Bowman - Boeing 747: a history: delivering the dream

This book is dedicated to the
memory of the late Barry Reeve

First Published in Great Britain in 2014 by

Pen & Sword Aviation

an imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire S70 2AS

Copyright Martin W Bowman

ISBN 9781783030392

eISBN 9781473838239

The right of Martin W Bowman to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is

available from the British Library.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.

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I would like to thank Peter Middleton, media relations manager at British Airways for his superb and unstinting help with material and for very kindly arranging my flight to Denver to experience 747-436 flight-deck operations. In turn, I am equally grateful to Captain John Downey, Senior 1st Officer Alan Emery, 1st Officer Dominic Boyle and all the cabin crew of G-BNLR Rendezvous/Speedbird 2019 and G-CIVM Nami Tsumu/Speedbird 2018 . Special mention must be made to Graham M. Simons of GMS Enterprises for compiling the book to press-ready standard and for his relentless pursuit of information and kind loan of several notable reference works on the 747. The majority of data and individual aircraft histories for the aircraft have been obtained from Jet Airliner Production List , produced by Messrs John R. Roach and A.B. Tony Eastwood. Copies are available from The Aviation Hobby Shop, 4 Horton Parade, Horton Road, West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 8EA. I am also indebted to Phil Kemp, an Air Britain historian, who very kindly supplied much information and photographs and who also beat the bushes to find additional material and valuable contributors for me. The account entitled Down to a Sunless Sea is by kind permission of The Log , the BALPA journal, which very kindly allowed me to reproduce parts of the excellent article by Jack Diamond. Mike Rigg, a retired Cathay captain, kindly provided me with a most interesting account of flying into Kai Tak. I am no less grateful to all the following people, each of whom supplied me with an embarrassment of riches, time and expertise: Michael Austen; Dean Bantleman, Swissair; Philip J. Birtles: Chris Chatfield; Bryn Colton; Graham Dinsdale of Ian Allan Aviation Tours; Brian Foskett, chief photographer and Terry Holloway FRAeS, group support executive, Marshall Group of companies; Ron Green; Terry Grover, public relations officer, Singapore Airlines; Derek Harknett; Thomas Hempel, Assistant Manager PR, Cargolux; Robert Holder; Tom Hulse, Saltmarsh Partnership; Tim Kerss; David Lee; Tom Lubbesmeyer, Boeing archivist; Hans Leijte, KLM; Emma Med-Sygrove, Rolls-Royce plc; Gerry Manning; Scott M. McGuire, CSR, America West Airlines; Captain Eric Moody; Mrs Pat Moody; Tim Moore; Pascale Noordam, Public Relations, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines; Dennis Norman; Sergeant Jack Pritchard RAF PR; Barry Reeve; Mike Rondot; Jerry C. Scutts; Walt Truax; Judith Watson, public relations officer, Air New Zealand; and Camilla Wrey. Lastly, I must not forget the dedicated staff at the US Memorial Library in Norwich nor my good friend, Nigel McTeer who scanned a multitude of transparencies and devoted much of his time and unstinting energies in helping track down photos and stories.

All contributions, however large or small, have played an equal part in helping to produce what I hope is a fitting tribute to one of the worlds greatest aircraft.

Martin W. Bowman

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