LH707330 From United States of America, joined Jun 2012, 181 posts, RR: 0 Posted (9 months 2 weeks 3 days 4 hours ago) and read 3427 times:
I've done a few photo searches, but can't find a conclusive answer to this question. I know they removed the ventral fins when they changed the flaps to the -300C standard, but does anybody know in which year this occurred? For example, l/n 333 was delivered as D-ABOS in 1962 with the fin, and was re-registered as D-ABOV a few years later. By the 1970s, the fin was gone. I'm building a model in the 1960s straight-cheatline scheme, and would like to make sure I get the fin/no-fin right.
AeroWesty From United States of America, joined Oct 2004, 18839 posts, RR: 64 Reply 1, posted (9 months 2 weeks 3 days 4 hours ago) and read 3368 times:
Have you seen these resources? Interesting reading:
ADent From United States of America, joined Dec 2006, 1179 posts, RR: 1 Reply 4, posted (9 months 2 weeks 2 days 13 hours ago) and read 2541 times:
Not too many 707-330 in the photo database here. But all that you can see the tail clearly on show no ventral fin, but the oldest such photo is from the 70s.
You can see the small fin on the 707-230 photo from the 1961 and lot of 707-430 photos with the big fin - which kept it until at least 1977.
skipness1E From United Kingdom, joined Aug 2007, 2375 posts, RR: 0 Reply 6, posted (9 months 2 weeks 2 days 11 hours ago) and read 2346 times:
Sorry, pedant hat on again. The B707 series is 320B and 320C, not 300B/C.
Pan Am, the launch customer got 321s, 322s for United, 323 for American, 324 for Continental etc etc. Hence 707 series is B707-120, B707-020 better known as the B720 and the B707-320.
Viscount724 From Switzerland, joined Oct 2006, 21481 posts, RR: 24 Reply 7, posted (9 months 2 weeks 2 days 11 hours ago) and read 2236 times:
Quoting ADent (Reply 4): You can see the small fin on the 707-230 photo from the 1961 and lot of 707-430 photos with the big fin - which kept it until at least 1977.
The first photo is a 720B (720-030B), not a 707-230. All 720s and 720Bs were built with the fairly narrow ventral fin.
The 707-420 series (R-R-Conways) kept the ventral fin permanently as far as I know. No 707-320Cs had the ventral fin and later production -320Bs had the ventral fin deleted as it wasn't needed due to changes to the wing, flaps, slats etc.
LH707330 From United States of America, joined Jun 2012, 181 posts, RR: 0 Reply 10, posted (9 months 2 weeks 1 day 17 hours ago) and read 1775 times:
Quoting Viscount724 (Reply 7): No 707-320Cs had the ventral fin and later production -320Bs had the ventral fin deleted as it wasn't needed due to changes to the wing, flaps, slats etc.
Do you know in what time frame the fin was deleted?