History of the Boeing 707

In the early 1950s, Boeing was concentrating its future transport studies on advanced jet or turboprop versions of the C-97 Stratocruiser. Feeling the heat from across the ocean with the success of the British Comet, Boeing was convinced that the answer had to be a jet.

To design a prototype, Boeing engineers first searched through their blueprints to see if they could piece together a jetliner from wings, tails, and fuselages already on hand. The initial designation, Model 367-64, represented the 64th variation in the Stratocruiser series. In fact, it did resemble the older plane with its large fuselage and modestly sweptback wings, each of which was fitted with a single pod containing two engines. The engine arrangement had been copied from Boeing's jet bombers of the time, as had much of the original design. By late 1951, all of the 367-series studies were centered around the use of four Pratt & Whitney JT3 turbojets, the civilian version of the J57 turbojet that appeared on Boeing's B-52 Stratofortress. Studies