headed to the Irish airline than any other in his year at Boeing. “This plane is going to be in the sky, holding people, so you have to put 110 percent into it,” Kimball said. “It’s kind of amazing to think my planes are flying.” Factory assembly of the Ryanair jetliner finished two days later. The plane was parked outside until it could be painted in the airline’s colors, with the Ryanair name in big, blue letters and its logos of an interspersed harp and angel in different colors. Ryanair routinely brings its pilots to Seattle on six-week rotations to test and accept the new jets and eventually 42 | BOEING FRONTIERS fly them home on the delivery runs. Fabian Schone, a 10-year Ryanair pilot based in Italy, flew the 400th and pronounced it fit for service. He steered it along the ocean coast, performed takeoffs and landings at Paine Field in Everett, Wash., and never strayed farther than 80 miles (130 kilometers) from the Seattle area. “To me, the 737 is a perfect airplane,” Schone said. “It’s very reliable with all the modern automatics necessary for a safe operation but still a pilot’s plane, which you can fly manually very well.” On March 31, Ryanair’s 400th jet gently lifted off from Boeing Field for its overnight flight to Ireland following a casual dinner that involved Boeing and Ryanair employees eating with the pilots and everyone posing for group photos with a commemorative banner outside the airplane. Joe Ryan, Ryanair’s Seattle-based delivery manager, was among them. He’s witnessed his share of airplanes changing hands. He anticipates he’ll see quite a few more. “When I started here two years ago we had the 350th delivery and we were getting two planes a month,” he pointed out. “It’s eight now.” • DANIEL.W.RALEY@BOEING.COM Photos: (From left) Ryanair delivery manager Joe Ryan, left, and Boeing customer engineer Maryam Assary inspect the interior of the Irish airline’s 400th 737-800; the Ryanair jetliner awaits delivery at Seattle’s Boeing Field, with Mount Rainier in the background, before its nearly 10-hour flight to Ireland. BOB FERGUSON | BOEING
Frontiers May 2016 Issue
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