Plastic display model of a Boeing 747 airliner in Braniff livery of white vertical stabilizer, orange upper surfaces, and silver belly, wings, and horizontal stabilizer. With stand. 1:100 scale. Circa ...

Today, with hindsight being 20/20, we know how the Boeing 747 revolutionized air travel. But that was anything but a sure thing back when it was still on the drawing board in the mid-1960s.

The first wing spar for the 747-8F is being assembled at Boeing’s Everett, Wash., site marking the start of assembly of the new freighter model. The unit was loaded into a new automated assembly ...