In 1955, test pilot Alvin “Tex” Johnston performed two barrel rolls during a demonstration flight of a Boeing Dash 80, the prototype of the large 707 airliner. Johnston awed witnesses, but his boss was not impressed: no one okayed the stunt and Johnston was ordered never to do it again. Twenty years later, the daring test pilot became director of the flight test department at Stanley Aviation, where he developed ejection seats.
Watch Johnston’s barrel rolls back in ’55…
