[Fred Hayek]

All this reminds me of when Tex Johnson did a one-gee barrel roll with the 707 prototype in front of a demo crowd. Thus we had the KC/EC/RC-135's and the VC-137.

[Spktyr]

All this reminds me of when Tex Johnson did a one-gee barrel roll with the 707 prototype in front of a demo crowd.

Here's a clip. You may have to right click on it and save it to your desktop to get it to play - and it's 21+MB.

707 Barrel/Aileron Roll

You can't do this in an Airbus; the computer will not let you. (Some of the AA guys have tried it, from what I've heard.)

[Prophet in the wilderness]

Yes,, I saw that on the History Channel.
The Boeing execs were about to fire him for doing that, but, the top execs from the airlines saw him do that barrel roll ( let's see them do that with a AirRUST ) and then, they all wanted the plane, and the Boeing execs saw that, and changed their minds to fire Tex Johnson.
I think, Tex Johnson's son was also there that day when he did that.
Just imagine ? your dad doing that, and saying " yupppp,,, that's my dad " .
The actual DASH - 80 prototype that Tex Johnson flew that day and did that barrel roll is at the AIR&SPACE Museum near Dulles Air Port near Washington D.C. ,,,, I got to see the very DASH - 80 Boeing Jet that TEX flew. Hey ? a SR - 71 Blackbird is there also, so cool to look at. It looks fast just sitting there.