Travellers' Checks | 60 years of the Boeing 707 – the plane that changed the world

The most successful of the first-generation of jet airliners, the Boeing 707 entered commercial service almost 60 years ago, in October 1958, with a flight from New York to Paris. The launch airline was Pan Am, which would bring the first 707s to Hong Kong, in 1960.

The British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) followed suit later that year, and both were soon offering Hong Kong travellers long-haul, multi-stop, single-plane routes around the world. Pan Am, for example, flew west to New York via Bangkok, Delhi, Karachi or Tehran, Beirut, Istanbul, Frankfurt and London, while BOAC flew east to London, the long way round, via Tokyo, Honolulu, San Francisco and New York.

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Passengers could enjoy such in-flight comforts as mood lighting, which changed to reflect the time of day, cocktail lounges, powder rooms, some of the first in-flight movies, and “scenes of living-room-quiet and relax­ation”, according to the short Pan Am film 6 ½ Magic Hours (1958).

To mark the 60th anniversary of the 707’s first commercial flight, British publisher Haynes has released the Boeing 707 Owners’ Workshop Manual. Similar in design to its long-running series of car and motorcycle DIY repair manuals, this volume joins several other commercial aircraft reference books that began with Boeing 747 and Empire Flying Boat editions a few years ago.

Containing plenty of technical detail, as well as develop­ment background and operational history, these substantial manuals are more likely to be found on coffee tables than in hangars, and will please plane spotters as much as aircraft engineers.