Airline Empires - Airline and Aviation Articles, Airline Simulation

Triumph of the Boeing 707

Contributed by Nick Duros
Saturday, 21 January 2006
Page 2 of 3 Boeing was not the only company in the market to build a jet airliner; Douglas Aircraft too had the goal of a jet aircraft in their sights. But from the start, Douglas Aircraft suffered some disadvantages. Though they had a project group that had been diligently studying jet aircraft for years, Douglas had never built a jet aircraft before, let alone something as large as Boeing’s B-52 “Stratofortress”. The largest aircraft Douglas had previously created was the DC-7C “Seven Seas,” a piston powered aircraft with enough range to fly from New York to Paris. In addition, they would have to pay for the development of the new jet airliner on their own, unlike Boeing who enjoyed some of the cost sharing with the U.S. Air Force due to orders for the KC-135 jet tankers. During this historical period, the largest airline in the United States and Europe was Pan American World Airways. At the time airline presidents were accustomed to the plane designs that were tailored to their wishes. Pan American had been talking with the plane builders as early as the 1940’s about their dream of having a jet airliner created. Though, the airline had not been able to get any company to quote prices and delivery rates other than De Havilland, the creators of the first, yet unsuccessful, jet airliner. Boeing did attempt to pitch their new 707 jetliner to Pan American, but the airline rejected it because the 707 lacked the range to go non stop from the United States to Europe. This is where Douglas was able to make up for some of their pitfalls with Boeing. Boeing was stuck with the shorter range design for the 707. To Douglas, this appeared to be the perfect opportunity to build a longer ranger aircraft and get their foot in the door of the jet aviation industry. In June of 1955 Donald Douglas gave the word to go ahead with development and construction of their soon to be jetliner, the DC-8. Douglas, with no prototype being built for the aircraft, could virtually promise anything to the airlines, whereas Boeing was fairly “Stuck in a hole” with its prototype. Pan American decided to buy to buy twenty 707s and twenty-five DC-8s. The main reason for this odd order is that the 707 was going to be available before the DC-8, and Pan American planned on selling off their twenty 707’s once the DC-8 came into play. To Boeing, it was starting to appear that the 707 was turning into another “warmed-over” version of an Air Force project. Similar things happened in the past when their Air Force contracts forced them into a poor position to launch aircraft into the civilian industry. At this point if Boeing did not sell the 707 in large numbers it was destined for disaster. The only alternative to potential failure would to be to break the commonality between the 707 and the KC-135: making the 707 larger and giving it a longer range to be able to cross the Atlantic Ocean nonstop. While the redesign would be very costly, it would be the only way to stay competitive in the industry. United Airlines was the next company in line to choose which aircraft to purchase as their new jetliners. United had built a mock up cabin of both the 707 interior at one end, and the DC-8, which was three inches wider, at the other. Visitors naturally preferred the larger DC-8 cabin over the smaller 707. In a serious blow to Boeing, United Airlines announced that they would be purchasing thirty DC-8s. National airlines also followed suit and ordered DC-8s. American Airlines (which at the time was the nation’s largest domestic carrier,) would be next to commit. If American Airlines also happened choose the DC-8, the trend might become overwhelming.Due to the fact that American Airlines had a history of dealing with only Douglas Aircraft and that they had been working with United jointly to study the practicality of jet airliners, things were looking down for Boeing. << Start < Previous 1 2 3 Next > End >>

[ Back ]