The fully restored 1928 vintage Boeing Model 40, owned and flown by Addison Pemberton of Spokane, Wash., is the only flyable Model 40 in the world and the oldest flying Boeing aircraft of any kind. The Model 40 not only is notable as Boeing’s first production commercial airplane, but its innovation and efficiency were the deciding factor in Boeing Air Transport (the airline subsidiary of the Boeing Airplane Company) winning the lucrative Oakland-to-Chicago air mail route in 1927. That event set William Boeing on a course that, within just two years, would take him from managing his airplane company in Seattle to presiding over a vast nationwide aviation empire called United Aircraft and Transport Corporation.
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="450" caption="Boeing 787 and Boeing Model 40"]
[/caption]The 787 and the Model 40 are both similar in that they are the technological leaders of their time. They clearly illustrate the dramatic progress in airplane design. The two airplanes side by side show the how far Boeing has come in 80 years.
During those 80 years, the people of Boeing have introduced innovative technologies that have revolutionized flight and defined the design of all commercial airplanes.
Getting this picture was not easy. Boeing Chief Test Pilot Mike Carriker expertly maneuvered the first 787, ZA001 into a formation with the Model 40 at 12,000 feet. This allowed the photographer Ryan Pemberton to take the striking photo. He was flying in an A36 Bonanza.
"It really took a lot of work and planning," Carriker said. "When I came alongside the Model 40 against those big puffy clouds it was unbelievable: Here is this 1928 biplane flying with a 2010 airplane side by side. How amazing the history of The Boeing Company is – it was really exciting."
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