1958 - Transportation

Transportation

The Boeing 707 goes into service to challenge the de Havilland Comet for leadership in the jet aircraft industry (see Comet 1, 1953). The first U.S.-built commercial jet, the 707 uses an engine based on one designed by engineer Leonard S. Hobbs, 62, and it beats out Douglas, which will not have its DC-8 in service until next year, and Consolidated-Vultee, whose Convair 880 will not start flying until 1960. Lockheed has stuck with its Electra turboprop propeller jet and loses out in the race as pure jets begin to make other planes obsolete.

Aircraft designer Ernst H. Heinkel dies at Stuttgart January 30 at age 70 (he fell out of favor with the Nazis late in the war and has been producing bicycles, motorbikes, and midget automobiles since 1950); aviation pioneer Henri Farman dies at Paris July 18 at age 84.

Northwest Airlines obtains a route between the Midwest and Florida (see 1945). It will begin service to the Benelux countries in 1979 and to London in 1980 (see 1982).

Gen. Curtis LeMay, U.S. Air Force, flies a converted KC-135 7,100 miles non-stop from Tokyo to Andrews Air Force Base September 12 in 12 hours, 28 minutes—a new record.

Two BOAC de Havilland Comet 4s complete the first commercial transatlantic jet flights October 4, landing in well under 6 hours (see Comet 1, 1953), the 110-passenger Comet 4 is far better than the Comet 1, but the crashes in 1953 and 1954 have damaged de Havilland's reputation. Only 15 airlines will use it, and production of Comets will end in 1962. The Pan American World Airways Boeing 707 Clipper America flies from New York to Paris October 26, serving food from Maxim's, carrying 111 passengers who include actress Greer Garson, and reducing transatlantic flying time by one half. By the end of next year airlines will be carrying 63 percent of all cross-Atlantic traffic—more than 1.5 million air passengers versus 881,894 sea passengers, and by 1974 jets will account for more than 90 percent of hours flown worldwide, but European companies will continue to launch new passenger liners.

The first domestic U.S. 707 flight takes off December 10. National Airlines has rented two of the big Boeing jets from Pan Am for the winter season in a bid to take business away from Eastern.

The Matson Line's Hawaiian Merchant leaves San Francisco for Honolulu August 31 with 75 containers on her deck, each measuring 24 by 8.5 by eight feet (7.3 x 2.5 x 2.4 meters) (see McLean, 1956). Container-ship pioneer Malcolm McLean will change the name of his company to Sea-Land Service Inc. and convert more of his fleet to container ships; Matson and Sea-Land will both install special gantry cranes for quick and efficient shore-based handling of containers, cranes aboard ships will become unnecessary, and eventually it will be possible for one man operating a gantry to handle about 30 containers per hour (but see 1966).

The Super Cub introduced by Honda is a motorcycle with an automatic clutch and plastic covers (see 1948). Rugged and economical (it gets about 140 miles per gallon), it has a 50 cc. engine that produces 4.5 horsepower, is easy for women to drive, will be sold in Vietnam under the name Dream and under various other names elsewhere as it becomes the world's bestselling vehicle (production will reach 100,000 per month by 1961 and within 40 years it will have sold more than 30 million units in countries that will include Brazil, Burma, India, Indonesia, Japan, and Thailand).

London gets its first parking meters.

Budget Rent-a-Car is founded by Detroit-born salesman-entrepreneur Jules W. Lederer, 41, who undercuts the competition by renting cars at $5 per day and 5¢ per mile; he will pioneer in franchising the Budget name, open offices outside of airports to keep costs low, sell the company in 1968 to San Francisco-based Transamerica Corp., and move to London in the early 1970s.

Automotive pioneer Charles F. Kettering dies at his native Loudonville, Ohio, November 25 at age 82.