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| Joe Sutter obituary | |
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| “No one in his right mind,” Joe Sutter told Air & Space magazine in 2007, “would want to get into this business.” Fortunately for commercial aviation, Sutter, who has died aged 95, was a man afflicted by a particularly beneficial form of wrong-headedness, since he was the aeronautical engineer identified as the “father” of the Boeing 747 jumbo jet. This was the airliner which, from its first flight on 9 February 1969, ushered in the second age of civil jet aviation, focusing on mass transit. | “No one in his right mind,” Joe Sutter told Air & Space magazine in 2007, “would want to get into this business.” Fortunately for commercial aviation, Sutter, who has died aged 95, was a man afflicted by a particularly beneficial form of wrong-headedness, since he was the aeronautical engineer identified as the “father” of the Boeing 747 jumbo jet. This was the airliner which, from its first flight on 9 February 1969, ushered in the second age of civil jet aviation, focusing on mass transit. |
| “You bet the company,” Sutter had added, “each time you do a new project.” This was never more true than with the 747, where the engineer managed the design team – the “Incredibles” – who put the project together in 28 months. “It was,” he told the BBC in 2015, “a fight all the way.” | “You bet the company,” Sutter had added, “each time you do a new project.” This was never more true than with the 747, where the engineer managed the design team – the “Incredibles” – who put the project together in 28 months. “It was,” he told the BBC in 2015, “a fight all the way.” |
| It took in the construction of the largest building in the world to house the new aircraft, major cash flow issues and successfully overcoming the Pratt & Whitney JT9D engines’ unfortunate tendency to catch fire. A tough negotiator, Sutter also assumed, wrongly, that he would lose his job in 1967 after successfully resisting demands that he sack 1,000 of his 4,500 engineers. To cap all this, there was also the illusory challenge of the Anglo-French Concorde, and the 747’s initial status as the poor relation to the Boeing 2707 Mach 3 airliner, which was finally abandoned in 1971. | It took in the construction of the largest building in the world to house the new aircraft, major cash flow issues and successfully overcoming the Pratt & Whitney JT9D engines’ unfortunate tendency to catch fire. A tough negotiator, Sutter also assumed, wrongly, that he would lose his job in 1967 after successfully resisting demands that he sack 1,000 of his 4,500 engineers. To cap all this, there was also the illusory challenge of the Anglo-French Concorde, and the 747’s initial status as the poor relation to the Boeing 2707 Mach 3 airliner, which was finally abandoned in 1971. |
| The 747 was born in 1965 when Juan Trippe, the boss of Pan American, told Boeing that his airline wanted a huge new double-decker passenger aircraft. What he got, and eventually agreed to, was the wide-bodied 747, with its 20ft cabin width and space for 400-plus passengers; earlier jet airliners had peaked with a capacity of fewer than 200. | The 747 was born in 1965 when Juan Trippe, the boss of Pan American, told Boeing that his airline wanted a huge new double-decker passenger aircraft. What he got, and eventually agreed to, was the wide-bodied 747, with its 20ft cabin width and space for 400-plus passengers; earlier jet airliners had peaked with a capacity of fewer than 200. |
| In spring 1966, Trippe made an initial order of 25 aircraft, and on 22 January 1970 the first Pan Am scheduled flight, from New York to London, touched down – six hours late; the original aircraft had developed engine trouble and a substitute plane had had to be found. The Guardian’s headline was “Another fit of stumbles for Jumbo”. But the stumbles faded, and the 747, instantly recognisable, went on to redefine air travel, with no comparable rival emerging until the European Airbus A380 in 2005. | In spring 1966, Trippe made an initial order of 25 aircraft, and on 22 January 1970 the first Pan Am scheduled flight, from New York to London, touched down – six hours late; the original aircraft had developed engine trouble and a substitute plane had had to be found. The Guardian’s headline was “Another fit of stumbles for Jumbo”. But the stumbles faded, and the 747, instantly recognisable, went on to redefine air travel, with no comparable rival emerging until the European Airbus A380 in 2005. |
| Before the epic of the 747, Sutter worked on a series of Boeing passenger planes that established the company in a dominant position in commercial aviation from the late 1950s onwards. He was an aerodynamist on the 707, the second jet on the transatlantic route (following fleeting competition from the British Comet 4), and he significantly affected the wing design on the short and medium haul 727 launched in the early 1960s. And he won his first patent on the short and medium haul 737, which first flew in 1967, is still in production now and, with more than 9,000 sales, is the most popular jet airliner in the world. | Before the epic of the 747, Sutter worked on a series of Boeing passenger planes that established the company in a dominant position in commercial aviation from the late 1950s onwards. He was an aerodynamist on the 707, the second jet on the transatlantic route (following fleeting competition from the British Comet 4), and he significantly affected the wing design on the short and medium haul 727 launched in the early 1960s. And he won his first patent on the short and medium haul 737, which first flew in 1967, is still in production now and, with more than 9,000 sales, is the most popular jet airliner in the world. |
