[rsynnott]

It was always hard to develop a new plane. For all that the author waxes rhapsodic about the 747's 2 year design to test flight, the 747 development process very nearly killed Boeing (it brought Boeing far closer to the brink than the a380 did for Airbus).

[Gravityloss]

That's true! This book, "The Jetmakers" is available online and it talks about these things, but in the 1945 to 1972 time frame. It is a good read.

http://www.generalatomic.com/jetmakers/index.html