Clipper Stargazer by Mike Machat

In 1959, the Boeing Aircraft Company responded to a Pan American World Airways request for a larger, long-range version of the original 707 jetliner. This improved version - the "Intercontinental" Model 320 - weighed 168 tons at takeoff and could carry 180 passengers over routes of up to 4,000 miles nonstop. Mike Machat's painting depicts Pan Am's Boeing B707-320B in its historic inaugural airline service between New York and Moscow on July 15, 1968. Contrails on the horizon are those of an Aeroflot Il-62 flying the reciprocal service from Moscow to New York, an event attended by the artist at JFK Airport.