Pressurized Boeing airliner first flew 75 years ago

The Boeing Model 307 Stratoliner in flight. The Boeing Model 307 Stratoliner in flight. Photo: Time Life Pictures, Time & Life Pictures/Getty Image Photo: Time Life Pictures, Time & Life Pictures/Getty Image Image 1 of / 17 Caption Close Pressurized Boeing airliner first flew 75 years ago 1 / 17 Back to Gallery

If you were to breathe the outside air when cruising along in an airliner at 30,000 feet, well, you wouldn't be breathing for long. That's why the cabin is "pressurized."

And 75 years ago, on Dec. 31 1938, Boeing test pilot Eddie Allen conducted the first flight of the Model 307 Stratoliner, which became the first pressurized commercial transport to enter service.

The Stratoliner cruised at 20,000 feet, carrying 33 passengers and five crew members. It was the first airplane to have a flight engineer, who "was responsible for maintaining power settings, pressurization and other subsystems, leaving the pilot free to concentrate on other aspects of flying the aircraft," according to a Boeing writeup.

It was "affectionately dubbed 'the flying whale' for its portly lines," according to HistoryLink.org.

Boeing built just 10 Stratoliners before the onset of World War II halted production. The Army Transport Command drafted five of the aircraft into service as C-75 military transports.

Multimillionnaire aviator Howard Hughes bought one of the 10 Stratoliners and tricked out his "flying penthouse" with a master bedroom, two bathrooms, a galley, a bar and a large living room, according to Boeing.

In 1964, a hurricane severely damaged Hughes' Stratoliner. Five years later, a Texas oil millionaire bought it as scrap for $61.99, mounted the fuselage on a boat hull and converted it into a luxury yacht, according to HistoryLink and Boeing.

The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum bought the last remaining Stratoliner, the Flying Cloud, in 1969, then parked it in the Arizona desert for 20 years before sending it to Boeing in Seattle for restoration. In 2003, the Smithsonian flew the aircraft east and put it on display it in its new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington, D.C.'s Dulles International Airport.

Click through the gallery above to relive this history of the Stratoliner in pictures.

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