and enormous as it was, the 747 had gone from a literal back-of-a-napkin drawing to a fully functional aircraft in just over two years, an astonishing achievement. A decade earlier Boeing’s 707 ...

Airbus secretly began planning the A380 as early as 1988, aiming to challenge Boeing’s dominance with the 747. Early design concepts explored bold ideas, including side-by-side double fuselages, ...