Production go-ahead for the Dash 80, the prototype for the 707, was announced by Boeing Aug. 30, 1952, as a company-financed $16 million investment. The airplane rolled from the factory less than two years later, on May 14, 1954. Its first flight that July marked the 38th anniversary of The Boeing Company. The Dash 80 led to a revolution in air transportation. Although it never entered commercial service itself, it gave birth to the 707 series of jetliners. Much larger, faster and smoother than the propeller airplanes it was replacing, it quickly changed the face of international travel.