Have you ever thought about what it takes to build a Boeing plane?

Roger Hoy, Boeing Traffic Administrator (on right) with Kevin Park, APL Account Executive at the Seattle Terminal 5 Grand Opening party.

Back in the early part of the century, when The Boeing Company was founded, building a plane was not that complicated. Boeing built small biplanes from a warehouse on the shores of Lake Union in Seattle, Washington.

Today, though, Boeing manufactures jets, helicopters, rockets, and even lunar rovers at dozens of different factories. And it relies on equipment and supplies from all over the world to do that.

Getting the right equipment, supplies, and parts to the right places at the right time while a plane is being built is what Boeing Traffic Administrator Roger Hoy does every day. He works with suppliers in every corner of the globe to make sure that all the things Boeing needs to manufacture a plane arrive at the factory in good condition and just when they’re needed.

That’s where the Boomerang Box comes in. While an airplane is being built, supplies and equipment arrive by ship, truck, train and plane. Roger Hoy recently used the Boomerang Box to carry a load of equipment from Japan to Seattle. The Boomerang Box got its first opportunity to be part of the building of an airplane!
 

In many cases, a cargo container like the Boomerang Box can be used to carry raw materials or supplies to a factory and then to carry the finished product back out to its final destination. That is true, for instance, when a container carries lumber to a mill and then carries rolls of paper out. But, as you can imagine, it is definitely not the case with an airplane.

When Boeing builds an airplane, it has to deliver the new plane to its customer itself. Boeing customers are airlines that are located all over the world — in the US, in Europe, in Asia. When a plane is delivered to a Boeing customer, the plane is flown to its new home carrying no cargo and just a small group of Boeing officials. This is called the “delivery flight.”

This is a rather unique way to deliver a product to a customer, but then an airplane is a rather unique product! Several years ago, though, as Boeing employees thought about all these delivery flights that were sending new Boeing planes to destinations all over the world, they wondered if there might be a way to make these delivery flights more useful. After all, an airplane — just like a cargo container — serves its function best when it is carrying something whether that something be people or cargo.

Boeing employees realized that new Boeing planes were often delivered to places in the world where people were in need. And that was the start of the Boeing International Relief Delivery Flights Program, which started in 1992.

Through this program, the new airplane’s first flight is put to good use transporting food, clothing and medical supplies to people who are in need because of war, famine, or natural disaster. Since 1992, new Boeing airplanes have been used to transport over 682 tons of food, medicine, and supplies to help in emergencies.

When the worst flooding in 40 years hit people living along the Yantze River in China last fall, Boeing, Air China, and Project HOPE worked together to deliver $1.3 million in medicine and supplies. Over the next few months, these three organizations will deliver six more sea and air shipments of supplies to help flood victims rebuild their homes, replant their fields, and get safe food and water for their children.

When Hurricane Mitch struck Central America later in the fall, the Boeing program was there to help again. Thousands of people were killed by the fierce storm and many were injured. Many lost their homes and had no place to go. Boeing, COPA Airlines of Panama, and Northwest Medical Teams delivered more than $1 million in medical supplies to Honduras. Even though COPA Airlines did not normally fly to Honduras, it was willing to send its brand new plane there because the need for medicine was so desperate.

And when economic troubles in Russia meant that children in orphanages there were going hungry, Boeing worked with Aeroflot Airlines and the International Women’s Club of Moscow to send them food and supplies.

A Boeing airplane races through the skies to destinations all over the globe. The Boomerang Box travels over land and sea on ship, truck or train. But these very different ways of transporting goods have very much in common. Beginning when a plane is built, it depends on cargo containers to deliver the equipment and supplies that are needed. And once the plane is completed, it can, just like a cargo container, carry goods and supplies anywhere in the world.

What do you think air travel will be like in the next century? How do you think we will help people who need emergency supplies one hundred years from now?