Some of the world’s most recognizable brands were born in Seattle, such as Starbucks, Amazon, Microsoft, and, of course, Boeing. If you’re visiting Seattle and proud to be an aviation geek, there are two things you really shouldn’t miss. The first is the guided Future of Flight tour of the Boeing B 777 assembly line in Everett, and other is the Museum of Flight at the former plant in Renton, close to where the B 707 was born.

The Future of Flight

The Everett production line is a bit cumbersome to reach by public transport, as it’s quite far out of Seattle. The easiest way to get there, I found, was to book a tour with local tour company Show me Seattle. I found the service convenient. The tour picks up in front of the Hyatt Regency Seattle, and includes the journey to and from Everett, and the ticket to join the guided tour that is done by Boeing staff.

Photography of the production line is not permitted on the tour. Cameras and mobiles need to be placed in lockers ahead of the actual tour starting. However, there is a deck up on the roof of the visitor centre overlooking the outside of the facility, where taking photos is permitted. During my visit there are several B 777-Xs standing around awaiting FAA type certification.

The Museum of Flight

The Museum of Flight is more easily accessible. From downtown Seattle it’s about 35 minutes with the bus line 124 out to the museum. The museum houses a very nice collection of beautifully restored aircraft, including Concorde (not designed or built by Boeing) and the prototypes of the Boeing B 727 and B 747. Proudly standing guard outside the main entrance to the museum is a Lockheed Super Constellation in the livery of Air Canada’s predecessor Trans Canada Air Lines. Airbus is conspicuously absent from the museum…

Most of the larger aircraft are open to the public. Staff are on hand inside the aircraft. The younger ones tend to see their role mainly as one of making sure the many little kids keep their grubby mitts off the aircraft. However, the older staff are mostly former Boeing employees and are usually happy to have a little natter about airplanes.

The Indoor Exhibit

There are two halls at the museum. The indoor hall opens with the museum at 10h00. It houses mainly military aircraft, which I’m not so interested in. However, I’m magnanimously making an exception for the Blackbird, simply by merit of the fact that I think it is, without a doubt, the meanest looking aircraft ever built. It just looks vicious.

Among the more modern exhibits in the indoor hall is the forward half of a decommissioned US Air Boeing B 737. Without the tail section and with most of the wing missing, it’s difficult to say what series aircraft it is exactly. I suspect it’s likely a -200.

The Outdoor Exhibit

On the other side of the road from the main building is the outdoor exhibit which opens an hour later, at 11h00. This is, as far as I’m concerned, where they have the really cool things to see, many of which are icons of the jet age that hardly need an introduction.

Concorde

One of the few non-American designs in the outdoor hall is G-BOAG, one of twenty Concordes that still exist. That leaves another eight I need to visit to have seen every Concord ever built. I’m keeping a list here that I’m gradually working my way through…

Boeing B 707

Right next to Concorde sits a Boeing B 707 of the American Air Force which wasused at some point as Air Force One. This particular frame remained active for quite a long time, until the mid-1990. However, by that time it was no longer used as Air Force 1 anymore and was mainly used to transport high ranking officials.

I just love the B 707. I think it is the most elegant of all of Boeing’s designs. I also think it’s quite remarkable that the design of modern airliners hasn’t fundamentally changed much since the introduction of the B 707. The B 707 also holds many fond childhood memories, as I can’t remember how many flights I must have done on Air Malta’s shortened B 720 variant.

Boeing B 727

The Boeing B 727 on display at the Museum of Flight is a series -100 variant. In fact, it’s the first production B 727-100 ever built, back in 1962. It participated in the flight test programme that eventually resulted in certification of the type. Afterwards, in 1964, it was officially handed over to United Airlines, where it spent the next 25 years – the rest of its working life. Like the DC-9 and the MD-80 later on, the B 727 had a retractable set of stairs in the rear of the aircraft. As a kid, I thought that was just about the coolest feature ever!

Boeing B 747

And that brings us to la grande dame. Without a doubt, the uncontested star of the exhibit is the first production Boeing 747-100 City of Everett. The aircraft still carries the original logos of the B 747’s launch customers. At some point, Boeing tried to sell the B 747 to the military as an air-to-air refuelling aircraft. To that end, this particular aircraft was retrofitted with a boom for it to be used as a demonstrator. The boom was later removed again. However, inside the hull you can still see where the crew would have sat to manouvre the boom.

Oh yes, and there’s also one of the B 787 prototypes, but yeah… okay.

Conclusion

This was just about the coolest museum I’ve visited in a very long time. I felt like a little kid in a candy store on Christmas Day. I wasn’t sure what to do and what to look at first. At some point, even one of the staff standing guard noticed. He laughed kindly, mentioning that he could always tell a geek when he saw one looking around excitedly. What I really liked about the museum was not just that the aircraft are in such excellent condition, but that they are openly accessible to the public. I also appreciated how welcoming all the staff were, willing to share stories about their experiences with some of the aircraft and offering additional information. This visit to the Museum of Flight really was a dream come true for me. I’m glad I did it, and I certainly think it’s worth it for anyone interested in aviation.