Amid all the 787 roll-out hoopla, perhaps the coolest event went unnoticed. On Saturday night, Boeing had all of the 787 airline representatives at an event at the Museum of Flight. At 7:07 PM, an Omega Air Refueling Services 707 landed in front of the crowd (after taking off from Paine Field in Everrett). At 7:17, an AirTran 717 landed. This continued until 8:17 when an Air France 777-300ER landed. In the end, the 707, 717, 727, 737, 747, 757, 767, and 777 were lined up nose-to-tail on the taxiway. It is the first time Boeing has had every 7-series airplane in the same place (not counting the 787, which couldn't make the flight, of course).
And from my papa:
Also in this picture you can see RA001, the first 747 built. It’s across E. Marginal Way with the Concorde. To left of the museum is the guppy version of the 747, one of three used to bring 787 parts to Seattle.
The organizers went a little overboard with the numerology thing for 787 and for this event. I’m more impressed that there was good light for the photo and that the tide is high on the Duwamish.
The plane pictured above is a 747 that has been modified to fly 787 plane parts from the manufacturing plant abroad to the Everett assembly plant. (Oh, and it's not really painted like a hot dog. Evidently we had a bored graphic designer hanging out at Boeing one day).
