From kls Sun Dec 21 17:01:27 1997 Newsgroups: sci.aeronautics.airliners,misc.transport.air-industry Path: bounce-back Date: 21 Dec 97 17:01:27 From: kls@ohare.Chicago.COM (Karl Swartz) Subject: Re: Boeing 720 References: Message-ID: Approved: kls@ohare.Chicago.COM Sender: kls@ohare.Chicago.COM Organization: Chicago Software Works, Menlo Park, California > But where did the terminal 7 come from? The 247D had it, and the >StratoCruiser and StratoLiner, but the big Flying Boat was 314. Was >it a surperstition that imposed it on all the jets (including 717) >except the 720? >From p. 123 of Legend and Legacy, subtitled The Story of Boeing and Its People, by Robert J. Serling: To date, all Boeing jetliners have been assigned numbers in the seven hundred series. Technically the 707 should have been called the 700 but 707 somehow sounded better -- maybe luckier -- and [Bill] Allen reportedly went along with Carl Cleveland's public relations depart- ment on this. Wellwood Beall wanted to call the airplace "Boeing 707 Jet Stratoliner," but Cleveland argued thjat such a lengthy name wouldn't fit any headline or story lead, and Boeing's advertising agency agreed with him. There never were any airplanes in the 500- 600 series; those numbers were assigned to missiles, pilotless aircraft, and other non-airplane products. So it was simply marketing. Once the 707 designation became entrenched in the public eye, continuing with designations with a similar ring was simply further marketing. (Try 708 -- it's far less pleasing than the symmetry of the 7x7 series.) -- Karl Swartz |Home kls@chicago.com |Work kls@netapp.com |WWW http://www.chicago.com/~kls/ "The average dog is a nicer person than the average person." - Andrew A. Rooney