A previous Wine, Wings & More – Photo: Future of Flight
If you are into indulging yourself, going to be around the Seattle area on June 19th, and like aviation, then the Future of Flight’s Wine, Wings & More might be plane (yes, cheesy spelling on purpose) fun for you! The details:
WHEN: Friday, June 19th from 6:00 to 9:00pm
WHERE: Future of Flight Aviation Center & Boeing Tour
HOW: Get your early bird tickets by May 19th ($35 or $25 for members) or standard tickets after May 20th ($45, $35 for members)
WHAT: See below…
Enjoy local wines – Photo: Future of Flight
- Taste some of the Northwest’s finest beverages, with 20+ wineries, and several breweries, distilleries, and non-alcoholic beverage distributors
- Lavish, catered foods
- Jazz melodies from the Kerry Wallingford Quartet
- Tasting-related silent auction items
- Photo ops with a Boeing 787 Dreamliner
Also, proceeds will benefit the Future of Flight Foundation’s education and exhibit programs. We hope to see you there!
An EA-18G Growler from VAQ-129 climbs out of OLF Coupeville in full afterburner
Picture this: the sun is shining, the sky is blue, and yellow dandelions are beginning to bloom in the green grass. Sounds pretty good, right? As AvGeeks, what could make this better? Well, how about the sound of jets? Not just any jets but fast moving jets, the kind that are flown by the U.S. Navy.
Interested? You might want to head about 90 minutes northwest of Seattle and check out the NOLF (aka OLF) Coupeville. I recently got to experience all of the above, and more, and figured I should share what I experienced.
One of two avian radars located at SEA. This one is in a ditch adjacent to the third runway.
Have you ever looked up in the sky, seen a hawk or eagle soaring, and admired the beauty? Although exciting, the birds can cause major problems for aviation.
The ’œMiracle on the Hudson’ is a prime example of why birds and aircraft do not mix. But what do airports do to ensure that our journeys, from one airport to the next, are safe? I recently took a tour of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) and saw what their wildlife management team was doing to keep both airplanes and birds safe.
A Snowy Owl is captured at SEA, then released in the upper part of Washington state, near Bellingham – Photo: SEA
SEA has been a leader in wildlife management since the 1970s, when they were the first airport to hire a dedicated wildlife biologist onto their staff. At the moment, Steve Osmek runs the wildlife program at the airport and has done so for a number of years. Previously coming from the USDA and NOAA, he gets to combine his love of animals and an interest in aviation into on job. It was Steve who took me around the airport and introduced me to a number of ways that the airport is helping to mitigate bird strikes.
We are excited to experience Aviation Geek Fest Seattle 2015 (AGF15) on February 21 and 22. We all VERY much appreciate your patience with getting you information and putting the tickets up for sale.
The Full AGF15 tickets sold out in about 30 seconds — crazy. All this point, there are not additional tickets (Full or Mini) for sale.
Renton Municipal Airport, home of the Boeing 737
In the past, we have featured plane spotting guides for Paine Field and also other airports like Anchorage or Tokyo Haneda. With numerous airports in the Seattle area, including SeaTac and Boeing Field, there is sometimes a forgotten, but quite important, airport for plane spotters which provides a continuous stream of aircraft to spot. I am speaking of Renton Municipal Airport, the home of Boeing’s narrow-body aircraft plant.
The southern threshold of Renton’s runway
The Renton Airport traces its history back to World War II. Originally built on reclaimed land from Lake Washington, the airport was built by the Department of Defense (DoD) to support Amphibious Aircraft being built by Boeing on Lake Washington. The PBB Sea Ranger project was cancelled after the prototype was built, so Boeing ended up using the facility to produce the B-29 Superfortress. By the end of the war, a total of 1,119 were built.
After the war, the City of Renton purchased the airport back from the DoD for $1 and the facility laid dormant for a few years. In 1948, the KC-97 Stratofreighter project brought the airport back to life and thus began a long and productive history of aircraft to flow out of the Boeing factory doors. The first Dash 80 aircraft, famous for the barrel roll over Lake Washington, rolled out in May 1954. Renton was the home of every single 707 built.
The 727 & 757 were all built there as well. However, Renton is famous these days for being the home of the 737, where production stands at a massive 42 aircraft per month.
