That meant the cockpit needed to be positioned above the main cargo deck.
The resulting raised flight deck created the distinctive shape.
The upper deck was then extended behind the cockpit, providing additional space.
Over time, the hump became one of the most recognizable silhouettes in aviation history.
The National Air and Space Museum notes that the distinctive upper-deck shape was tied to the airplane's original cargo concept and later became a defining feature of the aircraft.
The result was something visually unlike the 707s and DC-8s that had defined the first generation of jet travel.
The 747 looked like a new category of machine.
Because it was.
The 26 Airlines
By the time the airplane was ready for its public unveiling, 26 airlines had placed orders.
That number mattered.
Boeing did not roll the aircraft out merely as a technological experiment.
The industry was already waiting for it.
Representatives from those airlines gathered in Everett for the ceremony. NASA's historical account of the rollout notes that flight attendants representing each of the 26 airlines that had purchased the aircraft attended the event.
The ceremony was carefully staged.
Twenty-six flight attendants stood together.
Each represented one of the airlines that had committed to the revolutionary new aircraft.
Then came the champagne.
Twenty-six bottles.
Twenty-six women.
Twenty-six strikes against the airplane.
The ceremony captured the international nature of what Boeing had created.
This was not an American airplane intended only for American passengers.
The 747 was being born as a global machine.
Airlines from different countries were placing the aircraft at the center of their plans for international travel.
The photographs from that day therefore captured more than a product launch.
They captured the moment the global airline industry publicly committed itself to a new generation of air travel.
The First Glimpse
At approximately the moment the doors opened, the audience finally understood what Boeing had built.
The airplane was enormous.
HistoryLink records the aircraft at about 231 feet long with a 196-foot wingspan.
The dimensions were so extreme that people needed familiar objects to understand them.
The tail was approximately six stories high.
The wings stretched nearly the length of a city block.
And underneath those wings sat four enormous turbofan engines.
The aircraft's scale was immediately obvious even from photographs.
The 747 was not merely larger than the 707.
It was in another class.
The National Air and Space Museum describes the aircraft as carrying more than twice as many passengers as the 707, with the 747's approximately 400-seat capacity providing dramatically lower seat-mile costs.
That economic advantage was ultimately as important as the aircraft's size.
The 747 could move large numbers of passengers across oceans.
That meant the cost of each seat could fall.
And when the cost fell, more people could afford to travel.
The airplane was about to change not only aviation technology but the demographics of international travel.
But the Rollout Wasn't the Finish Line
The applause on September 30 did not mean the job was finished.
Far from it.
The airplane still had to undergo testing.
Systems had to be checked.
Flight characteristics had to be evaluated.
Problems had to be discovered and solved.
And the 747 had to demonstrate that an aircraft of such unprecedented scale could operate safely.
The first flight came on February 9, 1969.
Four months after the rollout.
The aircraft that had appeared dramatically in front of the world's press was now going to have to leave the ground.
Test pilots Jack Waddell and Brien Wygle were at the controls, with flight engineer Jess Wallick also aboard.
The aircraft lifted off from Everett and remained airborne for more than an hour during its first flight.
The test program would eventually uncover problems that had to be solved, including issues involving the wings during later testing.
The process was exactly what flight testing is supposed to be: take an aircraft from a promising machine on the ground to a proven aircraft in the air by discovering what needs to change before passengers ever board it.
The City of Everett Takes Flight
The airplane was registered N7470 and identified as RA001.
It became known as the “City of Everett.”
That name was more than ceremonial.
Everett had become inseparable from the 747.
The town was no longer simply the place where Boeing happened to build an airplane.
It was the birthplace of a machine that would become one of the most recognizable aircraft ever produced.
Boeing's own historical material identifies the prototype as RA001 and notes that it made its first flight on February 9, 1969.
The Museum of Flight in Seattle now preserves that aircraft.
Its museum record identifies the airplane as Boeing 747-121, serial number 20235, registration N7470. It has a wingspan of 195.67 feet, a length of 231 feet and a height of 63 feet.
Those numbers make the airplane's scale tangible even today.
And yet the most remarkable fact about RA001 may not be its dimensions.
It is what happened after its historic first flight.
From Prototype to Flying Laboratory
RA001 did not simply fly a handful of test flights and disappear.
After its certification testing, the airplane remained useful to Boeing for years.
The Museum of Flight says RA001 became a company testbed for technology development and new engine programs for later Boeing commercial aircraft, including the Pratt & Whitney PW4000 program associated with the 777.
That gave the first 747 a second life.
It had begun as the machine that introduced the world to the jumbo jet.
Later, it became a laboratory for technologies that would influence another generation of aircraft.