Boeing

New 777-300ER planes for Thai Airways & Air China

November 4, 2012Harriet BaskasAirlines, Airplanes777-300ER, Air China, Boeing, Thai Airways

This week I had the opportunity to go to the Boeing plant and Paine Field in Everett, WA for Boeing’s delivery of THAI Airways’ new Boeing 777-300ER, which will be used on the Los Angeles (LAX) – Bangkok (BKK) route with a stopover in Seoul. The airplane’s business class seats recline into fully flat beds, and in economy class the seats are a roomy (and pretty) 18.5 inches wide.

I didn’t have the opportunity to join the special guests on this delivery flight to Bangkok, but I did get a look at the plane in the next parking lot slot, which was also being delivered that day. This is Air China’s new 777-300ER, which has a fun ‘Smiling Faces’ livery.

Courtesy Boeing

courtesy Boeing

Travel tibdits: live livery & a pop-up pool

July 31, 2012Harriet BaskasEvents787 Dreamliner, Boeing, Miami, pool party, United Airlines

United Airlines is scheduled to take delivery of its first Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft in September, but if you’re near your computer early Tuesday morning you’ll get to see a live webcast of the plane – and its livery – as it rolls out of the paint hangar in Everett, Wash.

Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner will look like this when it rolls out of the paint hangar. Photo courtesy Boeing.

The webcast will air on the United Hub website beginning at 5:30 a.m. Pacific Time.

And if you’re cruising around New York City on Tuesday, head to the pool at Union Square (17th & Park). Yes, the pool.

From noon until 6 pm on Tuesday, July 31st, the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau will be hosting a party at a pop-up pool, complete with DJs, salsa dancers, chaise lounges, beach balls, Cuban coffee, a fashion show, culinary demos and more. There’s also the promise of “trip giveaways and swag.”

Sorry, no live webcast of the pool party is planned.

787 Dreamliner delivery

September 26, 2011Harriet BaskasAirlines, Airplanes, aviation, Boeing 787 Dreamliner787, 787 delivery celebration, ANA, Boeing, Boeing factory, Dreamliner, Everett

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.

787 - No smoking - but here's an ashtray

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

787 Dreamliner cockpit

787 assembly line at Boeing's Everett, Wa. factory

More 787s in the pipeline at Boeing factory in Everett

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

Signing books at Future of Flight Aviation Center

August 6, 2010Harriet BaskasBoeing 787 Dreamliner, EventsBoeing, Boeing tour, Book signing, Future of Flight, Washingtion Curiosities, Washington Icons

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!

In Spokane: the world’s oldest flying Boeing airplane

July 23, 2010Harriet BaskasAir Travel, Airplanes, aviation, Aviation history, Exhibits, Fun Stuff, MuseumsAddison Pemberton, Boeing, Boeing Model 40, Marvin Carr's One of a kind in the world museum, Spokane

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.