Boeing’s wings span 68 years of aviation progress

Press, 6 March 1984, Page 31

Boeing’s wings span 68 years of aviation progress

By

LES BLOXHAM,

travel editor, who spent two days at the Boeing plant in

Seattle last week.

Few New Zealanders realise that the first two aircraft produced by William Boeing and his partner Conrad Westervelt in 1916 were bought by the New Zealand Government. Simply called “B and W,” the small float planes were built by a hand-picked team of highly skilled carpenters, shipwrights, cabinetmakers and seamstresses. They used Washington spruce, wire, and fabric in Boeing’s humble boathouse factory on Lake Union, near Seattle. The two aircraft were shipped to New Zealand where they were used by the Government for pilot training and the pioneering of air-mail flights. It was to mark the beginning of an association with Boeing that has successfully spanned 68 years.

Today the majority of New Zealanders who have to fly will do so in a Boeing of the modern jet age — either Air New Zealand’s stubby domestic workhorses, the 737, or the much larger international “jumbos,” the 747. Another very successful member of the family, the 727 (Boeing’s biggest seller), maintains TAA’s Saturday link between Christchurch and Hobart. A much earlier model, the 707, which

ushered in America’s entry to commercial jet liner production, can still be seen in New Zealand skies. Air Niugini now flies a twice-weekly 707 service between Auckland and Hong Kong as part of the tripartite agreement with Air New Zealand and Cathay Pacific. The latest version of the 747, the 300 series with its extended upper deck, can carry more than 600

passengers or 125 tonnes of cargo at 965 km/h over distances of up to 12,000 kilometres. In 1927, Boeing’s first “passenger” plane, the model 40, could carry two passengers and a few kilograms of mail at 200 km/h over a range of 800 kilometres.

The Wright Brothers’ first flight at Kitty Hawk could have been performed within the length of the 68.5 metre fuselage of the 747. The wings of a 747 weigh 25,400 kg, 20 times the weight of the first B and W.

Every day some 600 747 s fly more than four million kilometres — equivalent to five trips to the moon and back, or 100 times around the world. Boeing certainly has come a long way since 1916.