1st B707 service anniversary - today - 50 years ago !

[Mark C]

Today .... 50 years ago .... the B707 entered commercial airline service.

I've punched out a little illustrated review about both this event and the aircraft too .... see the following URL ....

http://tonymadgehjg.proboards98.com/ind ... 301&page=1

Enjoy !

Mark C
AKL/NZ & BOG CO

[Kevin Farnell]

Many thanks, Mark.

A fascinating article, with some wonderful screenshots.

I was never lucky enough to fly on a 707 myself. The nearest I came, was as a 10 year old when we flew to JFK from Gatwick, with Laker. As we walked down the pier towards the aircraft, both a Laker DC-10 and Boeing 720 were boarding at the same time. It wasn't until we got down the steps and onto the tarmac that we were directed to the aircraft. In this case, the DC-10.
I really wish I could have flown the DC-10 one way and the 720 the other.
Oh well......

Thanks again, and keep up the good work.

Regards

Kevin

[Garry Russell]

Hi Kevin

Laker Boeing 720???

I guess what you saw was a Laker Boeing 707-138 (short body). Might have been staging through New York on a Caribbean flight. They used them a lot on those routes

Garry

[Mark C]

I was never lucky enough to fly on a 707 myself. The nearest I came, was as a 10 year old when we flew to JFK from Gatwick, with Laker. As we walked down the pier towards the aircraft, both a Laker DC-10 and Boeing 720 were boarding at the same time. It wasn't until we got down the steps and onto the tarmac that we were directed to the aircraft. In this case, the DC-10.

I never got a chance to ride the B707 either :-(

At the age of 12 (1973) I flew aboard the DC10-30 (AIR NEW ZEALAND ZK-NZM) from AKL to MEL for the very first time .... alone !

AIR NEW ZEALAND only had 2 DC10's back then .... and they were both less than a year old at the time.

I was originally booked from fly back from MEL to AKL with QANTAS .... which would have put me on a B707-320C, but, I enjoyed my DC10 experience so much I managed to convice my family that we all had to come back to AKL with AIR NEW ZEALAND .... because of the DC10 .... only I got stuck with a DC8-52 the dasy we came back :o .... but .... I later decided I liked those even better

Years later .... until relatively recently .... I did my fair dash aboard DC10's with both AIR NEW ZEALAND and UTA.

I used to get boared in the main cabin and after a while and usually ended up passing away the remainder of my flights "UP FRONT" .... which often led to the innevitable invite to "STAY PUT" .... especially with the UTA crews.

Mark C :flying:
AKL/NZ & BOG/CO

[Lancman]

The 707 was the first American aircraft that I flew as a Flight Engineer. I moved across from the Nimrod and the difference in design philosophy was a real eye-opener to me; I thought that the Comet design was a miraculously beautiful piece of intricate machinery and found the 70' to be crude. For example, the Nimrod had loads of separate hydraulic systems (of various colours) and plenty of back-up hydraulics to lower the undercarriage if the primary (green?) system failed. In the 70' if your utility system failed you just manually pulled the up-locks off and the wheels fell down.

I sometimes wonder if the British mistake was to be in love with aeroplanes, whilst the Americans just saw them as a damn’ good way to make money.

[Mark C]

whilst the Americans just saw them as a damn’ good way to make money.

I reckon you just hit the nail right on the head buddy !!!!

I guess what you saw was a Laker Boeing 707-138 (short body).

I forgot to comment regarding this above ....

Garry is correct !

It would have been a B707-138B he saw, because LAKER picked up 1 or 2 of the short fuselage ex QANTAS aircraft, and later also acquired either 1 or 2 B707-320B/C's .... can't remember which. Both were operated by the VCARIBBEAN AIRWAYS division of LAKER and remained in service when Sir Freddie commenced his SKY TRAIN services with DC10-10's .... I think he also got a couple of DC10-30's later too if I recall correctly.

Mark C
AKL/NZ & BOG/CO

[Kevin Farnell]

Thanks for the correction, guys.

The 707 that I saw was on the ground at Gatwick in April 1974. I was only 10 at the time. We boarded DC-10-10 G-AZZD Western Belle outbound to JFK. I even got a flightdeck visit .
The return was on DC-10-10 G-AZZC Eastern Belle. Incedently, although these aircraft were series 10's, I believe that Laker had them upgraded with extra fuel tanks.
Laker did go on to operate series 30's.

Regards

Kevin

[Garry Russell]

Hard to tell the difference Kevin

The Laker 707-138 are often mislabelled 720 on the net.

The 707-138 was the same length as the 720 to within inches as it was a special shortened version built for QANTAS

Structally they were very different although some airlines marked the 720 as 707-020 as passengers knew the 707 but 720 meant nothing to them.

Garry

[Mark C]

some airlines marked the 720 as 707-020 as passengers knew the 707 but 720 meant nothing to them.

That's precisely what AMERICAN AIRLINES did in respect of their B720's.

I guess airlines today wouldn't even bother !

Mark C
AKL/NZ & BOG/CO

[Garry Russell]

There's nothing special about the modern aircraft, just another tube a bit more efficient and probably more cramped than the one before.

Then, of course, the 707 was the aircrraft the industry looked towards and it was in competiton with older types

So to call the 720 a 707 hit straight home with the public and saved the airline trying to explaint the 720 was a hot rod varition of the basic design and actually superior in peformance....so they were downrating it a bit

There was even a time when the DC6 was supreme, with it's pressurisation, some airlines painted rectangles arround the windows of their DC4's so they looked like DC6's...well they may have fooled some but I doubt many

Garry