But 60 years ago, on Aug. 7, 1955, Boeing’s chief of flight testing, the legendary Alvin “Tex” Johnston, pulled an impressive stunt in the proto

60 years ago: The famous Boeing 707 prototype barrel roll over Lake Washington

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2021-07-15 18:30:05

But 60 years ago, on Aug. 7, 1955, Boeing’s chief of flight testing, the legendary Alvin “Tex” Johnston, pulled an impressive stunt in the prototype of the Boeing 707.

But that afternoon, over Lake Washington, with a crowd of 250,000 attending the Gold Cup hydro races and airline executives from around the world (who were in Seattle for an annual meeting) in attendance, Johnston didn’t just do a flyover.

It was he who had pushed the firm’s board of directors to invest $16 million ($144 million in today’s dollars) into the prototype. That represented nearly all the profit Boeing had made since the end of World War II.

After the second barrel roll, Allen thought either Johnston had lost his mind or something had gone wrong. He turned to Larry Bell, of Bell Aircraft, who had a heart condition that required meds, and said, “Give me one of those damned pills. I need it worse than you do.”

Allen had reason to be concerned. Selling the passenger jet wasn’t easy. Airlines were still paying for their piston-engine planes, and they also thought consumers would be leery of aircraft without propellers.