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Above & Beyond: Boeing’s Centennial Traveling Exhibit
By Larry E. Nazimek
Entrance to Boeing’s “Above and Beyond” exhibit. As one walks through the entrance, the B & W Seaplane is the first thing they see. (Larry E. Nazimek)Boeing, whose headquarters is in Chicago, is celebrating its centennial, and their travelling exhibit, “Above & Beyond,” is making its rounds. We visited the exhibit as it opened in Chicago’s Museum of Science & Industry.
Marcellus Rolle, of Boeing’s Centennial Anniversary Communications Office, explained, “Boeing does business worldwide, so there are actually three of these exhibits: one for the U. S., one for Europe, and one for Asia, in the appropriate languages. This one is in English, with Spanish subtitles.”
The first thing one sees as he enters the exhibit, is a ¼-scale model of the B & W Seaplane, named after its designers, William Boeing and U. S. Navy Lt. Conrad Westervelt. Made of wood, metal, and fabric, it was the first Boeing product. Its first flight was on June 15, 1916, and its maximum speed was 75 mph.
The Cradle of Aviation Celebrates the Rich Aviation and Space Heritage of Long Island and Much, Much More
By Mark Rhodes
“The entrance of The Cradle of Aviation Museum makes a dramatic backdrop for the author’s grandchildren, Jackson and Sloane” (Mark Rhodes)Long Island has been the location of many seminal events related to aviation such as the first night flight (1916); the first flight of pilotless aircraft (1917); and of course Long Island’s Roosevelt Field was the takeoff point for what remains probably the most famous flight in U.S. History: the first solo transatlantic flight by Charles Lindbergh in 1927. Long Island also was, for many years, the home of The Grumman Aircraft Aviation Corporation (later changed to the Grumman Aerospace Corporation), which was a major player in the Space Race during the Cold War. The result of this is that Long Island has long been considered “The Cradle of Aviation.”
In fact, such is the case that Long Island has one of the finest aviation museum’s in the country (arguably second only to the Air and Space Museum) titled, appropriately enough, The Cradle of Aviation Museum, which celebrates the richness of aviation history and particularly the rich aviation history of Long Island in a very grand and inspiring manner. The entrance offers a dramatic touch with cathedral-like ceilings with a soaring wall of glass panes and historic and vintage aircraft hovering majestically above ground forever in flight. Among the aircraft greeting you at the entrance is a sleek and powerful looking Grumman F-11F (Grumman of course having manufactured aircraft and developed NASA technology on Long Island for much of the 20th century).