Boeing

Fifty years ago today, the Boeing Model 367-80 completed its first flight, helping usher commercial aviation into the jet age. Known as the Dash 80, the airplane is shown taking off on that flight from Renton Field in Renton, WA. Boeing initially used the Dash 80 to demonstrate the performance advantages jet engines offered over the propeller-driven engines that were standard at the time. It's considered one of history's most important airplanes, and is displayed at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum outside Washington, D.C.