In what is most likely the last flight of her entire type, the Museum of Flight’s ultra-rare Boeing 247D flew one last time today. The short hop from the museum’s restoration and storage facility at Paine Field in Everett, Washington to the main museum site at Boeing Field in Seattle took place at roughly 11:30am local time today, with 787 Dreamliner test pilots Mike Carriker and Chad Lundy at the controls. The soft growl of the airliner’s two 550hp Pratt&Whitney Wasp engines sat in stark contrast to the more normal howl of the 100,000lb+ thrust jet engines commonly found on Boeing’s more modern products, rolling off the production line just a few hundred yards from the runway at Paine Field. Hundreds of people gathered to witness the historic moment as the Boeing’s oldest airworthy airliner made her final flight.
Here is some video of the engine and fast-taxi tests conducted a couple of days ago…
There are just four extant Boeing 247s of the seventy five built. The Museum of Flight’s example rolled out of the Boeing factory as construction number 1729 in 1933, and is currently registered as N13347. The other three survivors are on display in static condition at museums around the world: c/n 1699 at the Canada Aviation & Space Museum in Ottawa, Canada, c/n 1722 at the Science Museum’s reserve collection in Wroughton, England and c/n 1953 at the Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC.
The Boeing 247D made a safe landing at Boeing Field, and will now take her place in the Aviation Pavillion. It is an exciting day for the museum, and all involved are to be heartily congratulated!
With many thanks to Joe A. Kunzler… our man on the ground in Seattle… for the shots of the Boeing 247D’s final take off!
Richard Mallory Allnutt's aviation passion ignited at the 1974 Farnborough Airshow. Raised in 1970s Britain, he was immersed in WWII aviation lore. Moving to Washington DC, he frequented the Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum, meeting aviation legends.
After grad school, Richard worked for Lockheed-Martin but stayed devoted to aviation, volunteering at museums and honing his photography skills. In 2013, he became the founding editor of Warbirds News, now Vintage Aviation News. With around 800 articles written, he focuses on supporting grassroots aviation groups.
Richard values the connections made in the aviation community and is proud to help grow Vintage Aviation News.
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