Correct.  And it was done 60 years ago, in 1955, by Boeing test pilot Alvin “Tex” Johnston.

First, the craft was an early model test bed utilized prior to actual major line production.  Here, the craft taxis at Boeing Field, south of Seattle, at the Boeing plant.

Above, the aircraft flies over Puget Sound.

Finally, here is a one-in-a-million photograph, recently unearthed, of that same 707 in the midst of said barrel roll, taken from inside the aircraft.

The rest of the story:

Actually, the aircraft utilized for the barrel roll wasn’t strictly a 707, but what Boeing called a 367-80 or “Dash 80.”  And the clearest photo of the event came from inside the jet via the late Alan Terrell.

From Plane Talking:

Captain Terrell was a distinguished Qantas pilot and a former general manager of operations.

Shortly before he died in March this year he bequeathed the photo, possibly given to him by ‘Tex’ Johnston and shown at the bottom of the page, to his friend and aviation historian and author and former director of public relations for Qantas, Jim Eames, who has permitted this reproduction of an astonishing split second in commercial aviation history.

Another take on the story:

Amazing, simply amazing.

BZ