Posts in the category "Boeing":

Here are some fun photos from a day spent at Boeing’s Everett campus, learning about and touring the 787 Dreamliner and wandering around the 787 factory floor in preparation for Monday’s long-awaited delivery celebration for the first Dreamliner delivery to ANA.

A bit mystifying... No smoking, yet the FAA requires an ashtray.

787 Dreamliner cockpit

More 787s in the pipeline at Boeing factory in Everett

Saving money? Note masking tape fix to turn 777 to 787.

Categories: Airlines, Airplanes, aviation, Boeing, Boeing 787 Dreamliner
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If you’re in the Seattle area today (Friday, August 6, 2010) and can skip work for a while, please join me at the Future of Flight Aviation Center – co-located with the Boeing Tour – in Mukilteo, about 30 miles north of Seattle.

The big attraction there, of course, is the tour of the Boeing airplane plant and the interactive displays in the Future of Flight center, but I’ll be there today as well, chatting with visitors about some of the offbeat and iconic Washington State places in my Washington Curiosities and Washington Icons books.

I’m bringing along photos of some of my favorite Northwest things – including the World’s Largest Egg, the Aeroplane, and the drive-through stump – and the Future of Flight store has scheduled an all-day wine-tasting event (with serious discounts on some Washington Wines) so it could turn into quite a party.

Details: 10 am – 3:30 pm at the  Future of Flight Aviation Center. (Directions)

See you there!

Categories: Boeing, Boeing 787 Dreamliner, Events
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I’ve been touring Spokane, WA and the surrounding countryside this week in search of unusual people, places and events to include in the 3rd edition of Washington Curiosities, one of the books I write for Globe Pequot Press.

The week will end with a visit to Felts Field to meet Addison Pemberton, who found and rebuilt (with the help of more than 60 people) the oldest Boeing airplane still flying.

I’ll report back on my visit with Pemberton and his airplane, but in the meantime, take a look at my new Spokane buddy. I found him while touring Marvin Carr’s One of a kind in the world museum, which is filled with wonders ranging from the oldest typewriter in the world to a taxidermied giraffe and Elvis Presley’s 1973 Lincoln Mark IV.

Categories: Air Travel, Airplanes, aviation, Aviation history, Boeing, Exhibits, Fun Stuff, Museums
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I had a chance to tag along with 8-year old Harry Winsor, his brother Charlie and their parents today on a VIP visit to the Future of Flight Aviation Center and the Boeing Factory Tour in Mukilteo,Wa.

Harry and his family were getting the royal treatment in part to make up for the fact that, back in March, Boeing sent young Harry a terse form letter in response to his letter containing a picture of a jet airplane he’d designed.

The form letter, which Harry’s dad, John, posted on his blog, said the giant aerospace company does not accept unsolicited ideas and so disposed of his “message” and “retained no copies.”  Word got out and the universal response of aviation geeks, bloggers and aerospace engineers who’d once been kids was “Not cool. Not cool at all.”

Luckily for Harry – and for Boeing – just a few weeks before Harry got his “Thanks, but no thanks” letter from Boeing, the corporate communications folks at Boeing got their Twitter accounts. And Todd Blecher, Boeing’s Corporate Communications Director, was paying attention.  As documented on the Airline Reporter blog and elsewhere, Blecher Tweeted a response that said, “….For kids we can do better. We’ll work on it.”

And it certainly appears that they are. Blecher flew to Seattle this week to be on hand while Harry and his family got a VIP tour of the Boeing Factory and the non-profit Future of Flight center next door. And Blecher explained that the company is working on a better letter to send out to enthusiastic kids like Harry who send in letters and pictures.  The first letter they drafted was too dry and formal.  The next version they wrote up read too much like a recruitment letter, “It said, ‘Study science and come work for Boeing,’ ” says Blecher, “So we tried again. My boss took the letter home and had his five kids take a look at it.”

In the meantime, today Harry and Charlie got to see where their favorite airplanes get made.  They got a bagful of cool Boeing airplane swag.  And they got to to see their drawings exhibited alongside a few dozen other imaginative airplane drawings by children and adults from around the world in the Future of Flight’s Harry Winsor Design Your Own Aircraft Show .

And, already a Well-Mannered Traveler, Harry didn’t come empty handed.  He presented Boeing and the Future of Flight with a framed drawing he’d made especially for the occasion.

I’ll post a gallery of some of the airplane artwork tomorrow, but in the meantime, see aerospace reporter Aubrey Cohen’s great photo gallery and article about Harry and Charlie’s day.

Categories: Airplanes, aviation, Boeing, Boeing 787 Dreamliner, Design, Exhibits, Kids
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