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Boeing 707 Barrel Roll - Pilot Tex Johnston Performs Roll In Dash-80 Prototype Aircraft In 1955

Boeing 707 Barrel Roll - Pilot Tex Johnston Performs Roll In Dash-80 Prototype Aircraft In 1955

Aviation Explorer
0 HN recommenders · discussed 2012–2023
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About this video

Archival footage of Boeing test pilot Tex Johnston barrel-rolling the 707 prototype, the Dash-80, over Lake Washington in 1955 during a demonstration.

Why it appears in the archive

Cited as proof that a large jet airliner can safely do a barrel roll and as a famous test-pilot stunt.

AI-generated summary and labels from the source dataset; verify important details against the video. Source & credits.

From the Hacker News discussion

pedrocr · 2012-12 · reference

Barrel rolls are low G maneuvers so properly executed they shouldn't cause any of those things. My memory had the barrel roll as a 1G maneuver but wikipedia tells me it gets up to 2-3g (probably to enter/exit the maneuver). Were you thinking of an aileron roll? I mean, if a 707 could do it safely in 1955[1] modern airliners should do just fine. (not that I support routine barrel rolls on airliners...) [1] [VIDEO]

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cpncrunch · 2015-08 · reference

[VIDEO] See around 1:56. No significant heading or pitch changes that I can see, although it is difficult to tell because the camera is so far away.

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rl3 · 2018-08 · reference

> Who else can ever say they did a freaking barrel roll in a commercial airliner. Tex Johnston for one: [VIDEO]

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fsckboy · 2023-02 · reference

there's film of Tex Johnston's Dash-80 barrel roll [VIDEO] many years later, Boeing Chief Test Pilot John Cashman stated that just before he piloted the maiden flight of the Boeing 777 on Jun. 12, 1994, his last instructions from then Boeing President Phil Condit were “No rolls”. -- anecdote from [LINK] I wonder why "the suits" at Boeing are so against the barrel rolls? The pilots all agree it's not that big a deal, not dangerous, and anybody watching is going to love it. this article [LINK] says that the bigger the plane, the more dangerous because it will roll more slowly, and during parts of the roll particularly 90 degrees off "flat" there is no lift and you're going to be falling. I'm reminded of the tragic crash of a B-52 illustrating a similar circumstance, and this was the pilot's last flight before retiring [LINK]

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