WORTH A SECOND GLANCE

BOEING BACKGROUNDS

When postcards are produced from manufacturer-issued photographs a pattern of regularly used backgrounds often emerges. When Vickers/BAC were building at Bournemouth/Hurn, south coast coastal views often appeared, while the buildings at their Weybridge site often appear as backgrounds of both of these types + the VC-10. But the Boeing company has used two sites as regular photographic backgrounds for many years – these are Boeing Field,  Renton, near Seattle and the volcano which forms a background to that city, Mt Ranier. Mount Ranier is such a standard backdrop that it appears many times on airline-issue cards of Boeing customers. According to a recently- heard speaker from Ryanair, this practice now extends to offering a Boeing-made video as an optional extra in any fleet purchase package – for which Boeing will only change an extra $15,000. Needless to say Ryanair got one of their crew to fly his own plane as a camera-ship and shot theirs somewhere over Ireland – no mountain. The following cards shows the prototype 707 over the volcano on a Dutch-issue card.

The Boeing B-9 bomber – card by real Photographs of Liverpool is one of the earlier examples of its use

The Aerolineas Argentinas 747-200 is one of many airline-issue appearances

Boeing Field was the site of the original Boeing Factory and is still a narrow-body production site. On the east side, the ground rises quite steeply in a wooded bank with a railway line running along the base.

The 1930s terminal from when the field had scheduled services is also on that side. On the west side is the Boeing plant and the Museum of Flight. Although not a promoted feature in the way that Boeing have used Mt Ranier, the wooded skyline is an easily recognizable feature on other Boeing take off and landing views, as well as shots of the flight line. Shown is an early model B-17 landing from the South  and a Lufthansa 707 landing from the North with the wooded slope in the background. (Mary Jayne card MJ350)