Fifty-three years ago today, on the evening of October 26th 1958, crowds gathered to witness history, the first Boeing 707-121 commercial passenger flight. Pan Am’s “Clipper America” (N709PA) flew from Pan Am’s Wordport, at New York’s Idlewild Airport to Paris’ Le Bourget Airport with 11 crewmembers and 111 passengers for eight-and-a-half hours. The Boeing 707’s four roaring Pratt & Whitney JT3D engines taking to the sky, leaving a trail of black smoke in their wake, ushered in the modern jet age.
Today Boeing made aviation history again and a similar scene took shape at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport. Today crowds gathered at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport for the first commercial flight of the long awaited Boeing 787-881, operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA). ANA Flight 7871, powered by two Rolls Royce Trent 1000 Engines, lifted off for a roughly four hour flight to Hong Kong International Airport … with the Boeing 787 ushering in the age of composite commercial aircraft.
They say history repeats itself … well for Boeing history has repeated itself again on the 26th of October.