These are the coolest ‘60s airliners as voted for by readers of the Hush-Kit aviation site.
Prepare to meet some wild dream machines, including the Boeing 707 that brought The Beatles on their first trip to America in 1964 (pictured):
10: Potez 840
French aero engineering produced the marvellously appealing, seductively beautiful Potez 840, which first flew in 1961. It had a crew of three and a cabin that, by all rights, should have contained a lively total of eighteen stylishly dressed philosophers, jazz musicians and other bohemians.
Though technically an 18-passenger executive transport rather than an airliner, we’ll let the Potez 840 in, as it received enough votes, and a wider audience deserves a chance to appreciate this gem of French aircraft design.
10: Potez 840
From its graceful nose profile to its slim wings and sleek, understated engine nacelles, everything about the 840 was classy. This was a chance for the Potez name to return to its glory days, and indeed, in role, the 840 seemed a worthy successor to the Potez 56, a 1930s VIP transport, later used in the military crew trainer and liaison aircraft role.
It was offered with four Pratt & Whitney PT6A-6 or Turbomeca Astazou XII engines, and even as a military transport. But, this four-engine turboprop was clearly too cool for mass production, and less than ten planes were made. The final Potez remained a small elegant footnote in history.
9: Aviation Traders ATL.98 Carvair
Freddie Laker (1922-2006) was an astute businessman with an almost uncanny ability to spot, and act, on an opportunity. After the Second World War, he became a dealer of surplus military aircraft, which proved highly profitable during the Berlin Airlift.
He identified a need for a flying car ferry service and did this with the Bristol Type 170 Freighter. This aircraft was too limited in capacity, what was needed was something that could carry a greater number of cars.
9: Aviation Traders ATL.98 Carvair
Douglas DC-4s were cheap, plentiful, and the right length, so converting them to the tadpole-like shape of aircraft that could carry cars and passengers proved relatively straightforward. The aircraft received the name Carvair, a contraction of car-via-air.
This characterful aircraft found fame in the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger in which the villains Auric Goldfinger, his bodyguard Oddjob, and Goldfinger's Rolls-Royce Phantom use a Carvair. It also featured in an episode of the rather groovy TV series The Prisoner.
8: Boeing 707
The quintessential sixties airliner, and the aircraft that popularised jet travel, ushering in the true Jet Age, was the majestic Boeing 707. It was first flown in 1957 and entered service in 1958, both dates a year ahead of the rival Douglas DC-8.
The sleek, uncluttered Boeing 707 was a massive hit in the sixties. Though this four-engined long-haul airliner first flew in 1957, most of the 707 story takes place in the 1960s (and beyond). As we may be somewhat over-exposed to its appearance and its influence on later airliners, it is easy to forget its great beauty.
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