Giants in the Pacific Northwest Air Industry

Boeing launched a mass air transporter July 15th of 1954 that changed the world and mass air transportation, the Boeing 707.

The first time I ever flew on an airplane was nerve-wracking, not only because it was my first flight but also because I flew by myself from Florida to our home one half-hour south of Chicago. In my teens, I had been vacationing with my parents and needed to return to my Illinois Bell Telephone Company job. It was an Eastern Airlines flight, and it might have been on a Boeing 707. Eastern (now defunct) and TWA (also defunct) used Boeing 707s. Northwest Airlines, taken over by Delta Air Lines, also used that jet.

The 707 revolutionized modern air travel and was a sleek precursor to the 747. ** Boeing—Boeing all the way. In the early 90s, a friend told me to fly only Boeing. He said he told his daughter to change flights if she was on anything but a Boeing plane. **

Alaska Airlines is based in SeaTac, Washington, north of where I live, so I use that airline whenever possible. Before I retired, I regularly traveled to Washington, D.C., for work, and I loved Alaska Air's direct flight. The Alaska Air miles card gets me free baggage and a companion fare ticket. They use Boeing jets. I know the blown window on that Alaska Airlines flight scares many, but I TRUST Alaska Airlines and Boeing.

In the 1980s and 1990s, we occasionally flew Space A on military flights between McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, WA, and Elmendorf in Anchorage, Alaska.

The planes, usually stripped down with web seating on the sides, could be any type the Air Force used, usually similar to a Boeing 727 or 747.

Space A flights cost ten dollars and included a boxed lunch. The crew brought the white boxed lunches to us in our web seats facing the other side of the plane. They strapped our luggage in the center with the cargo they carried. We wore ear protection because sitting in cargo flight web seats was noisy, but we could lie down and sleep if the plane wasn't full. If the flight was labeled "chill," we passed. It didn't mean a laid-back, chill flight - it meant they carried frozen cargo, and it would have been a really cold flight.

A July day, the flight seemed too long, and right after I pointed that out to my Army husband, the announcement came. "Folks, our mission has changed. We will be landing in Fairbanks instead of Anchorage." We "vacationers" were on our own. We exited the plane en masse, rented three cars, and drove eight hours south in a caravan to Anchorage, arriving about three a.m. One soldier with three small children offered us sleeping space in his living room for the night, and we took it!

The KC-135 Stratotanker is another plane by Boeing, and this beast refuels other planes in the air (not commercial jets). The most exciting Space A flight was on the Stratoliner; the crew called me to the refueling cockpit and let me sit in the seat, gazing out the huge window where another jet would hook up to re-fuel in the air. It had to be in July because the weather was great, with clear viewing for miles out of the refueling cockpit seat. What an amazing, lucky event for me (no one else got to do it).

On one special Space A flight, we boarded a Navy jet outfitted with very nice forward-facing airplane seats, like on normal flights for which people buy tickets. There weren't many passengers; my memory is blank of details on how we got home from the naval air base where we landed; it was way north of Seattle, far from our town. I am unsure what kind of plane it was, but I recall being awed at the luxurious ride and telling everyone that Navy military flights were the best.

We considered Flying Space A to and from Alaska on military planes ultra-safe. Besides the fact that Boeing made the planes, if the pilots could fly to and within Alaska, we would be in safe hands because the flying conditions to get there and within the state are rough.

Air travel has come a long way since the Wright Brothers and other forerunners. Boeing, no matter what the news or what the subcontractor or a disgruntled worker did or said, still carries my high regard.

I wrote this piece for Mikey's July Challenge. On July 15th, 1954, Boeing's 707 made its first flight. We were to pick an event from the calendar provided in the Challenge instructions.