Cats and Trails and Garden Tales
Musings on cats, travel, gardens and life
Boeing Jets in Sevens
As you probably know, Boeing was born and raised in Seattle (so was I) so there’s much to see in the way of jets and planes around town at the plants that build them, such as these in Renton.
“Boeing’s 737 factory at the Renton, Wash., site leads the industry as the most efficient airplane factory in the world. More than 14,500 commercial airplanes (707, 727, 737, and 757) or about 30 percent of the worldwide fleet flying today were built in Renton.” Boeing.com
You’ll also find them in abundance at the Museum of Flight where they’re displayed along with their history.
If you’re lucky you’ll see history in the sky as we did one day, while walking the Cedar Trail next to the Renton Boeing Plant, a Flying Fortress, a B-17 taking off and landing again and again, probably for paying customers.
“The B-17 is one of history’s most significant aircraft for its role in the European and Pacific theater during World War II. It’s an iconic plane in the Boeing pantheon and has the statistics to prove it: the B-17 dropped more bombs in Europe than any other plane and was a deciding factor in the Allied victory.”
Museum of Flight
Sadly, Boeing has fallen on hard times lately, and we can only hope they return to their former glory soon.
By the way, there are so many SEVENS in the Boeing lineup, which is why I squared my photos to share them with #SevenforSeptember, a photo challenge.
~ Susanne
Cats and Trails and Garden Tales 
Boeing almost went under in the 70as(?) and bounced back. Fingers crossed.
There was a famous sign in Seattle in the early 70’s, ‘will the last person to leave Seattle, please turn off the lights.” But the lights stayed on, so there’s hope. 😃
Oh yes, great sign
I loooove passenger aircraft! My favourite. The old timer aircraft are beautiful to see too. I’ve seen the documentary on DB Cooper, the man simply vanished! He had to have had military training to know how to jump out of an aircraft like that.
Thanks, John! My husband is big fan of all kinds of jets and airplanes, so I’ve visited lots of air museums! The DB Cooper story continues to intrigue; I still see various investigative TV shows about him, I guess we’ll never really know whether he got away or crashed to his death!
I don’t think we will ever know either, Cooper has vanished!
Even with the recent Boeing accidents, I have no fear of flying in their planes. Boeing has built thousands of planes that have had no problems so the odds are good that I’ll fly safely and comfortably.
Loved your images!
Thanks so much for your comment. I’ve been disappointed with them the last few years but they have a new CEO and they’re trying to turn the culture around. In the meantime, I too still fly in their planes. 😊
Love your Flying Fortress photos. Must have been wonderful to see it in flight. The Museum of Flight was high on my list of places to visit, but I never made it there sadly. Also sad the state of the company today. Hopefully they’ll get their act together soon.
Thanks, Graham. It was great seeing the B-17 and the Museum of Flight is one of the great air museums.. I’ve been really disappointed with Boeing. From what I’ve read, they lost their engineering focus when they moved headquarters out of Seattle, and focused too much on schedules and the bottom line. Hopefully with their new CEO they’ll get back on track.
An interesting place! Love the photos too!
Thank you! 😊
wow for photos of the flying fortress, such an iconic plane. The cousin I am coming to see in California in a couple of weeks, his step dad was an airforce mechanic in WW2 so he would have worked on these
Sadly I am not going to get as far as Seattle next month, but one of these days I’ll visit
It was great to see the B17! My dad was in the Air Force, too, and also worked on the planes.
Enjoy your time in California! Hopefully it will cool down by the time you arrive. 😊
I so hope it cools down – quite daunting watching the temperatures from here.
Great to see the B-17. Many of those were stationed in Norfolk during WW2. Boeing seems to be in more difficulties at the moment, what with aircraft faults and the space module fiasco. I hope they manage to get it all sorted out.
Best wishes, Pete.
I’ve been so disappointed with Boeing. It seems they lost their engineering focus when they moved their headquarters out of Seattle and away from the factories, and became too focused on the bottom line. A shame after a hundred years of excellence.
Loved this. Reminded me of my daddy.
Glad to hear. Thank you.