Originally Posted by
MaydayMark
I think Huck is close to the correct answer. Having once flown 747's back in the day ... I always understood that the 747 was originally designed for the USAF competition that Lockheed won with the C-5. Boeing was able to interest PanAm in the redesigned passenger version and the rest is history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_747#History
I remember hearing this as well. I also heard that one of the reasons Lockeed won the contract was the space program. Lockheed was building a large portion of the equipment for NASA. However, they were not making enough money to keep doing so, had the goverment not awarded them the C-5, they would not have made enough money to keep producing space equipment, setting the space program back.