When the Imagine Children’s Museum opened in its new location in October 2004, children scrambled aboard a 28-foot long airplane mockup lovingly designed and built by a SnoKing chapter crew.
The project was launched earlier in the spring, after Bob Lee and a few others saw some architectural sketches of the new museum. The sketches showed an unusual caricature of a very stubby airplane along with an expectation that "children would have realistic sensations of actually being onboard."
"Many of us spent our careers in some part of the airplane building business," said project manager Bob Lee. "We knew we could do better than that." He started contacting potential team members and had no problem finding enthusiastic participants.
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(Above) The 7CM7 is 28 feet long in three plywood sections -- cockpit, body and tail with headroom of about seven feet.
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| The rollout of the basic framework from a remote site in Marysville (donated by a benevolent contractor) took place in early April, and final assembly was completed at the new museum, on the corner of Wall and Hoyt in Everett. |
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The 7CM7 name selected for the model reflects the Boeing practice of naming its airplanes within the 700 series. The CM, naturally, stands for Children's Museum.
With some seed money from Boeing and untold years of experience under their belts, the group set to work. The museum had allocated 30 feet of space for the exhibit.
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| The cockpit is as realistic as possible, thanks to the interest and help of current Boeing employees. The original instrument panel of the first 777 was obtained from Spares and soon scrap instruments started showing up from Boeing and other aircraft parts suppliers. Two pilots seats were rescued from scrap as were two control columns. |
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Scrap passenger seats were found in Singapore and were delivered to Boeing by UPS. The seats were doubles and the 7CM7 only had room for singles to assure wheelchair access. The problem was solved by a Manufacturing Development crew who split the seats and modified them for installation in the airplane.
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| Kent Allen was the design engineer, and he worked on the drawings in his spare time at home because his days were devoted to his 7E7 assignment. Dave Skinner (far right) was production manager and the fabrication crew consisted of Steve Ballard, John Stearman, Lee Thomas, Dave Van Loan and Bob Lee. Grady Sewell is missing from the photo. The interiors crew included Karen Bailey, Bev Innes and Sharon Ulberg. |
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"Our crew focused its efforts on delivering an awesome airplane for the hundreds of kids who will be 'flying it,' said Lee. "It will also be a perpetual symbol of pride -- for The Boeing Company, the Children's Museum -- and the retirees who have once again proven the value of their many skills."
For more information about the museum, see its website at www.childmus.org
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