Living in the greater Seattle area has its advantages. Being able to go pretty much any time and drive around Paine Field Airport (KPAE) is for sure one of them. Plus, if you book yourself a night at the Hilton Garden Inn, you are very likely to get a room that looks over the airport. Heck, you can even spot from your room and/or car and have yourself a bit of an AvGeek hootenanny. I recently did just that and my pal Jeremy joined me. Although this story might mostly be photos, I am likely to add a snarky comment here or there.
I decided to do a little blast from the past and use my “real” DSLR camera instead of my iPhone. It is amazing for the close-ups, but I think I might need a refresher course. Jeremy ended up taking a few of the photos, but I was too lazy to label them properly. Just assume if one looks like someone with talent took the picture, it was him. Here we go…
The 787-9 Dreamliner parked next to the Boeing Future of Flight and a sweet Dreamlifter!
A while back, I started to see photos of a purple and pink 787 and wondered what the heck it was all about. Then I saw that people had the chance to get up close and personal with the plane at the Boeing Future of Flight, and I realized that I needed to figure out the full story. It turns out that the special livery is inspired by the Employees Community Fund (ECF) of Boeing. And what is ECF, you might ask? Good question. According to Boeing:
“Since 1948, ECF has funded approximately $1 billion to local communities across the United States. The ECF has 20 chapters across Boeing, giving employees an opportunity to make a difference where they live and work. Each chapter is managed by local employees who make grants based on the needs of their communities. The special livery celebrates the commitment and generosity of our employees in their local communities.”
The ECF design is mostly a big decal.
The fun graphics near the rear of the 787.
I would say that is a pretty worthy cause to support this unique livery. This is also special, since it is not actually all paint, but is comprised of the largest decal ever on a composite aircraft. Boeing has certified the decal technology, so now airline customers can start using them. I am hoping it means more special liveries and please, oh please, I hope it means less European white designs.
Swiss International Air Lines took delivery on March 13 of the final Boeing 777-300ER of their 10-aircraft order
Swiss International Air Lines took delivery of its 10th Boeing 777-300ER on March 13, completing the now-expanded order it originally placed in 2013. That order was for six aircraft; three more were added in 2015, and the final 777 was added in 2016, the same year the first jet in the batch was delivered to the airline.
The new jets, with a maximum range of 7,370 nautical miles, also offer lower operating costs than competing aircraft, making them a very attractive option on long-haul routes.
Swiss employees celebrate the delivery in Everett, Wash.
Swiss placed the order as part of a planned update to their long-haul fleet. The 340-seat 777-300ER is used on eight intercontinental routes, all making use of the airline’s Zurich hub: Bangkok, Chicago, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Miami, Montreal, San Francisco, and Singapore. The airline also operates Airbus A330-300s and A340-300s on its long-haul routes.
Delta’s Queen of the Skies (N674US) took a victory lap across the country on Dec. 18
With Delta Air Lines’ last 747 now in the boneyard at Pinal Airpark in Arizona, we thought it would be a good time to look back at the next-to-last farewell tour in late December when it visited both the Boeing plant of its birth and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
N674US taxiing at Paine Field in Everett – Photo: Jordan Arens
This particular bird (N674US – LN: 1232) first flew on September 30, 1999 and was delivered to Northwest in October of that year. It was transferred to Delta’s fleet in June of 2009 and flew with the airline until being put out to pasture. With the retirement of these iconic planes from Delta’s fleet, no U.S.-based passenger airline flies them any longer (unless you count Atlas and their charters).
A Boeing employee inspects a composite wing spar at the Building 40-02 spar shop
In a big milestone for the program, Boeing officially started production on its new 777x line on Oct. 23. The 777X will feature new GE9X engines, an all-new composite wing with folding tips, longer range, while leveraging technologies from the 787 Dreamliner.
The one-piece composite spars measure more than 100 feet long, and each aircraft requires a total of four spars – two per wing
777X chief project engineer and vice president Terry Beezhold said it’s taken Boeing seven years to get to this point in the project. The current project schedule calls for the first test flight to happen in the first quarter of 2019, and the first delivery about a year after that.
