Hail the Boeing 747 jumbo jet. It’s the chariot of US Presidents and Saudi princes. It’s the machine of liberation for the global middle class, a Mach 0.85 ticket to exotic places once seen only in magazines. Boeing has sold more than 1,500 of them. Still, one fact should trouble us about the 747: It’s very old. It was conceived in 1965 and Boeing’s jumbo went into service in 1970.
(This story appears in the 17 February, 2012 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)