EVERETT — The first Boeing 727 is almost ready to take to the sky again. It is tentatively scheduled to take off from Paine Field outside Everett for Boeing Field in Seattle on March 1.
It has been sitting at the Museum of Flight’s Restoration Center at Paine Field since 1991, when United Air Lines donated the airplane.
The Boeing 727 first flew Feb. 9, 1963. The company delivered the last of the classic trijets in 1984, making it one of the company’s most commercially successful jetliners. It was the first commercial airplane to rack up more than 1,000 sales, and in the end, Boeing delivered 1,832 727s.
Volunteers have spent countless hours restoring the airplane in order to make the short flight south. The flight will also be part of the Museum of Flight’s year-long recognition of the Boeing Co.’s centennial. (Check out the first installments of The Daily Herald’s Boeing Century series here and here.)
It hasn’t been easy going. One volunteer, Bob Bogash has documented the restoration work online.
“Back in the trenches. It’s raining cats and dogs. Also pigs and chickens,” he wrote in a Jan. 28 post.
Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; dcatchpole@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @dcatchpole.
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