you gotta love the 707

[Pat Carry]

www.rbogash.com/Boeing/707-is-60.html

[SaxMan]

Great article - It's not 100% accurate regarding the Boeing 314. There was a military follow-on, the Boeing PB-1, but it turned out to be quite unsatisfactory. So, the Navy agreed to drop production of the PB-1 so that the plant could be used to produce Boeing's new long range bomber -- the B-29.

Had the PB-1 been a success, the Navy may have been more reticent to turn over the production facilities and the B-29s production may have been delayed long enough to impact how World War II eventually ended. There probably still would have been an A-bomb, but only after an invasion of mainland Japan.

[JohnB]

From what I've read, written by Boeing engineer and aviation historian peter M. Bowers, technically the PB-1 was fine.
He asserts that after the Battle of Midway, the Navy decided it wanted land based patrol bombers instead of flying boats...so the PB-1 was dropped and aircraft like the PBJ and were bought instead.

[SaxMan]

Correction - it was the PBB-1 Sea Ranger, not a PB-1. The PB-1 was, of course, the Navy equivalent of the B-17.

A little more research on the topic indicates that John B's account is an accurate one. The PBB-1 was considered unnecessary with the advent of longer ranged land based patrol aircraft. It was quite a plane, though.

[daviemax]

Another point, that is the PBB-1 had a B-29-type wing and two R-3350 engines. Therefore it was quite dissimilar to the 314.

[Jerry O'Neill]

"...it can do everything but read."!!!!