The contract went to Lockheed and General Electric to build what was to become the C5 Galaxy. During this time, commercial aviation was growing at a rapid pace. The jet age was finding its feet with the very popular Boeing 707 and Douglas DC8 being the workhorses of the day. Juan Trippe of Pan Am, one of Boeings biggest customers, approached Boeing to press them look at building an aircraft twice the size of the 707 and DC8. Trippe advocated that a larger aircraft would be the solution to the congestion at airports, reducing the number of relatively smaller aircraft required to move the same amount of people.
