American Airlines Launches Jet Age: First Boeing 707
American Airlines Flight 1 departed Los Angeles International Airport on January 25, 1959, carrying 112 passengers on the first scheduled transcontinental Boeing 707 service in the United States. The four-engine jet covered the distance to New York in just over four and a half hours, slashing the propeller-driven DC-7's ten-hour crossing time by more than half. Ticket prices initially matched first-class rail fares, but competition among airlines quickly drove costs down. Within five years, more Americans crossed the Atlantic by air than by sea for the first time in history. The 707 made Pan Am, TWA, and American Airlines into household names and turned airports from regional curiosities into the busiest transportation hubs in the country. Boeing's gamble on the commercial jet age paid off so spectacularly that Douglas Aircraft, which had dominated the propeller era, never recovered its market lead.
January 25, 1959
67 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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