Crash boats are standing by off Mercer Island!” “All airports in vicinity of Seattle are closed to normal traffic!” “Rescue helicopter now on patrol off Seward Park!” “Fire fighters standing by!”
“Your chase plane is airborne!”
Reports like these were part of the preflight preparations in July 1954, when copilot “Dix” Loesch and A. M. “Tex” Johnston Chief of Flight Test, Boeing prepared to streak down the concrete runway at Renton Airport and lift the prototype of America's first jetliner into the air on its initial test flight.
Boeing's T07 “Jet Stratotanker-Stratoliner” is considered the safest passenger transport ever built, yet Dix and Tex were happy about the elaborate precautions to rescue them if anything went wrong. All their recent preflight and ground tests had been perfect. They were expecting a normal routine ride on the first flight, but there's always a chance that the unexpected can happen.
And the unexpected did happen during an early taxi test. A landing gear strut unexpectedly folded up. The plane skidded along the runway on one wing for a few feet and the whole test program was delayed during repairs.
For the first flight test, it was comforting to know that the crash boats carried diagrams of the fuselage with “Chop Here” information, and that fire fighters were standing by even though they wouldn't need their help. They had landing priority at any airport within 50 miles and, as a final precaution, were wearing parachutes.
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