Sixty Years Ago, Tex Johnston Rolled the Dash 80

[kham]

Boeing 707 Barrel Roll - Pilot Tex Johnston Performs Roll In Dash-80 Prototype Aircraft In 1955

"Great Flying, Tex. Dont EVER fucking do it again!"

[Mynock]

This is why you obey the fasten seatbelts sign. That poor guy in the bathroom........

[kham]

Not only that

They were made of sterner stuff back then. Not just the pilots, that's a Captain Obvious sorta thing
But the Boeing Guys too; remember , this was the PROTOTYPE - If Tex screwed the pooch and augered in, not only would they lose their chief test pilot, but a fair number of the design team was on board too monitoring things. And of course, the airplane, worth millions.

Can you imagine the reaction of the legal beagle retards today if they saw this? They'd be in total body-flail-spaz mode

[dlodoski]

This is why you obey the fasten seatbelts sign. That poor guy in the bathroom........

Presuming the bathroom had no windows, anyone in there would have no idea it was happening.

The entire maneuver was done at 1G.

You could have been in your seat and pouring a cup of coffee for yourself and you would have been fine. Not spilling a drop.

[kham]

Looking UP at the ground without my ass strapped to an ejection seat, would be hard maintaining the cool

[DangerGirl]

I just wish people would quit calling it a "barrel roll," though.

[kham]

Yep
Even in the video here, Tex just called it a simple aileron roll People are dense

[Duncan Edwards]

Regardless, he rolled an aircraft that wasn't intended for such things. Not only was it the future of the Boeing company but civil AND military aviation as well. This was the jet tanker (KC-135) needed for the B-52 for which Boeing built hundreds. The world would have kept turning but a mysterious roll followed by a crash would have screwed up a lot of plans. Instead of that the world gets to see just how hot this rig really is.

[DangerGirl]

The dirty little secret is that you can aileron roll just about any airplane, and you can roll a number of helicopters, as well (in fact, I believe the first helicopter to roll, as well as loop, was the monstrous CH-53 Sea Stallion). As long as everything and every one is strapped down and you have enough airspeed and altitude, it's really pretty easy. Tex Johnson even rolled the B-52 in the simulator...twice. Tex just had the guts to do it in the Dash 8 at relatively low altitude in sight of everybody at the Gold Cup race, and it was the first time most people had ever seen an airplane that big to an aerobatic maneuver. Tex sure knew how to close a sale.

The 135 is still flying in several forms, and it's still a remarkable aircraft. The re-engined KC-135R could beat an F-4 in a climb from the surface to 10,000 feet.

[Mudbogz]

The dirty little secret is that you can aileron roll just about any airplane, and you can roll a number of helicopters, as well (in fact, I believe the first helicopter to roll, as well as loop, was the monstrous CH-53 Sea Stallion). As long as everything and every one is strapped down and you have enough airspeed and altitude, it's really pretty easy. Tex Johnson even rolled the B-52 in the simulator...twice. Tex just had the guts to do it in the Dash 8 at relatively low altitude in sight of everybody at the Gold Cup race, and it was the first time most people had ever seen an airplane that big to an aerobatic maneuver. Tex sure knew how to close a sale.

The 135 is still flying in several forms, and it's still a remarkable aircraft. The re-engined KC-135R could beat an F-4 in a climb from the surface to 10,000 feet.

First helicopter loop (documented) was the Sikorsky S-52 way back in 1949...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhRUGKa_ImY