Boeing 707, the first successfulcommercial passenger jetliner. The mid- to long-range narrow-body four-engine aircraft with a swept-wing design was developed and manufactured by theBoeing Company. It made its first flight on December 20, 1957, and entered commercial service on October 26, 1958. It remained in production until 1991, with a total of 1,010 being built, and was credited with inaugurating the jet age in commercial travel.

The first successfulturbojet-powered aircraft,Germany’s Heinkel He 178, made its inaugural flight in 1939, and bothBritain and theUnited States developed fighter jets duringWorld War II. In 1952 Boeing began work on aprototype jet airliner that could be used both for midair refueling ofmilitary aircraft and as a commercial airliner. It was designated Model 367-80 to give competitors the impression that it was merely a further development of the company’s C-97 Stratofreighter. The367-80, often called the Dash 80, had swept wings and, powered by four underslung 10,000-pound-thrust turbojet engines, could reach a top speed of 600 miles (966 km) per hour. It was first flown in a demonstration flight on July 15, 1954, and theU.S. Air Force subsequently ordered 29 jet tankerKC-135s (the military model). Boeing continued developing the passenger version of the Dash 80, and in 1955Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) ordered 20 Boeing 707s. At the same time, however, it also ordered 25Douglas DC-8s, a similar jet airliner being developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company, which already supplied airlines with most of their piston-engine passenger planes. However, the Boeing 707 was faster than the DC-8, and Boeing was willing tocustomize the aircraft to meet its customers’ preferences. In addition, the 707 went into production before the DC-8.

The first Boeing 707 delivered to Pan Am was 145 feet 1 inch (44.2 metres) in length with a wingspan of 130 feet 10 inches (39.9 metres) and afuselage width of 12 feet 4 inches (3.8 metres). Its first commercial flight in 1958 was fromNew York City toParis and took 8 hours and 41 minutes, including a stop for refueling inGander,Newfoundland, Canada. Its improvements over earlier planes in passenger capacity, range, and speed revolutionized air travel, and it came to be used by American airlines for most domestic and transatlantic flights throughout the 1960s. The last scheduled Boeing 707 flight in the United States was aTrans World Airlines (TWA) flight fromMiami to New York City in 1983. Second-tier airlines in the rest of the world continued to fly 707s, however, and Saha Airlines ofIran used Boeing 707s for passenger service until 2013, after which commercial use of the 707ceased.

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