Only one example was built, which has been retired and now preserved and is on public display at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia.

[1] The airlines were unconvinced[2] because they had no experience with jet transports and were enjoying success with piston engined aircraft such as the Douglas DC-4, DC-6, Boeing Stratocruiser and Lockheed Constellation.

By the time the Boeing company committed to production, the decision had been made to design the production model 707 as a six-abreast design, with a larger 148-inch-diameter (376 cm) fuselage, after C. R. Smith, CEO of American Airlines, told Boeing he wouldn't buy the 707 unless it was an inch wider than the then-proposed Douglas DC-8 passenger jet.

[6] Tex Johnston noted, "Months before the Comet's tragic vulnerability became known, Boeing engineers specified aluminum skin of a significantly thicker gauge.

In addition, they welded titanium 'tear stoppers' at frequent intervals inside the skin, including plug-type doors that sealed tighter as the cabin pressure differential increased at higher altitudes, switched to triple-strength round-corner windows, and used spot welds (instead of rivets) and a twenty-inch circumferential rib spacing.

[9] During a series of taxi trials the port landing gear collapsed on May 22; the damage was quickly repaired and the first flight occurred on July 15, 1954.

In a departure from its usual practice, Boeing hired industrial design firm Walter Dorwin Teague to create a cabin.

Prior to demonstration for passenger airlines, the Dash 80 was fitted with Boeing's Flying Boom for aerial refueling which served as a prototype for the KC-135 Stratotanker and its later derivatives.

"[13] After the arrival of the first production 707 in 1957, the Dash 80 was adapted into a general experimental aircraft and used by Boeing to test a variety of new technologies and systems.

[14] For the next 18 years, the aircraft was stored at a "desert boneyard" now called the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base near Tucson, Arizona, before being retrieved by Boeing in 1990 for restoration.