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Boeing’s Best S eller
727 tri-jet rolled out on November
27, 1962, buoyed by 40 orders each
from launch customers United
Airlines and Eastern Air Lines.
Development of an even smaller
aircraft was perhaps inevitable and,
bowing to pressure from a host of
operators, Boeing began preliminary
design studies in May 1964 on a 50-60
seat twinjet.
Innovation in Design
Initial work looked at the preferred
layout for the new jet. The rear-engined
Sud Aviation Caravelle offered several
advantages over a wing-mounted
engine layout, including a cleaner wing,
reduced asymmetrical thrust in the
event of an engine failure, and well-
shielded intakes to reduce the risk of
damage from debris thrown up by the
undercarriage. The design had inspired
a raft of new-generation airliners, such
as the DC-9 and Fokker 28, but was
disregarded by Boeing and
by Joe Sutter in particu-
lar. The designer, better
known for his later
work with the 747, took a pair of scis-
sors to a drawing of the then T-tailed
concept and began to move the engine
pods around the airframe.
“I slid the cut-out tight under the wing
and felt a sudden flash of excitement,”
he later wrote. “Instead of mounting the
engines away from the wing on struts,
why not mount them hard against the
underside of the wing itself?”
It was an inspired move and one that
earned him the then-standard $50
payment for the patent. Not only did
“Instead of mounting
the engines away from
the wing on struts, why
not mount them hard
against the underside of
the wing itself?”
Joe Sutter, Engineer,Boeing
