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 pioneered commercial air travel as the first airliner with a pressurized cabin, enabling higher-altitude flights (around 20,000 ft) for smoother, faster journeys and enhanced passenger comfort.
Derived from the B-17 bomber, it offered luxurious amenities but faced significant commercial challenges due to its high cost, complex maintenance, and limited operational range, resulting in a production run of only 10 aircraft.
During WWII, Stratoliners were repurposed as C-75 military transports for critical trans-Atlantic missions, but post-war, they were quickly outclassed by newer, more efficient airliners, leading to their rapid obsolescence and eventual retirement.

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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.