Joe Sutter (1921–2016)

"This is one of the great ones", Charles Lindbergh said about the 747. This book is one of the great ones as well. You can tell that it was written by the 747's chief engineer himself; the writing is concise and technical. It is refreshing to read a memoir of an "important person" that doesn't focus on politics.

But the 747's development is also a source of many a fascinating story, both large in scale and small, sometimes political, sometimes personal. And perhaps surprisingly, Sutter proves to be a storyteller to match his stories as well.… (meer)

What’s The Point?

This book is a wide ranging autobiography written by Joe Sutter, the head of the project that created the 747 aircraft design. It covers his early life, growing up in Seattle, and the rise of aviation. Sutter was interested in planes since he was a young child; his room was covered with dozens of model planes. He came to understand the dynamics of flight by watching every airplane he could. He studied aeronautical engineering in college, before joining the military for WWII. After the war, he joined up with Boeing and never left! His career at Boeing is a engaging tale of focus and ambition to work on something meaningful. Eventually the 747 project came along and his hard work paid off, allowing him to build the most recognizable aircraft ever.

How Was It?

A very good not-to-technical read. Sutter tells much of his life story and keeps a very positive attitude. I learned many interesting ideas around airplane design.

Who Should Read It?

Anyone interested in engineering, managing projects, aircraft, or the history of aviation. It provides a detailed look at the 747 project and much of the poltiics of such a large project, but also how many of the engineering challenges were overcome. Sutter offers many interesting anecdotes on different airplanes, drawn from a wide range of knowledge, that is easy to learn from.… (meer)

Joe Sutter is clearly a nice guy, and his “life in aviation” – as the subtitle puts it – was certainly interesting. Growing up in the shadow of the Boeing aircraft plant in the 1920s and 30s, he joined the company as an engineer soon after World War II: in time to work on the last of the company’s propeller-driven airliners (the Stratoliner), participate in the birth of the 707, and become the chief engineer of the epoch-making 747. Jay Spenser, the writer he collaborated with on the book, shapes the story well, and the prose flows easily.

Unfortunately, whether because of the kind of person Sutter is or because of the way Spenser tells his story, a feeling of shallow slickness to the narrative. The chapters on Sutter’s childhood and World War II naval service are sketchy, and the connections drawn between them and his later life mostly banal. Sutter’s descriptions of his interactions with colleagues feel like the “official” version, told and retold until all the rough edges (and much of the texture) have been worn away by repetition. His decisions always turn out to be right, conflicts within his team are always easily resolved, and even his severest criticisms – of Pan Am president Juan Trippe for cutthroat business practices, or Boeing for an ill-advised motivational program – seem mild and muted. Very little of the interpersonal history here feels like the view from the “inside.”

The book does, however, offer readers interested in the history of postwar commercial aviation a steady stream of insights into how and why the Boeing family of airliners, and the 747 in particular, evolved the way it did. Other books have done both more rigorously and comprehensively, but 747 is a quick, easy read, and memoirs of aircraft engineers are scarce enough that – if such things interest you – it’s worth picking up.… (meer)