AIRWAYS INTERVIEW Ron Marasco
THE BOEING COMPANY doubt . Everybody worked together on this , nobody ever doubted that it was going to work . We acquired tremendous respect for the technology very early . Especially the engine technology , which was unlike anything ever seen in the airline industry before .
But that didn ’ t help much in early operations . The engine problems started early and went on for a number of years during early operations . The engine shutdown rates and engine general failure rates , even if the engines didn ’ t shut down , were absolutely astronomical . Pan Am already had 25 aircraft within the first eight months of operations , and the engines were so bad that we often had two or three aircraft sitting on the ground without engines . We became overwhelmed with the lack of engine reliability .
What was the way out of that misery ? Unlike in today ’ s environment , everybody was working together to make this thing a success — the manufacturers , the airlines , the FAA . And all of the many early operators of the 747 worldwide had the same problem . Of course , we at Pan Am shouldered the lion ’ s share because we had so many . There had never been such low reliability rates in the aviation industry , ever , and I had been in aviation since the jet age started in 1958 . Traditionally in aviation , they had an engine first and then built the airplane . In the case of the 747 , it was the opposite — they were building the airplane and the engine hadn ’ t gotten anywhere yet . In today ’ s world , the 747 would never have progressed very far with this dismal reliability , just not being mature initially .
www . airwaysmag . com AIRWAYS MAGAZINE AUGUST 2024 57