Talk of 707 wing design also brings to mind a point made in that DC8 article linked above, where the writer states that as the DC8 didn't have quite the wing sweep of the 707, it didn't suffer to the same extent from the various aerodynamic issues that seemed to arise from this. And although not an aerodynamicist myself, it does seem that current generation models do not have the same amount of sweep that the 707 did. Could it be that Boeing put in a bit too much compared to the optimal ?
For example, the A321XLR, which seems to do pretty much what a 707 did in terms of size and range, has sweep of 25 degrees, compared to the 707 35 degrees.
Tax, Boeing and wind-tunnels:
As I understand it, the profit Boeing made from selling B-17s to the US government in WW2 was colossal as too was the tax due on those profits.
By investing in items like the wind-tunnels talked of here, R&D etc, it was able to write-off the costs against its tax bill.
That investment brought about the B47, the 367-80, the 707 and ultimately a few more magnificent aeroplanes.
Please could we have the old Boeing co. back but preferably without another WW to generate the profits to offset against tax to bolster R&D?
But that's pretty much (given that I do know a bit more about finance than aerodynamics) what governments all round look to encourage, and do, that instead of 'too much' profit, paid back to shareholders who often don't know how to spend it wisely, it instead gets spent on developing a successful business further, buying new capital equipment and thus stimulating the rest of the economy, and such like, for both the originating business and their suppliers of new capital equipment. As here.
It has been a point of discussion in recent times that whereas major businesses in the USA and principal European countries were offered this because they tended to spend on such items within their own country and economy, to the advantage of those who their government represents, nowadays such purchases are far more commonly imports from overseas, not giving the same advantage.