 aircraft and even his more autobiographical chapters tie into the aircraft and its design.

Much of the author's life exerted an inexorable influence on the design philosophy he brought to the plane. As an early child he grew up in Seattle and watched, literally from his neighborhood, as Boeing would roll out new aircraft through the twenties and thirties and try to push aviaiton forward and make the world a smaller place. Caught up in the majesty of flight Joe wanted very badly to design airplanes, but as WWII dawned when he was in college that would have to wait for more important world events to be sorted out. Joining the Navy he became a deck officer on a destroyer escort in the Atlantic, where he had a formative experience. Returning to Boston Harbor his ship started to become glazed with rapidly growing layers of thick ice in the midst of a storm, making the ship dangerously top heavy. With no anti-icing system and no ability to get people out on deck to hack off the ice the crew had to just ride out the storm praying they wouldn't die. From this moment on the author decided safety would be a primary criteria of anything he designed.

The legacy of the 747 is one of carrying on Boeing's legacy of leading the pack in aviation with an unparalleled record of safety, thanks to smart design and brute force quadruple redundancy. (Brute force is by no means meant perjoratively here!) The 747 came about during an amazing time in aviation history. It was the first wide body airliner (against the initial full double decker narrow body wishes of its launch customer), the first turbofan (or fanjet as they are sometimes called) powered airliner, and it was designed by a slimmed down workforce in the shadow of the ill fated 2707 SST, while the 727 and 737 were also absorbing significant company resources, and while Lockheed's L-1011 and Douglas' DC-10 provided competition. The story of how this giant came about and triumphed in spite of the decidely low expectations Boeing clearly had for it at the begining is a truly fascinating one, filled with such aviation luminaries as Juan Trippe, Bill Allen and Charles Lindbergh. Joe's life on the program is also filled with equally amazing events including state department sponsored dinners with the Soviets in Paris at the height of the Cold War (in the spirit of "Detente"), and trips all over the world ranging from the expected places like Japan and New York, to Baghdad.

In addition to being a great story well told, there are real gems here for aviation program managers and aircraft designers about how to make a successful airplane. Absolutely worth reading, and would be something I would like to see as a textbook for aeronautical engineers, perhaps in an aerospace history course, to give them some real world perspective that is so often lacking in modern engineering degrees.

An outstanding book, highly recommended!

There have been many books written about the 747, but none of them tell the human side of taking one of the largest aircraft off the drawing board and into the skies in two years time. Joe Sutter is the consumate engineer, he engages you in a voice that keeps you interested all of the way through the book. He does it in such a way that makes you feel that maybe you where there. Boeing bet the company on the 747, if it had been a failure the company would probably be a footnote in history. The company put their trust in one single man, who claims he and Boeing grew up together. Joe also includes the stories of many others along the way, he never takes credit for himself but always makes you aware that it was a team effort. In fact he leads off with a disclaimer that if he remembered it wrong he was sorry.

The book arrived just in time for the bi-annual Farnborough airshow in England, he was asked by several reporters to critique the A380. Being ever the gentleman he declined to take the bait. But he is straight forward on his views of NASA and the Challenger accident, still just as analytical when he was half his age. His love of the 747 is evident, he is excited to see it exist today and hopes with newer technology that it will be around 50 years from now.

If you love big airplanes, or want to know what it took to build something that changed the World. This book will capture you for every page. Straight from the man who's shoulders carried a company and probably most of livelyhoods of the Pacific Northwest. It is a joy to still have Joe around to tell his story. To me the 747 will always be the greatest airplane ever built and Joe will always be the greatest airplane engineer that ever lived.

Joe Sutter describes the development of the Boeing 747 from his point of view as a member of the engineering and management team that made it happen. The book delves deeply into the influences that shaped the 747 to become the plane it did, such as the head of Pan American Airlines. As such, it offers interesting insights into the politics at the Boeing company, at least as seen by Mr. Sutter.

