One of the biggest and riskiest ventures in Boeing's history was the decision to develop the 777 (pronounced "triple seven"). Shortly after that airplane reached the market, PBS aired a documentary on the decision, development, test, and production process in taking the 777 from concept to machine. The first segment of that documentary is here:
The rest of the program (all five hours of it) can be viewed here. Boeing was a different beast back in those days. After the preliminary design on the 777 began in 1990 the Soviet Union collapsed and most of the great aerospace companies of the Cold War merged for survival. What were once North American Rockwell and McDonnell Douglas are now parts of Boeing, and the commercial air transports riveted and bonded together in Renton and Everett are a smaller slice of the total pie now.
It's astonishing how successful the 777 has been since entering service in 1995. It's safer, more reliable, and more efficient than anything else flying. More than a thousand have been delivered since then and only two have been lost to accidents (and only one of those was carrying passengers at the time). No passengers or crew have ever died because something on a 777 failed. This record is unlikely to last forever, but it's a testament to how far commercial aviation has come over the last century and how refined that design and build process has become. With luck, the 787 will do all the 777 does well even better.
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