Happy Dash 80 Day!

On this date in 1954, the Boeing 367-80, better known as the Dash 80, and effectively the prototype for the KC-135 and 707, rolled out in Seattle. While other jetliners may have come before, the introduction into service of the 707 in 1959 really started the modern age of jet-powered airline travel.

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Oh Yeah! Was there! You can spot me just off the number one engine. That was an exciting day! I just ran across a print of the original configuration layout for the inboard and outboard struts and nacelles. I know that I have one for the landing gear someplace. All done on 11 X 14 vellum in pencil.

 

Bob, I think the only chance we would have to spot you is if you made an enlargement of that part of the photo and drew a circle around yourself!

 

You know, I can't remember exactly where I was in that crowd but I certainly was in the edge of the crowd somewhere where I could look at some of the work that I did for several months. It still amazes me that it was literally built from the ground up like the hull of a ship. Not to brag, but I saw the birth of aviation history in the -80 and the Boeing aircraft that followed in my work that ended in 2002 with the 777.

 

Amazing...

 

I can't remember the date now but I was present for many of the pre-first flight ground tests and I witnessed the failure of the left main landing gear trunnion support that sacred the daylights out of everyone at the time. The concern about the cantilevered trunnion was subjected to heavy ground testing by Tex Johnston and he found a problem. Some in the design but also in material, the real concern surfaced when the engineering staff discovered the discrepancies in the metallurgy of other fittings in the airplane that came from the same batch of steel in the landing gear fitting. Frantic disassembly and reworking of all the suspect fittings in the airplane followed. The rest is history.