Some have criticized the book as disjointed, etc. but that is a disservice to Mr. Sutter. After all, he's describing the development of the 747 from his point of view. This is not meant to be a end-all comprehensive tome that chronicles all the development stages of the plane in a manner that allows all who partook in it to have a voice (which is inherently impossible for a project of this size). Instead, it is a sampling of the engineering and political challenges that Mr. Sutter faced during his tenure with the 747, which I found incredibly interesting.

The 747 was a big gamble that almost bankrupted Boeing. One of the reasons it got off the ground at all was because the decision-makers at Boeing were willing to bet the farm that this type of airplane would find broad use in a market that had yet to fully develop. From Mr. Sutters point of view, it was this bold and intuitive decision-making that put Boeing on the path to dominate its domestic and foreign rivals.

I would love to see further analysis from Mr. Sutter in this area of expertise... the challenge of Embraer and Comac is looming and I wonder what he makes of the Boeing/Airbus response to a challenge to their bread and butter market.

This book is a treasure for those who are interested in the development and birth of the world's most iconic airliner. Joe Sutter is obviously passionate about his work and that comes through in the way he directed the 747 project and the people who worked under him.

If you are curious about the 747 or even just interested in a good read, this is the book for you.

Could not put it down. Maybe because I'm in a tech industry so I can relate but a wonderful book. Good insight on the aviation industry. Makes you feel safer when you fly. Six stars out of Five.

Joe Sutter rose to lead the 747 program through hard work, preparation, and a little bit of luck. As an aspiring Boeing worker, I hope to do the same one day. All of the lessons learned from decades ago are still relevant today. Joe tells his story from all angles: professionally and personally. This is a highly engaging book, and if you are interested in the aerospace industry it is highly recommended.

Superbly very good book.
If you want to know about a dish, you see the cook cooks it. If you want to read about 747, none tells and describes better than the designer himself. I can't put the book on the table once it landed on my hands.

Plus, the book arrived less than 2 weeks after I purchased it. Good job, Amazon team!

It was very inspiring to read this book as the author talks about his childhood interest in airplanes to reaching high levels in the aircraft industry. It was interesting to learn about how the overall design parameters such as fuselage cross-section and wing area have been set. The book also sheds light on why 747 succeeded in the market place. Since I am an engineer, I expected more detailed comparison of 747 vs DC10. Overall this is an excellent book that every aerospace engineer should read to get motivated.

Joe Sutter helped accomplish what was probably the most challenging engineering feat in history prior to 1970 by designing the largest jet aircraft in the world. His book touches briefly on the life journey leading up to his employment at Boeing and taking on some major assignments there, including running the 747 program. Joe's book shows he was an engineer first, and a manager second. While downplaying his own ability to understand company politics and business dealings, you see that Joe really felt a strong sense of importance about each and every engineering assignment he had at Boeing. From the 707 to the 727 to the 747, Joe talks about each Jet as if they were his.

He shows how Boeing bet the whole farm on 747, and how taking risks is typical of Boeing and a key factor to understanding the character of the company. He discusses how he played a pivotal role both in the design and risk management process of 747. He shares some of the backroom strategy meetings where he convinced Boeing's top leadership to build a single deck airplane versus the customer proposed double-decker, and offers insights as to why a double-decker is so much more expensive to build than a single deck aircraft. Insisting on a single deck configuration for 747, according to Joe, was probably the most valuable contribution he made though he risked loosing his job and Boeing almost lost the support of their biggest Customer, Pan-Am by going with his approach.

Joe shared some other specific job experiences that helped groom him to run the 747 program, the lessons he learned, and the lessons he wish he had learned.

Joe wanted this book to inspire the younger generation of engineers, and he definitely does. Joe is a story teller at heart and his book is easy reading like some of the emails you might get from an 85 year old war veteran with inspiring and straight talk. I couldn't put it down till it was done and recommend all my engineer buddy's to pick up a copy.