3/21/2018 Boeing 367-80 - Wikipedia

Boeing 367-80
The Boeing 367-80, known simply as the Dash 80, was an American four-engine prototype aircraft built by Boeing
Boeing 367-80
to demonstrate the advantages of jet propulsion for commercial aviation. It served as base for the design of the KC-135
tanker and the 707 airliner.

The Dash 80 first flew in 1954, less than two years from project launch. Its US$16 million cost was an enormous risk
for Boeing, which at the time had no committed customers. Only one example was built, which has been preserved and
is currently on public display at the Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia.

Contents
Design and development
Operational history
The barrel roll
Use as an experimental aircraft
Final flight
Specifications (Boeing 367-80)
See also
References
External links
The Dash 80 overflying the Olympic Peninsula,
Washington, with Mt. Rainier in the background
Role Prototype
Design and development transport/airliner
By the late 1940s two developments encouraged Boeing to begin considering building a passenger jet. The first was the Manufacturer Boeing
maiden flight in 1947 of the B-47 Stratojet. The second was the maiden flight in 1949 of the world’s first jet airliner, the
First flight July 15, 1954
de Havilland Comet. Boeing President Bill Allen led a company delegation to the UK in summer 1950, where they saw
Introduction 1955
the Comet fly at the Farnborough Airshow, and also visited the de Havilland factory at Hatfield, Hertfordshire where
the Comets were being built. Boeing felt it had mastered the swept wing and podded engines which it saw as key Retired 1970
technologies that would enable it to improve on the Comet. Status Retired

In 1950 Boeing tentatively produced a specification for a jet airliner dubbed Produced 1954
the Model 473-60C.[1] The airlines were unconvinced[2] because they had no Number built One
experience with jet transports and were enjoying success with piston Unit cost US$16 million
engined aircraft such as the Douglas DC-4, DC-6, Boeing Stratocruiser and
Developed into Boeing C-135
Lockheed Constellation.
Stratolifter
Boeing was experienced at selling to the military but had not enjoyed the Boeing KC-135
same success with civil airliners. This market was dominated by Douglas Stratotanker
which was adept at meeting the needs of airlines by refining and developing Boeing 707
The Boeing 367-80 during its roll-out its range of propeller-driven aircraft, and in 1950 was marketing the Other name(s) Dash 80
in May 1954 forthcoming DC-7. Boeing decided the only way to overcome the airlines' Registration N70700
suspicion of the jet – and of itself – was to show them a completed
Owners and operators Boeing
aircraft.[3]
In service 1954–1969
As the first of a new generation of passenger jets, Boeing wanted the aircraft's model number to emphasize the
Preserved at National Air and
difference from its previous propeller-driven aircraft which bore 300-series numbers. The 400-, 500- and 600-series
Space Museum's
were already used by missiles and other products, so Boeing decided that the jets would bear 700-series numbers, and
Steven F. Udvar-Hazy
the first would be the 707.[4] Boeing had studied developments of its existing Model 367 (the KC-97 Stratofreighter)
Center
incorporating swept wings and podded engines; and chose to build the 367-80, which retained little of the KC-97
except the upper fuselage diameter (and the possibility of building some of the fuselage with existing tooling). Although the design
was announced publicly as the Model 707, the prototype was referred to within Boeing simply as the Dash 80 or "-80".

The Dash 80 fuselage was wide enough at 132 inches (3.35 m) for five-abreast seating; two on one side of the aisle and three on the
other. The fuselage diameter for the production KC-135 was widened to 144 inches (3.66 m) and Boeing originally hoped to build
the 707 fuselage with that width. By the time the Boeing company committed to production, the decision had been made to design
the production model 707 as a six-abreast design, with a larger 148 inches (3.76 m) diameter fuselage, after C.R. Smith, CEO of
American Airlines, told Boeing he wouldn't buy the 707 unless it was an inch wider than the then-proposed Douglas DC-8
The Boeing 367-80 at Boeing Field
passenger jet. This decision did not unduly delay introduction of the production model since the -80 had been largely hand-built,
in Washington
using little production tooling.[5]

Operational history
By early 1952 the designs were complete and in April the Boeing board approved the program. Construction of the Dash 80 started in November in a walled-off section of
Boeing's Renton plant.[6] As a proof of concept prototype there was no certification and no production line and most of the parts were custom built. The aircraft was not fitted
with an airline cabin; a plywood lining housed the instrumentation for the flight test program.

