'Boeing Frontiers' covers should feature products

Many of us work for Boeing because we love aircraft, helicopters, and spacecraft. But, only one cover out of the seven issues of Boeing Frontiers so far has an airplane, helicopter or spacecraft on it. This is irritating for those of us earning our keep by designing these wonderful machines. You produce a beautiful magazine with the potential to include the best and most inspiring photos of our products on the cover. Please consider a more representative selection of cover shots, such as the 777-300ER, Blue Angels F-18, International Space Station, and V-22 Osprey.

—Paul Dees, Everett, Wash.

Support for the Blended Wing Body

Boeing Commercial Airplanes has been looking for a new aircraft design for the future to be more competitive with Airbus. We have been hearing about Sonic Cruiser for months and lately several other design possibilities. But what about Blended Wing Body? As I understand it, there is market interest in such an aircraft.

Why not step up to something that is truly innovative that can challenge our way of designing and building aircraft? The fuel savings from such a design should be very attractive to the airline industry. I believe that this is the way to jump start a run at beating back Airbus.

—Tom Dean, St. Louis, Mo.

First aid training

A head-on accident recently occurred on U.S. Hwy 2 just east of Bickford Ave. in Snohomish, Wash. Two critically injured women (the driver in one vehicle and a passenger in the other) were airlifted to nearby Harborview Hospital and later upgraded to satisfactory condition. Another victim was treated in Everett and released.

Five Boeing employees in a vanpool found themselves immediately behind one of the vehicles involved in the crash. I would like to thank my "copoolers" and all the other motorists who stopped and got involved.

With no coordination at all, people found something to do and did it smoothly and calmly. Some administered first aid and comfort to the injured; two people took the children (uninjured) from the wrecked van and others took care of them while their mother and grandmother got help; a soccer mom gave a blanket to help treat shock in one of the injured victims; others directed traffic, called 911 and kept the immediate roadway clear so that the aid vehicles could get in to the heart of the scene.

I also want to give credit to the Boeing Company for making first aid training and certification available to its employees. Having that knowledge was essential in this situation.

—Ginger Eggers, Monroe, Wash.

Paint job praise

I'm an aviation buff in Dallas, Texas, and just saw the pictures on the 777-300ER's new paint scheme for the rollout. I don't know who to pass this along to, but please tell them it's beautiful! All the best to Boeing with the aircraft.

—Adam Amick, Dallas, Texas

Nice shot

The centerfold photo of the 777 cockpit and what appears to be Boeing Field, in the November 2002 issue of Boeing Frontiers, is absolutely beautiful.

—Robert Poague Olympia, Wash.

Bluebill's saga continues

Thank you for your article on the B&W in the recent Frontiers (November 2002, Historical Perspective).

Editor's note: William Boeing and his partner, G. Conrad Westervelt, called the airplanes they designed and built "B&Ws."

I am a docent at the Seattle Museum of Flight and have studied the first two Boeing airplanes, the Bluebill and the Mallard. There is a wealth of information on the planes at the Museum and it indicates that one (maybe the Bluebill, as your article states) is missing. The other was hauled out to sea and used as target practice by the New Zealand Navy.

A book published about 25 years ago, "Across the Pacific," chronicles the B&W and includes a similar story about George Bolt landing in the Dargaville River and breaking a float. He had the passenger climb out onto the end of the wing to keep the plane from capsizing. (I mention this because your article has the B&W having a problem in winds requiring someone to stand on the floats to keep from tipping.)

Meantime, the launch that was there to pick up the mail tried to pull the B&W onto shore, but only could drag the rope. There was a train track on the shore of the Dargaville River. A train was flagged, then the rope was used by the train to pull in Bolt's B&W!

— Dave Wellman, Mercer Island, Wash.

I read with keen interest your article printed in the November 2002 Boeing Frontiers magazine relating in the final two paragraphs the uncertainty of the disposition of the crafts after their useful life at the flying school.

I am a docent at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, and I have been corresponding by email for more than four years with Jon Smyth in Auckland, New Zealand, about his contention (and that of a partner John Earnshaw) that there is a substantial body of historical evidence that the planes were not burned, but rather replaced into their original packing cases and stored in one of the many ammunition tunnels bored into North Head in the harbor of Auckland. They have recovered one Hall Scott engine—a spare— that was sold with the planes, but not from the tunnels.

There has been much controversy in New Zealand about the whereabouts of these planes.

—Don Bernitt, Seattle, Wash.

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