Boeing 417, a fascinating note in aviation history

Americans were returning home and bringing with them the desire to spend money on goods and services, as well as the ability to manufacture them. Most aircraft manufacturers took an optimistic approach to the impending economic recovery and wasted no time in designing new planes. Their designs ranged from small single-engine GA aircraft like the Navion to large transports like the Boeing 417, seen here.

The industry learned many lessons from ramping up warplane production at an unprecedented pace and was well prepared to hit the ground running. To design and launch a new aircraft, manufacturers generally only needed approval from senior management and a customer base willing to purchase the new product.

Boeing took a new look at the travel needs of a post-war population and identified the need for a smaller airliner to serve regional routes. In 1946, it created the 417, an 18,365-pound, twin-engine airplane designed to carry 20 to 24 passengers at speeds of 200 mph. Although the 417 will never leave the drawing board, it is a fascinating footnote in Boeing’s history.

Boeing clearly took inspiration from the 377 Stratocruiser when designing the nose and tail, and one wonders how much of this was driven by marketing versus engineering. This design may have been chosen to accommodate pressurization, but the square passenger windows suggest that the 417 was intended to fly without it. It is possible that Boeing wanted to future-proof the aircraft to a certain extent, by facilitating the potential adaptation of pressurization in later versions.

Boeing chose the 800 hp Wright Cyclone C7BA1, essentially the same powerplant as the R-1300 used by the North American T-28 Trojan jet trainer.

If this overall design looks familiar, it could be attributed to the similar design of the Douglas DC-5.

The DC-5 featured almost identical engines, weights and dimensions to the Boeing, but differed in that 12 examples were built and flown, with the first flight taking place before World War II in 1939.

The Boeing seemed more advanced than the DC-5, but the performance numbers matched almost exactly except for the 417’s short-field performance, which was particularly optimistic. The 417 would have required only 1,200 feet to clear a 50-foot obstacle and 1,735 feet performed very impressively for its size and weight.

The performance offered in the field was equally impressive, with features claimed to enable turnaround times of six minutes or less.

Boeing claimed that this goal was achievable due to the aircraft’s independence from ground equipment. The stairway door allowed boarding without the need for separate stairs, and the height of the cargo hold floor matched the height of the truck platforms, eliminating the need for ramps or freight elevators. In this diagram we see the aircraft being refueled with the right engine running as cargo is loaded and passengers begin to board.

Introducing the concept to potential customers like Pan Am was one thing. Boeing also released data and artist renderings to the media, and these were featured prominently on magazine covers.

Historically, this has not been a very common decision for Boeing’s marketing department. However, attempting to garner support and demand from the general public is a tactic they have sometimes employed, as evidenced by the Sonic Cruiser concept. Boeing even ran its own advertisements in various publications.

Boeing secured at least one order for the 417 when Empire Airlines ordered three of them to replace their Boeing 247s. In the September 1946 issue of Boeing Magazinethe 417 would offer a 57% higher load factor than the 247D, promising greater profitability with fewer seats occupied.

At the time that Boeing presented the 417 to its customers, Convair was doing the same with its 107, but without such a significant marketing and promotional effort.

Although both concepts were forward-thinking solutions for shorter, lower-capacity routes, their roles would ultimately be filled by the glut of surplus aircraft from the war effort, namely the DC-3, which offered similar performance for pennies on the dollar.

As is typically the case in the airline industry, profitability proved to be the top priority, and in the end, these cheap old sleds just couldn’t be beat.