Boeing |
B367-80 # |
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Photo: Robert Deering 10/23/2006 Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Dulles International Airport (IAD) Chantilly, Virginia |
The Boeing
367-80, known simply as the Dash 80, is an
American quadjet prototype built by Boeing to
demonstrate the advantages of jet
propulsion for commercial aviation. It served as basis
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 (equivalent to $152 million today) 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. Design and Developement
By the late 1940s two developments encouraged Boeing to
begin considering building a passenger jet.
In 1950 Boeing tentatively produced a specification for
a jet airliner dubbed the Model 473-60C. The
airlines were unconvinced because they had no experience
with jet transports and were enjoying success with piston
engined aircraft
such as the Douglas
DC-4, DC-6, Boeing
Stratocruiser and Lockheed
Constellation. Boeing was experienced at
selling to the military but had not enjoyed the same
success with civil airliners. This market was dominated
by Douglas which was adept at meeting the needs of
airlines by refining and developing its range of
propeller-driven aircraft, and in 1950 was marketing the
forthcoming DC-7. Boeing decided the only way to
overcome the airlines' suspicion of the jet – and of
itself – was to show them a completed aircraft.
Boeing had studied developments of its existing Model
367 (the KC-97
Stratofreighter)
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 (335 cm) 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 (366 cm) 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-inch-diameter (376 cm) 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 passenger
jet. This decision did not unduly delay the introduction
of the production model since the -80 had been largely
hand-built, using little production tooling. 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. 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. Boeing used the Dash 80 on
demonstration flights for airline executives and other
industry figures. These focused attention on the
question of what the cabin of a passenger jet should
look like. In a departure from its usual practice Boeing
hired industrial design firm Walter Dorwin Teague to
create a cabin as radical as the aircraft itself. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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
Institution's
National Air and Space Museum, located adjacent to Dulles
Airport in
Chantilly, Virginia. Source: Wikipedia |