The Sun Is Setting On The Boeing 747

Guys, you wrote the book, so I have a question for you that I think some members of our audience would like to know.

The 747, the cockpit is upstairs.

There's a small upstairs in the front of the airplane and in a section that originally, I guess, served as a piano lounge and a bar on some of the early versions.

That sort of went away.

But why is there an upstairs on the 747?

Well, I mean, that goes back to Joe Sutter's original design team.

You know, when they did think that the 747 would be eventually relegated to cargo, they thought, well, we're going to have to have this nose door, so therefore the cargo is just going to come right in.

So we're going to have to put the cockpit somewhere else.

So that's why it was put up on top.

And it's interesting because even when you come back to the very last 747 that was built, the Dash 8 Freighter, As you mentioned, Joe was rolled out as late as 22.

It has the original short upper deck of the very first 747 design because you still had to have the cockpit up there out of the way.

And they didn't need the stretched upper deck, which was, of course, introduced with the 300 and then became the standard on the 400 and later, of course, was stretched even more for the Dash 8.

So it's a really...

So that's part of the iconic imagery, really, of the 747 is that upper deck, right, Jens? Yeah, and one thing

the pilots really liked, since you asked earlier, is the fact that they're entering their cockpit, they close the door, and they don't have to leave it again.

It's a security thing because they have their own toilet.

They have their crew rest inside the cockpit, in the back of the cockpit.

So it's this... you know tiny little apartment up there in the front which is very cozy and uh and you know just a great place to be as a as even as a visitor uh but to me it felt like you know obviously fascinating but but for them they felt very very comfortable up there as well

did you stay awake for the whole flight i mean because i know the crew would probably change out right

They changed out.

They were doing your four-hour turns.

I stayed in there for about seven hours, not the entire flight.

Yeah, fantastic.

Guys, you wrote the book, so I have a question for you that I think some members of our audience would like to know.

The 747, the cockpit is upstairs.

There's a small upstairs in the front of the airplane and in a section that originally, I guess, served as a piano lounge and a bar on some of the early versions.

That sort of went away.

But why is there an upstairs on the 747?

Well, I mean, that goes back to Joe Sutter's original design team.

You know, when they did think that the 747 would be eventually relegated to cargo, they thought, well, we're going to have to have this nose door, so therefore the cargo is just going to come right in.

So we're going to have to put the cockpit somewhere else.

So that's why it was put up on top.

And it's interesting because even when you come back to the very last 747 that was built, the Dash 8 Freighter, As you mentioned, Joe was rolled out as late as 22.

It has the original short upper deck of the very first 747 design because you still had to have the cockpit up there out of the way.

And they didn't need the stretched upper deck, which was, of course, introduced with the 300 and then became the standard on the 400 and later, of course, was stretched even more for the Dash 8.

So it's a really...

So that's part of the iconic imagery, really, of the 747 is that upper deck, right, Jens? Yeah, and one thing

the pilots really liked, since you asked earlier, is the fact that they're entering their cockpit, they close the door, and they don't have to leave it again.

It's a security thing because they have their own toilet.

They have their crew rest inside the cockpit, in the back of the cockpit.

So it's this... you know tiny little apartment up there in the front which is very cozy and uh and you know just a great place to be as a as even as a visitor uh but to me it felt like you know obviously fascinating but but for them they felt very very comfortable up there as well

did you stay awake for the whole flight i mean because i know the crew would probably change out right

They changed out.

They were doing your four-hour turns.

I stayed in there for about seven hours, not the entire flight.

Yeah, fantastic.