How the Boeing 707 Jet, the Bell X-1 and the NASA Mercury Capsule Essay

How the Boeing 707 Jet, the Bell X-1 and the NASA Mercury Capsule Friendship Seven Changed Aviation - Essay Example This paper aims to explain the contributions of some innovations in the aviation industry that became cornerstones of overcoming the physical limitations of man during the early 19th century. This paper also aims to discuss the positive and negative effects of aviation in America for the past seventy years, specifically starting from 1942 to the present time. According to Lombardi (8), the Boeing 707 took its first flight in Renton, Washington on the afternoon of December 20, 1957. It tool Boeing five years to be able reach the point of being able to showcase their first jet powered aircraft, that was later referred by historians as the start of the Jet Age. At exactly 12:30 pm that afternoon that day, Boeing decided to continue their first test flight of the Boeing 707. However, the weather conditions suddenly changed against the flight and officials had to abort the initial test that lasted only for 7 long minutes in the air. It was not enough, though, to claim that their design wa s truly a success since they needed a test flight that would last a full 30 minutes airborne. As the weather cleared, Boeing had decided to continue the test flight and that marked a historic day in aviation history with Boeing 707 being able lift-off, remain airborne for 71 minutes, and land back safely to the tarmac. The US government gave its full support on the achievement of Boeing and this led to a massive advertising campaign directed to the public that provided them information about the comfort and safety of travelling on jet liners. Boeing 707 and its other models that are technically similar to the design and concepts applied in the pioneer prototype aircraft, the 707-80 or commonly known as the Dash 80 jet transport prototype, have been mainly utilized for two operations – commercial flights for passenger transport and military services (9). In 1958, where Boeing 707 started its early days of operation, people who could afford to travel by air flew in slow, piston -powered transportations or Propliners. This mode of transportation was limited at that to a few dozen of passengers and shorter range flights, which was very costly at that time that not all Americans had the luxury to travel to other countries and even among other states via air travel. Mostly travelled by train for interstate travel, and transatlantic travels were carried out by large shipping vessels. However, in just a short span of two years, Boeing was able to dominate passenger air transport over travel by land and sea, this occurred during the 60s and have remained the same throughout the 70s (9). The compelling factor of the success of Boeing 707 is that the design of the aircraft can carry more passengers as compared to other aircrafts during the 60s and it allowed longer range flights, this led to reduced cost for travelling by air. It also allowed transcontinental and inter-continental travels safer, faster, and easier. Within the service lifetime of Boeing 707 from 195 8 to 1979, 1,010 aircrafts were built with a large percentage of it used for the military. Boeing also provided the Air Force with stronger air supremacy by developing aircrafts specifically modified to carry out a certain function for the needs of the air force. It was also used as Air Force One that transports the President of America to any point in the world (9). With the success of the Boeing 707 in changing the way of how commercial