Published December 2005

Visit by Russian officials
a sign of things to come
for Future of Flight

Photo courtesy of the Future of Flight Center and Boeing Tour A surprise pre-opening tour of the Future of Flight Center and Boeing Tour facility by Russian government officials in aviation, transportation and energy illustrates the importance of the center’s high-tech exhibits, like this composite section of a new 787.

By John Wolcott
SCBJ Editor

A few weeks ago, long before the new Future of Flight Center and Boeing Tour facility at Paine Field was due to open, its executive director, Barry Smith, received a cryptic phone call from a top Boeing executive who told him to “put on a tie, get all but essential personnel that you are willing to vouch for personally out of the building and be ready for visitors.”

Within the hour, the first in a long line of black SUVs and limousines with black-tinted windows sped up to the main entrance, nearly skidding to a stop. Doors opened and slammed; the entourage of 57 body guards, government agents and interpreters quickly hustled their passengers safely into the new building and escorted them down a long ramp into the nearly empty, concrete-floored exhibit area that soon would become the center’s Material Zone.

But that day, the only exhibit there, still resting on the giant wooden pallet it arrived on, was a huge barrel-like section of a composite fuselage designed for a yet-to-be-built 787 airliner. That was their destination.

Soon, their planned 20-minute visit stretched into an hour-and-20-minute visit as Boeing executives briefed the visiting delegation of top Russian ministers on the new composite materials in a fuselage section that normally would have been shaped from riveted sheets of aluminum.

In the visiting group were the Russian government’s ministers of transportation and energy, the head of Boeing’s Moscow aircraft design bureau and the senior management team from Russia’s Aeroflot airline.

“It was a marvelous experience,” Smith said. “But the visit not only satisfied the Russians’ curiosity — and perhaps made some solid selling points that could turn into a few 787 sales for Boeing — but, from the flight center’s standpoint, it spoke volumes about the significance of being here, in this new flight center.”

Smith said that for the Russians to have made the same visit to the floor of the Boeing assembly plant to see a composite of a 787 fuselage could have involved the factory having to shut down and evacuate a key part of the operating plant — and potentially clamp a tight security grip on the whole area. It underscored the flight center’s unanticipated role as a unique venue in which to get a close look at advanced aviation technology without having to interrupt factory production activities.

At the same time, he said, the event illustrated the importance of the center’s role in presenting the latest technology in the commercial airliner industry to the public, where technology is presented in a realm designed for visitors to actually see and touch exhibits ranging from composite aircraft materials to holographic images.

Smith has always had faith in the concept of the Future of Flight Center and Boeing Tour facility, which will open to the public Dec. 17. He has traveled thousands of miles to tell the story of the center and negotiate for top-ranked technology exhibits, but the global excitement over the center continues to surprise him.

“This center will focus on the aviation industry, but it will also be a place where innovation is celebrated, where technology will bridge language barriers, where new materials, avionics and science will change our ways of thinking, working and playing. Here, you’ll get a glimpse of the leading edge of much of today’s changing technology, an experience and insight not normally available without corporate security clearances for research laboratories,” he said.

“This is a place to share the wonders of our world and our own minds, through the wonders of what we are creating in commercial aviation,” Smith said. “The center also will have its own impact on how people who come begin to view the intellectual capital we are accumulating here in Snohomish County and appreciate its global reach.”

Related: Future of Flight Center takes flight

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