Boeing 707 Douglas competition, Boeing soon realized this would not provide a viable payload, so it widened the fuselage to to allow five-abreast seating and use of the KC-135's tooling. Douglas Aircraft had launched its DC-8 with a fuselage width of . The airlines liked the extra space and six-abreast seating, so Boeing increased the 707's width again to compete, this time to . The first flight of the first-production 707-120 took place on December 20, 1957, and FAA certification followed on September 18, 1958. Both test pilots Joseph John "Tym" Tymczyszyn and James R. Gannett were awarded the first Iven C.
Air Zimbabwe 1967, Air Rhodesia inherited CAAC operations, as well as a fleet of Boeing, DC-3 and Viscount aircraft. It became the short-lived "Air Zimbabwe Rhodesia" in 1978, and finally "Air Zimbabwe" in April 1980 when the Republic of Zimbabwe was formed. Services connecting Harare with South Africa (Durban and Johannesburg) had been operated before the country gained its independence. Scheduled services began on to London-Gatwick. The company had leased a Boeing 707 from South African Airways until , when three Boeing 707-320Bs were bought from Lufthansa. That year, flights to Frankfurt were inaugurated. The airline recorded a ZWL 330,000 (£220,000) profit