The centerpiece of the Propulsion Zone is a trio of engines that span the jet age, from those on the earliest De Havilland Comet to those powering the Boeing 777.
Michael O’Leary / The Herald
But while the engines themselves are big gleaming pieces of eye candy, Future of Flight officials say there’s plenty of substance for visitors to chew on at this exhibit.
“It’s all about what it takes to get an airplane off the ground,” museum marketing director Sandy Ward said.
The giant engines that push Boeing’s long-range 777s generate more than 100,000 pounds of thrust. Visitors to the Future of Flight will get to see one of them, a Pratt &Whitney 4000.
The plan is to display the engine with its cowlings open so visitors can look inside at its inner workings – and run their hands over it.
The engine is huge; it weighs 6 tons, and came to the museum packed in a shipping container that weighed a ton by itself.
But it’s also incredibly intricate. “It’s the engineering and the build and the placement,” said Dan Rahkonen, the Boeing Co.’s liaison to the Future of Flight. “It’s so precise.”
“They’re a brilliant piece of architecture all by themselves,” said Barry Smith, the Future of Flight’s executive director.
Along with the display engines, kiosks in the Propulsion Zone will have videos created by engine-makers General Electric and Rolls-Royce that demonstrate just how a jet engine works: how fan blades suck air into a combustion chamber, where it mixes with fuel, burns and blasts from the rear of the structure, creating thrust.
Engines are also a key component in the design-your-own-airplane activity, said John Vadino, who designed the program. Different buttons allow designers to chose between engines that are powerful and fast or fuel-sipping efficient.
Pratt &Whitney donated two of the engines on display in the Propulsion Zone, the PW 4000 that powers 777s and a JT-3P that was used on Boeing’s first jet airliner, the 707.
The company – a division of United Technologies – was eager to be involved with the new museum, said Greg Bates, a program manager for Pratt &Whitney’s Seattle office.
“Future of Flight was looking for an engine donation, and we were the first to come to the party,” he said.
As the weeks counted down to the opening, Bates said he was anxious to see the museum come together.
“We toured this when there was nothing here but dirt,” he said. “It’s exciting.”
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