The first and final 747 jumbo jet models both started with a handshake deal.
Back in the mid 1960s, the leaders of Boeing Co. and PanAm came to an agreement that if the U.S. planemaker pushed ahead with the audacious new design, the airline would in turn go ahead and buy the giant jetliner.
That gentleman’s agreement would kick-start one of the most successful programs in civil aviation, singlehandedly transforming the way the world flies and giving the Queen of the Skies, as the 747 came to be known, the undisputed reign over the world’s flight paths for decades to come.
