Man behind Boeing 747 sees 787 as answer to air travel’s woes

EVERETT – It’s the end of an era.

When the Boeing Co. rolls out its 787 Dreamliner on Sunday, it ushers in a new age in planemaking. But one of the company’s most revered father figures won’t be on hand.

For the first time in nearly 50 years, Joe Sutter, the man behind the 747 jumbo jet, will miss the rollout of a new Boeing plane.

Sutter’s absence, however, shouldn’t be taken as a slight toward the 787 or Boeing’s new way of making planes.

“She’s a beautiful airplane,” Sutter said.

With the 787, Boeing bid adieu to Sutter’s way of building jets but certainly not to Sutter. The 86-year-old still drives to Boeing’s offices, where he does consulting work for the company.

That is, of course, when Sutter isn’t opening new flight museums as he did in Iceland last month. Just such an appointment is keeping him from Everett on Sunday.

On Monday, Sutter is scheduled to speak at a memorial lecture series commemorating the life of former GE Aviation chairman Brian Rowe in Cincinnati. But a bit of Sutter’s spirit will be in Everett on 7-8-07. After all, it is engineers such as Sutter whose vision and knowledge Boeing has used to get it where it is today, to get it to the Dreamliner.

“It’s going to be another step forward,” Sutter said.

Forty years ago, Sutter brought to life the “Queen of the Skies” – the largest commercial aircraft in service until Airbus’ A380 debuts later this year. Boeing’s cast of Incredibles riveted together huge sheets of aluminum, working feverishly to build the first 747 in Everett while Boeing simultaneously constructed the world’s largest factory around them.

The first 747 took months to build. Boeing intends to assemble the parts of the smaller model of the 787 in three days. To do so, the company relies on a fleet of modified 747s, known as Dreamlifters, to carry major 787 assemblies from suppliers all over the world to Everett. The mostly completed components only need to be fitted together in Everett.

Workers enlarged the body of a 747-400, swelling it to three times its normal capacity. The initial mammoth Dreamlifter arrived in Everett unpainted – its appearance earning it nicknames Bloated Beluga and Darth Freighter.

“Every time I talk to Joe Sutter, I apologize for what we have done to his beautiful 747,” Scott Carson, president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, remarked during the company’s investors conference.

But Sutter doesn’t seem to mind the new take on his plane.

“When I look at those airplanes, I think they’re very special, very useful,” he said.

Sutter holds a similar opinion of the Dreamliner. With orders for 600 Dreamliners from 45 customers, the industry seems to think the Dreamliner is pretty special, too.

Made mostly of carbon fiber composite material, the lightweight 787 offers an advantage Sutter finds notable: fuel efficiency. The Dreamliner is 20 percent more fuel efficient than planes its size on the market.

At the end of 2002, Boeing scrapped its plans to build the high-speed Sonic Cruiser – just before fuel prices went through the roof – and elected to pursue the Dreamliner.

“Their timing seems to be just about perfect,” Sutter said.

The Dreamliner also arrives in time to reduce pressures on big, or hub, airports.

While larger airplanes such as the 747 and Airbus’ A380 flow from one major metropolitan airport to another, the Dreamliner will be used to open routes among smaller cities. Large airports, such as London’s Heathrow, frequently run at high capacity because so many airlines shuffle passengers from hub to hub, forcing passengers to take additional flights from major airports to their ultimate destination.

“The 787 is going to alleviate congestion at major airports,” Sutter said.

Still, Sutter sees a need for jumbo jets in the future – particularly as freighters, the 747’s current forte.

Boeing agrees. It seems only fitting that Boeing applies some of its new technology – its 787 technology – to Sutter’s plane. Boeing plans to deliver its first 747-8 in 2009, with a plane rollout a few months prior.