The Bomber That Created a Bridge to Modern Airliners

Ride along on a ‘Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020’ journey in a Boeing 307 Stratoliner.

Patrick Chovanec

Friday, July 12, 2024 at 01:30 PM ET

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Edited By: tccjeremy

The Boeing 307 Stratoliner in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. [Courtesy: Patrick Chovanec]

Key Takeaways:

The Boeing 307 Stratoliner was a pioneering commercial airliner, notable as the first with a pressurized cabin, enabling it to fly at higher altitudes (up to 20,000 feet) for a smoother, more comfortable passenger experience, and shared much of its design with the B-17 bomber.
Despite offering unprecedented luxury and innovations like a dedicated flight engineer for its complex systems, only 10 Stratoliners were built due to high costs, maintenance challenges, and the intervention of World War II.
During WWII, TWA's Stratoliners were converted into C-75 military transports, playing a vital role in early transatlantic VIP and cargo flights before being superseded by more advanced aircraft post-war.
Ultimately, the Stratoliner's operational costs and the emergence of more efficient designs led to its obsolescence, with the remaining planes being sold off to international airlines and eventually retired, though one fuselage survives as "The Cosmic Muffin."

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Today in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, I’ll be flying the Boeing 307 Stratoliner, the first commercial airliner with a pressurized cabin that shared much of its DNA with the B-17 bomber.

In 1935, the major airlines in the U.S. had a problem. They had contributed $100,000 each for Douglas Aircraft to develop a four-engine successor to the two-engine DC-3. But it was clear that the new DC-4 had problems and would be delayed. So they dropped out of the program and TWA (Transcontinental & Western Air) approached Boeing Corp. to see if it could adapt its promising new B-17 bomber into a passenger plane.