The Greatest Airliner of All Time?

Pan American World Airways Boeing 707-321 – Clipper Stargazer – at Los Angeles International Airport sometime in 1969

Boeing 707’s of Two Iconic Airlines at Los Angeles International Airport sometime in 1969.

It has been suggested that the Boeing 707 could be regarded as one of the greatest airliners of all time.  It was the aircraft that launched daily scheduled passenger jet operations across the Atlantic and eventually around the world.  Sadly, it was instrumental in the demise of trans-Atlantic ocean liner crossings and passenger rail services in the United States.  However, the aircraft and its successors, aided by the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 and the liberalization of economic regulation in the rest of the world, have made air travel available to the masses.  Interestingly, the availablity of air travel to the masses was not that recent a phenomenon.  Back in the post World War II and 1950’s era, Pan American World Airways pioneered “Tourist” travel with the DC-6B.  Affordable fares were offered to points in Pan Am’s worldwide system.  I was one of the beneficiaries when my family traveled through Central and South America in the late 1950s.  Below is a picture of the iconic DC-6B:

Pan American World Airways DC-6B, the “Super 6”, Clipper Midnight Sun.