Boeing Museum of Flight
Courtesy Boeing Museum of Flight and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Edited by David Barth November 2014. Photos are by David Barth.
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This is Boeing Field, an airport south of Seattle.
A Concorde supersonic transport (SST), a Boeing 707,
and a Boeing 747 can be seen at the bottom of the picture. |
At the top of the picture is I5, the main, north-south freeway that runs thorugh Seattle and Tacoma, Washington. This and the next two pictures were taken from a south-bound plane on approach to the SEATAC airport.
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The Boeing Museum of Flight's main indoor display
is in the large building with the blue-gray roof. |
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In the center of the picture are two Airborne
Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft with the
flattened domes on top. |
To the right of the AWACS aircraft and in the foreground are two Boeing 787 Dreamliners. These aircraft are south of the Museum of Flight and are not part of the public display.
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| Boeing's Everett, Washington manufacturing facility. |
This building, at Boeing's Everett, Washington manufacturing facility, is one of the largest in the world. It is so expansive that it has its own weather system inside. The photo was taken on the way to the Boeing Museum of Flight.
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| Boeing Museum of Flight. |
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| Boeing Museum of Flight. |
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| Boeing Museum of Flight. |
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| Boeing Museum of Flight. |
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| Boeing Museum of Flight. |
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| "Team Effort". |
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| "Team Effort". |
"'Team Effort' by Larry Anderson. In loving memory of Katharine B. Lenhart and Lieut. John J. Lenhart, U.S. Navy, Schneider Team Pilot, 1927. [This plaque was placed in] 1994. Casting by Riverdog Fine Art."
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| Sabre Jet. |
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A Mig 21 in the foreground. In the background
is an SR-71 Blackbird with an unmanned D21 reconnaissance
drone mounted on top of it. |
The drone used the same turbo-ramjet engine as the Blackbird that could push it to Mach 3-plus. A D21 was released from a Blackbird in international airspace and flown over China, but was lost. The drones were mothballed after one collided with the top of a Blackbird as it was released.
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| F104 Starfighter. |
This was an example of a Lockheed fighter. Originally, the 104 had downward ejection seats, but they were changed to upward ejecting in case the pilot had to eject close to the ground.
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| USS Nimitz (CVN-68). |
USS Nimitz (CVN-68) is a supercarrier of the United States Navy, and the lead ship of her class. One of the largest warships in the world, she was laid down, launched and commissioned as CVAN-68 but was redesignated CVN 68 (nuclear-powered multimission aircraft carrier) on 30 June 1975 as part of the fleet realignment.
The ship was named for World War II Pacific fleet commander Chester W. Nimitz, who was the Navy's third Fleet Admiral. Nimitz had her homeport at Naval Station Norfolk until 1987, when she was relocated to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington. Following her Refueling and Complex Overhaul in 2001, her homeport was changed to NAS North Island in San Diego, California. The home port of Nimitz was again moved to Naval Station Everett in 2012.
Although uninformed citizens around the world consider America's nuclear powered aircraft carriers simply as war machines, they are very capable of assisting during a disaster. Not only do aircraft carriers extend the power of the United States, but many times they have reached out to provide assistance to other countries during crises.
- A carrier has a large hospital on board.
- It has helicopters that can carry people to and from the shore.
- It can supply a limited amount of emergency, short-term food rations.
- The nuclear reactor can supply enough electricity to power a small city.
- It carries trained medical staff.
- Sailors and marines on board can lend a hand if limited manpower is needed on shore.
- It has world-wide communications capability, via satellites, to keep governments appraised of the situation and to request additional support, if needed.
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| Boeing Museum of Flight. |
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| F4 Phantom. |
F4 Phantom, used by the Air Force and the Navy during the Vietnam War, 1955 to 1975.
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de Havilland D.H.106 Comet,
the World's first Jet Airliner. |
This is a 1/12 scale model of North America's last De Havilland Comet. It shows what the Museum of Flight's de Havilland D.H.106 Comet Mk.4C will look like when fully restored. The Museum's Comet is the first Mk.4C ever built, and is the last existing Comet in North America.
It flew with Mexicana, North America's oldest airline, providing "Azteca de Oro" ("Golden Aztec") service between Mexico City and Los Angeles, California, in the 1960s.
The restoration is taking place at the Museum's Restoration Center at Paine Field in Everett, Washington, approximately 35 miles (50 km) north of the Museum of Flight.
In addition to the Comet, the Restoration Center houses many more aircraft, all in various stages of restoration. The Restoration Center is open to the public year-round, and admission is free from Labor Day through Memorial Day. For directions, hours of operation, and other information about the Restoration Center, please ask at the Docents' Desk or the Admission Desk.
