Fly like an Eagle

Many of you — well those of you who have read the “About” page anyway — know that until recently I lived in a town North of Seattle. Relatively few of you knew that I lived in a little seaside town known for its ferry landing and lighthouse, nestled next to a small city called Everett. In my back yard you could see dozens of bird species alone over the course of a year, and if you watched carefully while driving around town, it was really not unusual to see Bald Eagles. One nesting pair lived near a friend of mine, another pair lived a mile or so down the road in the woods that bordered the airport.

By airport, I do not mean a little hunk of tarmac where a dozen guys keep their private planes. When you hear that a major foreign dignitary or high-ranking federal official is in Seattle, chances are they landed at this airport, Paine Field. This facility was used for military aircraft in World War II, and is capable of landing, servicing, and allowing departure of Boeing’s biggest jets.

Did I mention that the Boeing factory — the biggest building in the world — was across the highway?

And now your memory is jogged about where you have heard of Everett, Washington: the parade of news and events surrounding the unveiling of the 787 Dreamliner. All this on the amusing date of 7/8/07. Oh, and don’t forget the plane that makes the Dreamliner possible, the gargantuan transport plane called the Dreamlifter. I’m glad they finally got around to putting company colors on that thing; I last saw it in the green primer Boeing uses. Why, it was just almost enough to make me nostalgic. Yes, the sky can really be that blue over Seattle.

Now don’t get me wrong, I do not miss being able to hear Boeing bench-testing new engines, and I can’t honestly say I miss hearing planes every day, even though they were nifty to look at (and the oldest, niftiest planes were generally the loudest). But I can say from a position of authority that newer Boeing hardware such as the 737 and 777 are a lot quieter (and almost certainly more efficient) than older hardware like the 707 and 727. I suspect that the hype is correct that the 787 will be the quietest, most fuel efficient plane they have built to date.

It isn’t just the locals that are excited about the plane. The company already has well over 600 pre-orders, set to begin delivering next year. If you can’t afford to buy one, you can just lease it for a mere $1,000,000 per month.

No surprise that MSNBC/CNBC sent Phil LeBeau out to talk about it on and off all day, and certainly no surprise that Boeing stock ended up on the day yesterday.

I bet traffic on the Speedway was simply insane.

In closing: the Man who Wouldn’t Go Away; sorting us further into haves and have-nots, experts claim the Registered Traveler system speeds up lines, but don’t mention that the extra capacity could be used to speed everyone along; it turns out we can blame Blackwater for Fallujah; follow up, it turns out that more jobs were created that involve the phrase “How can I help you” last month than the total net job creation number; be sure to let your Congresscritters know where you stand on health insurance for children, but I personally think it’s a Good Thing; one of my favorite writers, Dave Johnson, could use some donations; you don’t suppose that the same lousy diet rich in processed foods that has been making us fat might also be making us shorter, do you?; the press has noticed campaign fatigue; tough rhetoric with hard numbers from handy scorecards of where the presidential candidates stand on healthcare; Brad Plumer gives us cleaning up China; and finally, Canada declares Santa must be Canadian, sends ships to “assert sovereignty” (and presumably collect taxes), but hey at least the elves get National Health and CBC.