Boeing 747 Manual, 1970 onwards (all marks) by Chris Wood, published by Haynes Publishing www.haynes.co.uk £21.99, hardback, 168 pages, Colour/Black and white images
A truly iconic machine gets the Haynes workshop manual treatment this month; Boeing’s amazing 747. Author Captain Chris Wood is certainly qualified to write this particular ‘workshop manual’ — he has over 12,000 hours of ‘jumbo’ time in his logbook, having flown both the Classic and -400 versions.
As well as discussing the past, present and future of the giant transport, the book examines the aircraft’s myriad systems in some detail. There’s even a fascinating chapter detailing how retired aircraft are parted out and then scrapped. I was particularly interested to learn that individual Classic jumbos possess real character, a trait that the more modern 400 series machines don’t have.
As always, I’d have liked a bit more detail about its handling characteristics, but still greatly enjoyed it.
