50 Years Ago In Aviation Week

Aviation Week’s Aug. 1, 1966 edition chronicled the launch of the 490-seat Boeing 747 with an order from Pan American World Airways and the joining of the nose and fuselage of the first 737 short-medium haul transport.

Less remembered is a story about a jet-powered train. Transport editor Joseph W. Carter explained how the New York Central Railroad had tested the high-speed shuttle service by mounting two General Electric J-47 turbojet engines housed in B-36 nacelles to the roof of a passenger rail car, enabling it to reach a speed of 183.85 mph.  

As for the 747, the magazine predicted it would have only a brief life as a passenger jet and would evolve into an all-cargo aircraft after supersonic transports entered service in the mid-1970s.

Read the Aug. 1, 1966 edition of Aviation Week in the archive.