Featured Map for 7 August 2015:
Tex Johnston's Boeing 367-80 Barrel Roll

Sixty years ago today, during Seattle's Seafair festival on Lake Washington where a large group of airline executives were gathered for an IATA conference, Boeing test pilot Alvin "Tex" Johnston flew a demonstration flight of Boeing's new Model 367-80 (the prototype of the Boeing 707) over the crowd of 250,000 people. Flying east after test flights over the Pacific Ocean and Olympic Peninsula, Johnston flew in at 450 mph and at just 300 feet, then began a 35° climb and performed a barrel roll, a maneuver which while impressive maintained a 1-G force aboard the aircraft. In case anyone had missed the spectacle, Johnston turned the aircraft west and performed another barrel roll for the crowd. Boeing president Bill Allen was reportedly furious, but the demonstration made a positive impression with airline executives.

No map today, just a photo taken by a Boeing Company engineer during one of the rolls, though if you must have a map see this map of Lake Washington and Renton. (Renton is where the $16-million 367-80 was assembled, and made its first flight on 15 July 1954.)

References and additional information:

• The Boeing Company
  • Boeing Historical Snapshot: Model 367-80
  • Boeing Historical Snapshot: 707/720 Commercial Transport
• Boeing 367-80 Jet Transport – Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
• Johnston, A.M. "Tex". Tex Johnston: Jet-Age Tet Pilot. Smithsonian Books: Washington, DC, 2000. ISBN 1-56098-931-9
• Serling, Robert J. Legend & Legacy: The Story of Boeing and Its People. St. Martin's Press: New York, NY, 1991. ISBN 0-312-05890-X
• Photo From First Boeing 707 During Tex Johnston's Legendary Barrel Roll – Airline Reporter (5 August 2011)
• Barrel Roll In A 707? History-Making Pilot Ends Silence – The Seattle Times (28 February 1990)
• Boeing 707 Barrel Roll - Pilot Tex Johnston Performs Roll In Dash-80 Prototype Aircraft In 1955 – YouTube
• Seattle Seafair
• International Air Transport Association (IATA)