NOVEMBER 2015 13 HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE Special delivery New 737 center opens where Boeing made history getting airplanes to customers BY MICHAEL LOMBARDI Delivering an airplane to a customer is not just the final step in the production process but one of the most important. For customers buying a multimilliondollar, high-technology jetliner, it represents the ultimate purchase experience—and one Boeing wants to make sure is a first-class event. Boeing recently built new, stateof the-art delivery centers for its widebody jets manufactured in Everett, Wash., and for 787 Dreamliners made in North Charleston, S.C. And last month, Commercial Airplanes opened an expanded and remodeled, 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-meter) delivery center for its 737 jetliners at Boeing Field in Seattle, replacing a decades-old facility there. The new center includes offices for customers, an area for special events, a departure lounge with a security screening area and boarding ramp, as well as enough ramp space for three 737s. It’s going to be a busy place. The 737 soon will pass the DC-3 family to become the most produced commercial airplane in history. Boeing plans to increase 737 production rates from 42 airplanes a month to 52 by 2018. “The customers are already commenting on how much they love the new facilities,” said Erik Nelson, vice president of Field Operations and Delivery for the 737 program. “The larger, more capable delivery center is essential as we continue to increase our rates and start building the 737 MAX.” Deliveries of Boeing’s new 737 MAX are scheduled to begin in 2017. In the early days of the company, delivery of an airplane was not performed with any ceremony and often was as mundane as packing the parts into a shipping crate. There were few airfields back then to connect Seattle to the final destination, so disassembled Boeing airplanes often were shipped by boat and rail. Indeed, the first Boeing airplanes were floatplanes, as the best open, level place for an airplane to take off from was one of Seattle’s many waterways. Starting in 1920, Boeing was building and delivering large numbers of rebuilt U.S. Army DH-4 bombers, which were assembled and delivered from a new airfield called Sand Point on a spit of land that projected into Photos: (Far left) Parked outside the Boeing hangar at Boeing Field, P-12E fighters await delivery to the U.S. Army Air Corps in October 1931. (Below) The first Delivery Center for commercial jets was established at the south end of Boeing Field, adjacent to the Boeing Developmental Center. Here, 707s and 727s are readied for delivery. BOEING ARCHIVES
Frontiers November 2015 Issue
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