70th
Anniversary of the Boeing 367-80
Seventy years ago this week, a graceful, swept-winged aircraft, bedecked in
brown and yellow paint and powered by four revolutionary new engines took to
the sky above Seattle. The Boeing 367-80, better known as the Dash 80, flew for
the first time on July 15, 1954 and would come to revolutionize commercial air
transportation when its production version entered service as the famous Boeing
707, America's first jet airliner.
Upon the Dash 80's successful first flight, Boeing clearly had a winner. The
company quickly turned its attention to selling the airline industry on this
new jet transport. The industry was impressed with the capabilities of the
prototype 707 but never more so than at the Gold Cup hydroplane races held on
Lake Washington in Seattle in August 1955.
Boeing had gathered airline representatives to enjoy the competition and
witness a fly past of the new Dash 80. To the audience's intense delight and
Boeing's profound shock, test pilot Alvin "Tex" Johnston
barrel-rolled the Dash 80 over the lake in full view of thousands of astonished
spectators. Johnston vividly displayed the superior strength and performance of
this new jet, readily convincing the airline industry to buy this new airliner.
The Dash 80 is on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly,
Virginia.
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