Boeing - 100 years of great airplanes!

If it is not Boeing, I am not going.

 

I worked in Everett Washington for a year in the 747 plant. I was working for Walter Dorwin Teague who were the Industrial Design consultants for all Boeing plane interiors and external graphics. This was around 1979 and my first job out of college. I worked on custom aircraft interiors, mainly for Middle Eastern sheiks. We did all our drawings then in pencil on vellum paper. Boeing only like things that were on vellum and in black and white so they could make blue prints.

I used to walk through the 747 assembly plant during lunch. I would see Air Force one fly in for repairs and testing from my window.

I had a badge (don't ask me why) that allowed me to go anywhere in the factory. So, one day, I went inside a 747 cockpit while it was being wired. That was pretty cool.

I saw wooden mock ups of the 747 assembly that they used for the engineering of the first plane. I saw the test rigs that pulled the wings up and down until breaking.

One day I got a call to go seem some engineer for some reason that I never figured out. So, I had to go to this engineering building and find him. I get to the building and floor. I open the door.

What I saw appeared to me to be an endless sea of drafting tables in perfect rows until the horizon.

Today I've flown most of my 3 million flying miles on a 747. My first flight overseas was LA to Tokyo on a 747 in 1981. Today I just booked 2 more flights to Asia -- both on 747.

Boeing has always had a special place in my heart. Maybe it was my love of the B17 that I made a model kit of as a kid. Maybe it was because they made the 707 that I got to walk on once as a kid. Maybe it was the first 747 I saw land at an airport as a teenager.

Whatever it was, Boeing has made, and is still making, some of the best planes in the sky. I love the Dreamliner going long haul. Last year I did LA to Melbornne non- stop --15 hours and 45 minutes -- in coach. Didn't bother me a bit.

So congratulations Boeing for your 100th birthday from one of your fans!

 

Thank you for sharing these great events. I am a big Boeing fan since i saw for a the very first time a B747 200 (my favourite version) in the middle of nineties.. Since then i fell in love with the Jumbo Jet!

Congratulations Boeing!

 

Congratulations Boeing...The company has made a lot of great airplanes. The B29/B50, B52, 707 and 747 have to be the most important so far. I love the 7478F the best. Amazing how big and quiet it is on takeoff and landing, and it still can carry more freight than anything else with 4 engines. When Boeing makes the 777X10 that will really show who is still the greatest commercial airplane maker in the world bar none(goodbye A380)!!

 

I went on the site looking for a link to Bob's paintings from the exhibit he just put together.

Didn't find them.

HB Boeing.

 

There probably isn't a link on the Boeing site (or Museum site).
This one will take you directly,
Most of the aircraft on display are here.
Aviation Artwork ? ParkzArt

 

WOW. Fantastic work.

 

Bob- I had forgotten you did Udet's SSW D.III. Really nice painting. Jim Dietz did a painting for me with his SSW and Fokker D.VIIF.

 

Friday was also the anniversary of the first flight for the 367-80 back in 1954.

It's on permanent display at the Udvar-Hazy extension of the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Chantilly, VA just beyond the runways at Dulles if you're ever in the neighborhood.

>8^)
ER
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The -80 as it is in the museum doesn't have the original wing or engine nacelles and there is so much titanium structure left over from testing that they had to but almost 2000 pounds of ballast in the nose.

 

Thanks, Taz. That painting was commissioned by Ernie Gann's late son way back in 1973. I was still trying to learn to paint and trying to paint with gouache at that time and it was a tough learning process. That scenario in the painting could never have happened with Udet getting jumped by a Camel because his plane and skill probably would have put the other way around.

 

Thanks, Jim. That profile presents the first Pan Am 707-121, N707PA and the first production 707.

 

Bob- I was not going to mention that by that time Udet was a pretty tough customer. Even a 160 hp Gnome or 150 hp BR2 powered Camel was not much of a match for a SSW D.III or D.IV.

 

I'll try to post some shots that we took during the set up of the display.
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East wall.
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Full view
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Thank you so much Bob...

Wonderful.

You're looking pretty good too!

 

Jim, let me know when you will be here and Spasso and I will try to meet you. The exhibit will be up until 09-10-16 and then it will travel. Where, I don't know. Everything in the display is available for purchase except the B&W and I DO hope that somebody purchases something. I have been asked to give a talk at the Harbor Pointe PD facility to tell about my 40 plus years at the Kite Factory and other points in the long life of a Fossil. It is scheduled for 1 hour but has an open end that might let it run for two. From what I noticed in the briefing, the younger folks were wide-eyed at how we deigned and built jets in the old days..."You drew the whole thing BY HAND! NO COMPUTERS!" Slide rules, calculators, and hands and eyes will be discussed.

 

Bob- Hope you are doing better.