The Dash 80 rolled out of the factory on May 15, 1954, two years after the project was approved and 18 months after construction had started.[7] During a series of taxi trials
the port landing gear collapsed on May 22; the damage was quickly repaired and the first flight was on July 15, 1954.
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Following flights revealed a propensity to "Dutch roll" - an alternating yawing and rolling motion. Boeing already had experience
with this on the B-47 Stratojet and B-52 Stratofortress and had developed a yaw damper system on the B-47 that could be adapted
to the Dash 80. Other problems were found with the engines and brakes, the latter once failing completely on landing causing the
aircraft to overshoot the runway.[8]

Boeing used the Dash 80 on demonstration flights for airline executives and other industry figures. These focused attention on the
Boeing 367-80 (N70700) prototype question of what the cabin of a passenger jet should look like. In a departure from its usual practice Boeing hired industrial design
in a NASA archive photo
firm Walter Dorwin Teague to create a cabin as radical as the aircraft itself.[9]

Prior to demonstration for passenger airlines, the Dash 80 was fitted with Boeing's Flying Boom for aerial refueling which served
as a prototype for the KC-135 Stratotanker and its later derivatives.

The barrel roll

As part of the Dash 80's demonstration program, Bill Allen invited representatives of the Aircraft Industries Association (AIA) and International Air Transport Association
(IATA) to the Seattle's 1955 Seafair and Gold Cup Hydroplane Races held on Lake Washington on August 6, 1955. The Dash 80 was scheduled to perform a simple flyover, but
Boeing test pilot Alvin "Tex" Johnston instead performed two barrel rolls to show off the jet airliner.[10]

The next day, Allen summoned Johnston to his office and told him not to perform such a maneuver again, to which Johnston replied that he was simply "selling airplanes" and
asserted that doing so was completely safe.[11][N 1]

Boeing Chief Test Pilot John Cashman stated that just before he piloted the maiden flight of the Boeing 777 on June 12, 1994, his last instructions from then-Boeing President
Phil Condit were "No rolls."[12]

Use as an experimental aircraft

After the arrival of the first production 707 in 1957 the Dash 80 was adapted into a general experimental aircraft and used by Boeing to test a variety of new technologies and
systems. One of its most important tasks during the late 1950s was to test systems for the new Boeing 727, including the fitting of a fifth engine in the rear fuselage.[2] Other
tests included experiments with different airfoil shapes and a number of high lift devices such as blown flaps, in which compressed air bled from the engines is directed over
the flaps to increase lift during takeoff and landing.

Final flight
After 2,350 hours and 1,691 flights the aircraft was withdrawn from use in 1969 and placed in storage.[13] On May 26, 1972 Boeing
donated the 367-80 to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, which had designated it one of the 12 most significant aircraft of all
time.[13] For the next 18 years the aircraft was stored at a "desert boneyard" now called the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and
Regeneration Group (AMARG) at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base near Tucson, Arizona before being retrieved by Boeing in 1990 for
restoration. The Dash 80's final flight was to Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C. on August 27, 2003. Repainted to
its original yellow and brown Boeing livery, it was put on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, an annex of the Smithsonian
Boeing 367-80 at the Air and Space
Institution's National Air and Space Museum, located adjacent to Dulles Airport in Chantilly, Virginia.[14] Museum

Specifications (Boeing 367-80)

Data from Boeing Aircraft since 1916[15]

General characteristics

Crew: three
Length: 127 ft 10 in (38.964 m)
Wingspan: 129 ft 8 in (39.522 m)
Height: 38 ft (11.59 m)
Wing area: 2,400 ft² (223 m²)
Empty weight: 92,120 lb (41,870 kg)
Loaded weight: 190,000 lb (86,360 kg)
Powerplant: 4 × Pratt & Whitney JT3C turbojets, 10,000 lbf (44.5 kN) each
Performance

