It is called the “Dash 80.” Boeing had risked $16,000,000 in a private venture to build the Dash 80 in order to demonstrate its capabilities to potential civilian and military customers, while rivals Douglas and Lockheed were marketing their own un-built jet airliners. Although the Dash 80 was strictly a prototype, it was designed so that a production version (the 707) would have enough range capability to cross the North Atlantic (New York to London). After the launch of the De Havilland Comet, Boeing saw that the future of commercial air was not with piston-powered aircraft but, in fact, with jet engines. Photo: Boeing Dreamscape via Wikipedia What are the details? The race was on. It soon became known as simply the Dash 80.

On Oct. 14, Pan Am ordered 20 707s.

2 Boeing designed and built the Dash 80 in secret. Boeing salespeople directed their efforts to Pan American World Airways, Trans World Airlines and large European airlines. The Dash-80 in original Boeing livery. It flew in 1954. At the same time, Pan Am ordered 25 DC-8s. In 1972, the Dash 80 became part of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum collection. Cutaway scale model of the Boeing 367-80 showing interior arrangement. Boeing got hard to work and, in 1950, designed a plane that would be known as Model 473-60C and pitched it to airlines.