Day 1 of Where in the World is Matt Lauer took him to Everett, WA and he toured the Boeing 777 assembly line. Talks a lot about the 777, competition, takes a sim ride, and even talks a lot about the 787.
The 787 part is not on MSNBC’s site yet, if I see it, I will post the link for that as well.
Boeing has to be pretty happy with this, over an hour of free air time so far.
We figured someone must be talking about us when the Monday morning traffic was up 700% from the usual and hundreds of new users were registering every hour.
Looks like a couple erroneous hits over New Hampshire… based on the altitude/airspeed, it looks like a controller typo’d the tail number for another aircraft during departure, then corrected it.
If only they didn’t have those 3 PWTTACBRDECCTBCMLHAP*!
Matt Lauer says that they are called 707, 727, etc., because 7 is a lucky number. In over 30 years of learning about Boeing, I have never heard that BS. If that was true then Boeing would renumber its aircraft when they sell them to Asian operators because the Asians have a different lucky number.
Besides, he either conveniently forgets or doesn’t know that Boeing made several aircraft that only have one 7 in them - 367, 307, and 720.
*People who think they are cute but really don’t even come close to being cute, much less having a personality.
I am one of the new users who never heard about this Web site or the FlightAware company. Now I have something new to use up my “spare” time. I already checked out the recent history of a flight that I will be taking from IAD to LAX and am happy.
Do you think Boeing gave NBC a free charter to take Matt around the world? Maybe in exchange for all that publicity and more to come if he arrives on a new Boeing aircraft like the “Dreamliner” promoted all morning. In any case, Boeing did receive some good publicity.
Living six miles from Dulles International in Virginia, I have a few too many aircraft over my head. When I arrived here in 1977 Dulles seemed to have about one flight a day. My wife and I would go out there hoping to find some relief from boredom and caring for our toddler, but it turned out to be the wrong place for plane watching Now they are up to over 1000 commercial flights a day.
Damiross] I think that Matt got the information about the “lucky number” of 7 from someone right there at Boeing. If it is wrong you should direct your comment to Boeing.
The New York broadcasters asked for his aircraft number and he pretended to start to give it and then laughed, saying if he did every one could track him [on Flightaware.com]
Anyway, I enjoyed the segment about Boeing. I’ve noted that they have a factory tour and have put that on my wish list for travel. Especially after learning that Washington state’s largest export is not apples. Guess what it is?
Thanks for the opportunity to join this neat Web site.
The 367 I mentioned in my posting should have been 377.
From The Boeing 707, 720 and C-135 by Tony Pither (an Air-Britain publication):
Boeing were considering new versions of the Model 367 (C-97) to try and improve the performance profile… Boeing realised (sic) the C-97 had reached the ultimate in performance with piston engines and the old B-29 wing… Artist impressions were produced showing mock-ups of jet transports with the tandem undercarriage of the B47 and the installation of engines in pairs in underwing pods, this was allocated the Boeing model number 367-64.
The final designed approved bye the Boeing board was the 80th variant and was a totally new aircraft… the Boeing Board decided to build a prototype as the 367-80 - this suggested that it was yet another C-97 derivative and helped keep the design secret. A new system of number was introduced in the early 1950s, so the new transport was renumbered into the 700 block and the number 707 was chosen. When the project was announced, publicity referred to the Model 707 although the prototype was known as the 367-80 or Dash 80 throughout its life by both Boeing and the FAA.
While Boeing and Lauer may say that the 707, etc., are numbered as such because it is a lucky number, all they are doing is rewriting history.
I know alot about Boeing and I had never heard that lucky 7 line before. I think the PR folks leading Lauer around pulled that out of thin air.
The info is out there but I don’t really feel like researching it tonight. What I recall is the 707 was originally called the 367-80 (aka dash eighty). Essentially they gambled the company on this project and it was falling behind at the same time Douglas and others were developing their commercial jets. I recall they renamed the program 707 to give it a very distinctive clean break and new image for the product and the entire company. I think they were also planning the 727 by that time so they knew there would be others in this line of jets.
edit… I just noticed Dami’s post quoting a story about Boeing, I didn’t really read it the first time as I thought it was a quote to correct an earlier post or something.
The lucky number theory does sound like a quick PR answer to the emailed-in question on the show. They probably felt it must have been their lucky day when the 707 was born.
I remember the excitement when the first flights started arriving and departing in Denver while I was living there. I felt lucky to finally be able to take a trip on one on Continental (?) after too many rough and noisy flights as a passenger in other planes.
I HAVE heard the “lucky number 7” thing before. I read it in a book about Boeing airliners. I can’t find the one I got from Amazon, but here is another one that contains basically the same information:
Now they are up to over 1000 commercial flights a day.
