Pan Am Series – Part XLIV: The Boeing 707 – 1
1 August 2016 Leave a comment
Fifty-eight years ago this month, specifically 15 August 1958. Pan American made history by taking delivery of its first Boeing 707. This ushered in the jet age. I wrote a blog in the “Pan Am Series” about this event two years ago. I am re-blogging it today…..
“One of the Great Airliners of All Time”
Part 1
The Boeing 707-120
On 15 August 1958, Pan American World Airways took delivery of Boeing’s Construction Number 17588, a 707-121 registered N709PA and named Jet Clipper America (later changed to Jet Clipper Tradewind). This event ushered in what became the Jet Age. The story leading up to that delivery was typical Juan Trippe, Pan American’s leader who, although the idea of commercial jet travel did not become viable until well into the 1950s, explored the idea of jet propulsion during World War II, along with Charles Lindbergh and Pan American’s Chief Engineer Andre Priester.
The Aircraft
Boeing 707-120 – Mike Machat drawing from Pan Am – An Airline and Its Aircraft, by Ron Davies
The 707 was developed from the Boeing 367-80, a prototype jet that made its maiden flight on 15 July 1954 from Renton Field, the…
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