THE MODEL:
Built in 1959 and displayed for many years in a hobby shop near Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, this model is a gift from Bill and Bette Catlin. Jim Goodall, who supervised the restoration of the Museum's real Comet, also "restored" this model and converted it from a Comet Mk.4 to a Comet Mk.4C.
| COMET CHARACTERISTICS |
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| Role | Passenger Airliner
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| Manufacturer | de Havilland |
| Model | D.H. 106 Comet Mk.4C |
| First Flight | 27 July 1949 |
| Introduction | 2 May 1952 |
| Introduction Airline | BOAC |
| Cruising Speed | 0.76 Mach |
| First Class Seats | 11 |
| Coach Seats | 59 |
| Number Built | 114 |
| Retired | 14 March 1997 |
| Primary Users | BOAC |
| British European Airways |
| Dan-Air |
| Unit Cost | $275,000 in 1952 US Dollars |
| Unit Cost | $3,879,464 in 2014 US Dollars |
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| de Havilland D.H.106 Comet. |
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| German WWII Buzz Bomb. |
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| German WWII Buzz Bomb. |
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| Cruise missile. |
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Valery Pavlovich Chkalov (1904-1938),
The "Russian Lindberg". |
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| Boeing Museum of Flight. |
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| Memorial Cornerstone. |
Native Americans lived for centuries on this land, fishing the beautiful Duwamish.
Western pioneers settled here, farming the alluvial soils while building a city and its commerce.
In 1910, barnstormer Charles Hamilton took to the skies overhead, thrilling the crowd at Meadows racetrack to our region's first airplane flight.
In 1928, Boeing Field opened, an airfield that would witness the rollout of the mighty B-17s, a dreadnaught to protect our precious freedom; an airfield that continues to witness the introduction of great flying machines that bring the world's people together.
Now, on July 10, 1987, we dedicate the Museum of flight as a memorial to this historic place and to the history of flight; may its proud heritage never be forgotten.
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| Boeing Museum of Flight. |
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| Apollo 11 "Burn" Card. |
Very much a "working document," this extremely rare, original artifact from the 1969 Apollo 11 mission to land men on the moon includes Neil Armstrong's and Buzz Aldrin's most extensive flight notes and was known as the "P30 Maneuver" card.
It is one of the very few archival documents which accompanied mankind's first visit to another celestial body and which is on public display.
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| Apollo 11 "Burn" Card. |
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| Wright 1909 Contract. |
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| Wright 1909 Contract. |
The original contract between Wilbur Wright and Orville Wright, and the company they formed to build their aircraft - the first such company in history - dated November 27, 1909. The Wrights agreed to transfer and assign to the Company the seminal patent, No. 821,393, dated May 26, 1906 for " . . . improvements in flying machines," and, more significantly, No. 908,929, dated June 5, 1909, "improvements in mechanism for flexing the rudder of flying machines."
Finally, the agreement transferred "one aeroplane, complete". It also has the Wright Company 1909 seal, embossed, and the signatures of these pioneers. For all intents and purposes, this was the document which started the direct series of events and connections that have led to the aerospace industry as we know it.
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| Replica of the Wright Brother's Flyer. |
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Boeing Delta 757 overflying the
Boeing Museum of Flight. |
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Boeing B-29 with its wing tips removed and wrapped
for weather protection. |
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Boeing B-29 with its wing tips removed and wrapped
for weather protection. |
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| Shuttle toilet. |
The Shuttle's toilet, called the Waste Collection System (WCS), was specially designed to function in microgravity. The WCS used airflow to pull the waste from an astronaut's body. Solid waste was stored in a special chamber for return to Earth, while liquids were periodically dumped overboard. A seatbelt and foot restraints helped keep the astronauts in place and each astronaut was assigned a special funnel to help direct liquid waste into the commode. The WCS was even equipped with a rear-view mirror so astronauts could make sure everything got where it needed to go.
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| Nick Risinger, Seattle area photographer. |
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| Milky Way Galaxy. |
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| Nick Risinger in Colorado. |
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| Bronze of Astronaut Michael Anderson. |
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| Bronze of Astronaut Michael Anderson. |
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| Bronze of Astronaut Michael Anderson. |
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| William M. Allen (1900-1985). |
William M. Allen served as President, Chairman of the Board, Chairman Emeritus, and Company Attorney (1925-1945).
William M. Allen was born in Lolo, Montana, and graduated from Harvard Law School. During the 1920s, he joined the law firm providing attorneys for the Boeing Airplane Co. and became a member of the company's board of directors.
He served as company president from Sept. 1, 1945, to April 29, 1968.