1/22/1970: The Mighty Boeing 747 Enters Revenue Service
Despite several technical issues that resulted in the original Jumbo being replaced, on this day in 1970, history was made when the Boeing 747 carried its first fare-paying passengers.
Despite several technical issues that resulted in the original Jumbo being replaced, on this day in 1970, history was made when the Boeing 747 carried its first fare-paying passengers.
DALLAS — Today, in 1970, Pan Am introduced as its first customer the Boeing 747 'Jumbo Jet' for commercial use.
Flight PA2, operated by 'Clipper Victor' (N736PA), departed from New York (JFK) and was headed to London Heathrow Airport (LHR). However, the inaugural flight encountered significant turbulence and did not go as smoothly as both PA and Boeing had hoped.
Flight PA2 was scheduled to depart on January 21. The Boeing 747, named 'Clipper Young America' (N735PA), had previously completed a proving flight from JFK to LHR on January 12. Under the command of Captain Weeks, the aircraft had 345 passengers on board and pushed back from the gate at 19:30 EST. However, immediate issues arose with the No. 4 Pratt & Whitney JT9D engine.
As a result, the jumbo jet had to return to the gate and engineers were called in. Unfortunately, the engine problem, which was a common issue for early Boeing 747s, could not be resolved.
Pan Am needed a replacement aircraft, which arrived in the form of N736PA, 'Clipper Victor.' Passengers were transferred to the new jet, and finally, at 01:52 EST, the first Jumbo Jet carrying paying passengers took off.
Unfortunately, the return journey also encountered difficulties, causing inconvenience for the passengers. Out of the 153 passengers who had booked the flight, 36 had to be transferred to other flights.
The issue arose from a faulty compressed air bottle that was used to inflate the emergency escape slides in case of an emergency. This meant that the aircraft was unable to accommodate all the passengers who had made bookings. As a result, there was an additional delay of four and a half hours.
Sadly, Clipper Victor would later be involved in the world's most devastating air disaster on March 27, 1977. In thick fog at Tenerife (TFN), the jet collided with a KLM 747, resulting in the loss of 583 lives on that tragic day.
Featured image: 'Clipper Victor' N736PA was seen at LHR in 1972. Photo: Aero Icarus, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. You can read more about the history of one of the world's most iconic airlines, Pan Am, in our November/December 2021 issue.
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David H. Stringer, the History Editor for AIRWAYS Magazine, has chronicled the story of the commercial aviation industry with his airline history articles that have appeared in AIRWAYS over two decades. Here, for the first time, is a compilation of those articles.
Subjects A through C are presented in this first of three volumes. Covering topics such as the airlines of Alaska at the time of statehood and Canada's regional airlines of the 1960s, the individual histories of such carriers as Allegheny, American, Braniff, and Continental are also included in Volume One. Get your copy today!
