Boeing 707 First Flight; Jet Transport Leaps Into Air - Boeing Airplane Company's new 707 -- America's first jet transport -- is shown here as it climbed steeply away from the Renton (Wash.) Municipal Airport, after using only 2,100 feet of the 5,400-foot runway. The big four-jet prototype remained in the air one hour and 24 minutes before touching down at Seattle's Boeing Field, where it will now undergo a thorough testing and evaluation program. A private investment of more than $15 million by Boeing, the big jet will be used to demonstrate the potential of jet power for military tanker-transport use and its capabilities as an 80-to -130 -passenger, 550-miles-per-hour commercial transport. January 28, 1955.