Day Thirteen - Portland to Seattle

The drive to Seattle from Portland is around 170 miles, so not exactly a giant drive. The fact that it's six lanes the entire way makes it even easier. The drive itself is quite scenic with lots of Conifers and tall trees lining the highway. As we got into Seattle earlier than expected, we thought we would check out the McChord Air Force Base Museum, only to find that it's only open on Wednesday to Fridays. In the end, we thought we would move the schedule forward and visit the Seattle Museum of Flight at Renton, Seattle. Renton is the place where Boeing makes it's highest selling Commercial airliner, the Boeing B737. In fact, whilst we were there we saw Qantas' latest B737 on the Flight-line (well, we actually saw the tip of the tail). 


The Museum of Flight was fantastic, and you will notice that I focused most on the very first Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet which sits in the open environment in a dilapidated state. I spoke with one of the Museum's Docents and he assures me that they have every intention to refurbish this aircraft and house it indoors. It just needs lots of money for this to occur.


Anyway, here's a small sample of pictures, noting that there are heaps more aircraft than you will see in this blog entry.

Did someone order a gift-wrapped B-29?

Apparently we are one and a half months to early to see the delivery of the full scale Space Shuttle trainer being installed in the new Space Hall. Oh well, at least we got to see the chalk lines for where it will sit :(

This is the capsule that that really rich gazillionaire used when he purchased a seat on the Soyuz Spacecraft to go into orbit.

The very first Boeing 747 looking shamefully neglected. This is one of the most important aircraft in history.

Note these unusual Strakes on the prototype.

I love the shape of the Concorde wing.

This is the very first Boeing 737, which finished its service life working for NASA.

Me inside Air Force One.

Thank you for flying with Concorde.

I think they named this after me :)

Whilst this may look like an SR-71 Blackbird, it is actually an M-21 (a variant of the A-12, which superseded the SR-71) carrying its D-21 Drone.  

They actually have a pseudo Air Traffic Control Tower at the Museum adjacent the Runway. 

Schuyler in the cockpit of an SR-71.

Apollo Command Module 007A which was a testing and training capsule.

Schuyler and I outside the original Boeing factory building.

 After the Museum of Flight we went for a walk towards the city as we are no too far from there. The weather was beautiful, which is unusual for Seattle.

The Seattle Space Needle

The elusive brand new Qantas B737 at Renton. VH-VZZ.