Oh stick it. Pan Am is the one who should get credit (or blame, actually the 747 was never as profitable as they hoped and is much more useful as a freighter - the Air China -7's were actually 1/3 freighters, one time a fellow pass asked me "want to see something ?" -- in the rear of the plane were 9 horses he was bringing to bei jing
), the FACT is that the risk pushed Boeing to the breaking point, they never would have done it on their own, the "existing designs" were for military use which is a whole different ballgame and no, "everybody" was NOT "building widebodies at the time."
That's ignorant crap. PanAm and Boeing took a huge risk pioneering the idea. Good for both of them, but I hate seeing PanAm get the short end of the credit. It was their vision.
Of course my hearing is less than, listening to machines removing metal for decades. Nature of the trade I had to hear my machine to optimize it. Hearing protection was extremely spotty. I did buy my own on many occasions.
