Reddit reviews Road to the 707: The Inside Story of Designing the 707

I would recommend you check out Road to the 707 by Bill Cook, one of the designers of the 707. He details many of the major advances in early aviation that got us to the modern jetliner.

I don't have a copy in front of me, but some of the major ones are: moving the propeller to the front (instead of behind the pilot as the Wright Flyer had) and adding ailerons to help with turns (instead of wing warping and rudder deflection).

The book does a very thorough job, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

edit: completed a sentence.

Three books I really like:

• The road to the 707
  
  
• Joe Sutter's 747 book
  
  
• Boeing 777