First Boeing 747 finally returning to glory

Technicians work to restore the interior and exterior of the original Boeing 747 prototype following decades of outdoor service and display since its maiden flight in 1969, photographed here on Thursday, July 24, 2014, at The Museum of Flight in Seattle, Wash. It was the first 747 ever built, complete with the serial number of 001. The MOF expects the process to be complete by the end of the summer, and the aircraft will remain on exhibit in the Museum Airpark during the process. less Technicians work to restore the interior and exterior of the original Boeing 747 prototype following decades of outdoor service and display since its maiden flight in 1969, photographed here on Thursday, July ... more Photo: JORDAN STEAD, SEATTLEPI.COM Photo: JORDAN STEAD, SEATTLEPI.COM Image 1 of / 62 Caption Close First Boeing 747 finally returning to glory 1 / 62 Back to Gallery

The first Boeing 747 jumbo jet -- one of the engineering marvels of the 20th century -- was, well, we'll let Museum of Flight Curator Dan Hagedorn give a technical assessment.

"It was pretty grody," Hagedorn said inside the mammoth aircraft on Thursday.

Boeing rolled the 747-100 out of its Everett wide-body aircraft plant on Sept. 30, 1968, ushering in the jumbo-jet era. It first flew on Feb. 9, 1969.

Boeing has since delivered 1,488 747s in various versions, including the current 747-8 Freighter and Intercontinental airliner. More than 5.6 billion people had flown aboard a 747, according to Boeing.

Thanks to its size and unique shape, the 747 may be the most recognized aircraft in the world.

After its first flight, the first 747 continued to take to the air for tests related to the 747 program and then later jets, such as the 777, before retiring to the Museum of Flight's outdoor airpark. After the years of use and sitting outside, paint was faded and chipping, inside and out, many original elements had been stripped out or severely damaged, and other sections were just covered with grime.

The museum conducted a conservation assessment nearly 14 years ago, but didn't have the money to restore the jet until recently.

Also, the conservation assessment found that the aircraft wasn't in as bad a shape as had been thought, Hagedorn said. "It's one of those things where it looked worse than it was."

It certainly looked bad to Guy Amico when he first inspected the 747.

"I immediately felt horrible for the airplane and felt we just needed to do whatever we could right away," Amico, president of Global Jet Painting, of Ojai, California, said as his crew sanded sections of the jet Thursday.

Amico has taken on other high-profile painting projects, including Donald Trump's 757, bought from Paul Allen, and John Travolta's 707, which has a vintage Qantas paint job ("livery," in airplane speak).

Still, working on the first 747 outside, in an airpark full of other iconic aircraft, is an unusual situation.

For one thing, museum visitors watch the crew in action.

"Normally you are in a hangar, and it's just us," Amico said. "It's actually exciting to see families and children pointing and taking pictures."

Also, given the setting, spray painting is not an option.

"We don't have much choice other than to roll it," Amico said.

And work stops in the rain, as happened this week.

"We were ready for a break," Amico said. "We've been sanding 12 hours a day for about a week."

After the masking and sanding come small repairs, priming and painting. By the time Amico and his crew are done, expected in September, the airplane will be back to the red-and-white livery it bore when it emerged from the Everett plant 46 years ago, plus some features that were added later, such as the "City of Everett" moniker, names of the original flight crew and black "1" in a circle. An added black stripe will go, while original customer logos will return.

Meanwhile, the museum is restoring the interior to flight-test configuration, which means lots of test equipment, but few airliner finishes.

About the only finishes Boeing gave to the main deck were side panels, and even those didn't go all the way around. The museum has left off the same panels that Boeing did.

Boeing did fit out a lounge in the upper deck. Restoring that has meant, among other things, buying the last remaining bit of the original groovy '60s upholstery from the manufacturer, getting Boeing to dig up a custom bulb that would work in the unique circular light at the top of the spiral staircase and recreating exit signs that had melted from the heat of the lights behind them.

The flight deck still had the original instrumentation, but it had been repainted, and the paint was in bad shape.

Once the interior is ready, visitors will be able to walk along the port side of the main deck, but most won't be allowed upstairs.

"We do about 550,000 people a year," Hagedorn noted. "If we put 550,000 people up that staircase, it would be wrecked in about 15 days."

The museum has considered bringing in a refueling boom to feature Boeing's tests of the 747 as an in-flight refueling tanker. But finding the appropriate boom has proved difficult.

Hagedorn also wants to highlight the 747's role testing the massive Rolls-Royce engine built for the two-engine 777. But museum staffers haven't been able to find the unique cowling Boeing used in the tests.

The museum's next planned project after restoring the 747 is a roof over the airpark to better protect the vintage planes. The roof is scheduled to be up around the end of 2016. A second phase will add walls.

"This will become one of the largest galleries for air transport history in the world," Hagedorn said.

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