| Sutter was born and raised in a Catholic family in Seattle, Washington state. His father, Frank (originally Franc Suhadolc), was a Slovenian immigrant who had come to North America as a Klondike gold prospector and became a meat cutter, while his mother, Rose (nee Plesik) was born in Austria-Hungary. Sutter grew up in the Beacon Hill district of Seattle and was educated at Cleveland high school in the city. A model plane builder in childhood, Sutter found student summer work at the Boeing Plant 2, while an undergraduate at the University of Washington. | Sutter was born and raised in a Catholic family in Seattle, Washington state. His father, Frank (originally Franc Suhadolc), was a Slovenian immigrant who had come to North America as a Klondike gold prospector and became a meat cutter, while his mother, Rose (nee Plesik) was born in Austria-Hungary. Sutter grew up in the Beacon Hill district of Seattle and was educated at Cleveland high school in the city. A model plane builder in childhood, Sutter found student summer work at the Boeing Plant 2, while an undergraduate at the University of Washington. |
| William Boeing had set up his original company in 1916 and in the immediate period after the first world war it had focused on commercial aviation. But it was the military/civil interplay to come that was key to the company’s success. In the later interwar years, when Sutter was in his teens, Boeing was also developing the B17 four-engined bomber, which would provide the backbone of the US Army Air Forces’ war over Germany. By the end of the 1930s the company was also beginning tentative work on the B29 bomber which, in 1945, launched the two atomic attacks on Japan. | William Boeing had set up his original company in 1916 and in the immediate period after the first world war it had focused on commercial aviation. But it was the military/civil interplay to come that was key to the company’s success. In the later interwar years, when Sutter was in his teens, Boeing was also developing the B17 four-engined bomber, which would provide the backbone of the US Army Air Forces’ war over Germany. By the end of the 1930s the company was also beginning tentative work on the B29 bomber which, in 1945, launched the two atomic attacks on Japan. |
| In 1943 Sutter graduated with a degree in aeronautical engineering and then did war service on a US Navy destroyer in the Pacific. Demobbed, in 1946 he accepted a job in California with Douglas Aircraft, which then enjoyed a lead in the field of commercial aircraft. Later, back in Seattle, he took on a temporary post at Boeing – it would last 40 years. The company was then beginning to reconsider its civilian aircraft options and a move towards jets, particularly after seeing the de Havilland Comet in England in 1950. | In 1943 Sutter graduated with a degree in aeronautical engineering and then did war service on a US Navy destroyer in the Pacific. Demobbed, in 1946 he accepted a job in California with Douglas Aircraft, which then enjoyed a lead in the field of commercial aircraft. Later, back in Seattle, he took on a temporary post at Boeing – it would last 40 years. The company was then beginning to reconsider its civilian aircraft options and a move towards jets, particularly after seeing the de Havilland Comet in England in 1950. |
| Sutter’s early and relatively lowly work at Boeing took in engine and flight control issues on the propeller-driven Boeing Stratocruiser transcontinental airliner. This, in its turn, had been developed from the B29 bomber. Like the 747, it was a twin decker; unlike the 747, with it 1,500-plus sales in an era of mass air travel, the Stratocruiser served a luxury market, with only 56 aircraft built. | Sutter’s early and relatively lowly work at Boeing took in engine and flight control issues on the propeller-driven Boeing Stratocruiser transcontinental airliner. This, in its turn, had been developed from the B29 bomber. Like the 747, it was a twin decker; unlike the 747, with it 1,500-plus sales in an era of mass air travel, the Stratocruiser served a luxury market, with only 56 aircraft built. |
| Sutter served on the presidential commission into the 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster. He received many honours, including membership of the US National Academy of Engineering, honorary fellowship of the Royal Aeronautical Society, the US Medal of Technology and the Guggenheim Medal. | Sutter served on the presidential commission into the 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster. He received many honours, including membership of the US National Academy of Engineering, honorary fellowship of the Royal Aeronautical Society, the US Medal of Technology and the Guggenheim Medal. |
| Sutter’s wife, Nancy (nee French), died in 1997. He is survived by two daughters, Gabrielle and Adrienne, a son, Jonathan, five grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. | Sutter’s wife, Nancy (nee French), died in 1997. He is survived by two daughters, Gabrielle and Adrienne, a son, Jonathan, five grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. |
| • Joseph Frederick Sutter, aeronautical engineer, born 21 March 1921; died 30 August 2016 | • Joseph Frederick Sutter, aeronautical engineer, born 21 March 1921; died 30 August 2016 |