MAC Forum

Something tells me this is largely based on the Dash-80 prototype...



Compare with this AeroMini 707...



You can see there's no ventral stabiliser or high-gain antennae and the engines are turbojets not fans. Also shorter than the Pan Am 'Intercontinental' represented by the AeroMini model



Sidled up to my Convair 880 model. I recall reading a story about a 707 departing a half-hour ahead of a Convair-880. Some time later in the flight, the captain of the 880 announced that if passengers would look out the window, they could watch the 707 being overtaken....

My Dubena fleet just keeps growing!

L->R DeHavilland Comet - Boeing 707 - Convair 880 - Douglas DC-7

MAYBE ... but the 707 sure "overtook" the 880 in sales and longevity!

Your Dubena kit, though apparently based on a Dash Eighty, is still more accurate than the Tootsie 707 !

Tone wrote:MAYBE ... but the 707 sure "overtook" the 880 in sales and longevity!

Yeah, but the DC-8 has outlived the two of 'em combined. UPS only just recently retired their fleet and you just know they'll likely wind up down in South America flying air cargo for a couple more decades...

That looks like an early 707-320 with the short tail, turbojet engines, and longer wing. Not a -80, but that would have been nice!
One must remember that the DC-8 was a larger airplane to start with and had "growth" built into it. One must also remember that the USAF bought up most of the 707 fleets in the US in order to upgrade their KC-135 fleet to "E" standards: TF-33 engines, vertical fin and stabilizers.
That took a huge number of "local" 707s out of the secondary market. Except for the odd plane, the DC-8 didn't see any military service.
However, the 707 continued to be produced and the last one rolled off the line in 1991, well after the DC-8 was discontinued.
The CV880 (and 990) were good lookin' airplanes, but not market contenders. It's speed advantage was overcome by the B720, to say nothing of their economy. Convair was bxxxfxxxed by Howard Hughes to the extent that they lost a boat load of money (the biggest loss by any US corporation up to that time) and killed them as an airplane builder. They just simply called the market wrong, as did Lockheed - twice!
My recollections are that the pilots loved them, but the mechanics hated them! Service stats were bad, with lots of cancellations for mech problems. I remember flying on the Delta 880 and just loving it!
And who can forget that lovely - and excellent! - Hawk kit of the CV880 from about 1960? That set many a kids heart to flutter! To finish that off, soon after that Revell issued their excellent CV990 model...another sexy airplane! Today things are truly all about "air buses"...
I'll get my Dubena out and take a closer look at the 707...the quality varies in the line as we have discussed, and I don't remember their 707 to be very attractive.

MichaelB wrote:And who can forget that lovely - and excellent! - Hawk kit of the CV880 from about 1960? That set many a kids heart to flutter!

Glencoe reissued that kit and plenty are available on eBay. Quality control at Glencoe isn't so hot but I do have four of them on display.

Interesting to compare the Dubena 707 & CV-880. The 707 is a very cursory model detail-wise while the CV-880 has plate and rivet marks. Neither gets the cockpit window right but it's worse on the CV-880. The 707 does have the J.A.T. cheat line inscribed on the model - presumably as a guide to painting it.

Still it's nice to have these plane to go with my 1:250-ish scale collection of AeroMini jetliners.

you guys know your airplanes much better than I do, but I recall that the 757 was able to be manufactured economically because it used the same fuselage jigs as the 707? So in a sense the 707 lives on with the 757, right?

Nothing beats the original issue! ...unless it's the NE issue of same!
We should be thankful to Glencoe for the reissue...it's a classic kit. Glencoe is almost a one man outfit, and he (Nick) has returned many of these wonderful old kits for us to build.

707=757??
The 757 was designed to replace the 727 and shares many of it's important dimensions, but is fundamentally different. The 757 is round, while the 707,727 and 737 all have "double bubble" fuselages - like the Stratocruiser!
In passenger capacity, range and etc, the 757 does "replace" the 707. Remember, AA painted one of it's 757 in their 707 delivery scheme. Now it has come to pass that the 737-800 and -900 replace BOTH of them!
The 707, 727 and 737 all share the same "profile", but the fuselage depth changes. Gotta love that classic "Boeing" nose...
MJB