Maximum speed: 582 mph (506 knots, 937 km/h) at 25,000 ft (7,600 m)
Cruise speed: 550 mph (478 knots, 886 km/h)
Range: 3,530 mi (3,070 nmi, 5,683 km)
Service ceiling: 43,000 ft (13,110 m)
Rate of climb: 2,500 ft/min (12.7 m/s)

See also
Related development

Boeing RC-135
Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker
Boeing C-135 Stratolifter
Boeing C-137 Stratoliner
Boeing 707
Boeing 720
Boeing 727
Boeing 737

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era

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Convair 880
Douglas DC-8

References
Notes

1. The contention that the maneuver was dangerous was refuted by Johnston himself. "It's a one-g maneuver. It's absolutely nonhazardous, but it's very impressive,"
explained Johnston to Allen. Other big four-engine jet aircraft have since done barrel rolls.[10]

Citations

1. Irving 1994, p. 166.
2. "Boeing 367-80." (http://www.nasm.si.edu/collections/artifact.cfm?id=A19730272
000) National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, 2004. Retrieved:
February 22, 2007.
3. Irving 1994, pp. 167–169.
4. Irving 1994, p. 171.
5. "707 Family." (http://www.boeing.com/commercial/707family/) Archived (https://w
eb.archive.org/web/20070510175448/http://www.boeing.com/commercial/707fam
ily/) May 10, 2007, at the Wayback Machine. Boeing. Retrieved: April 3, 2010.
6. Thompson, R.G. "Dash 80 The story of the prototype 707." (http://www.airspace
mag.com/history-of-flight/Dash_80.html) Air & Space Magazine, May 1, 1987.
Retrieved: April 3, 2010.
7. Irving 1994, p. 173.
8. Irving 1994, p. 179.
9. Boeing's relationship with Walter Dorwin Teague has continued to the present
day.
10. "Video interview with Tex Johnston about barrel roll." (http://www.aviationexplore
r.com/707_roll_video.htm) aviationexplorer.com. Retrieved: April 3, 2010.
11. "It's Possible to Roll This Airplane." Flying Magazine, Vol. 135, No. 5, May 2008,
p. 48.
12. Wallace, James. "After 40 years at Boeing, chief test pilot John Cashman is
retiring." (http://www.seattlepi.com/business/299460_cashman12.html)
seattlepi.nwsource.com, January 12, 2007. Retrieved: April 4, 2009.
13. Pither 1998, p. 13.
14. Hanser, Kathleen and Claire Brown. "Historic Boeing Dash 80 Aircraft Makes
Final Flight to Dulles for Display at National Air and Space Museum's Companion
Facility, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center." (http://www.nasm.si.edu/events/press
room/releaseDetail.cfm?releaseID=52) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20
090407074157/http://www.nasm.si.edu/events/pressroom/releaseDetail.cfm?rele
aseID=52) 2009-04-07 at the Wayback Machine. Smithsonian Institution.
Retrieved: April 3, 2010.
15. Bowers 1989, p. 432.

Bibliography

Bowers, Peter M. Boeing aircraft since 1916. London: Putnam Aeronautical Books, 1989. ISBN 0-85177-804-6.
Irving, Clive. Wide Body: The Making of the Boeing 747. Philadelphia: Coronet, 1994. ISBN 0-340-59983-9.
Tony Pither. The Boeing 707 720 and C-135. Tonbridge, Kent, UK: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd, 1998. ISBN 0-85130-236-X
Wilson, Stewart. Airliners of the World. Fyshwick, Australia: Aerospace Publications Pty Ltd., 1999. ISBN 1-875671-44-7.

External links
Boeing 367-80 history on Boeing.com (http://www.boeing.com/history/products/model-367-80.page)
Boeing 707 family history (including 367-80) on Boeing.com (http://www.boeing.com/history/products/707.page)
[1] (https://images.google.com/hosted/life/3272e5b129a4c097.html) LIFE photo essay 'Boeing Jet Flight' test pilot Tex Johnston on a roll
Photo of the "Dash 80" with a 5th engine on the tail, as part of systems tests for the 727 program (http://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?2541-Boeing-7-s/page
4/)

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