Final Air Force plane maintained at Boeing facility leaves Wichita

[unhappycamper]

http://www.kansas.com/2014/05/29/3480742/final-air-force-plane-maintained.html



Final Air Force plane maintained at Boeing facility leaves Wichita
By Molly McMillin
The Wichita Eagle
Published Thursday, May 29, 2014, at 11:22 a.m.
Updated Thursday, May 29, 2014, at 8:09 p.m

~snip~

The last plane to undergo maintenance inside Boeing Wichita’s facility, an E-4B, started its engines and took off late Thursday afternoon. It flew to the south, then gracefully turned back north for a final goodbye pass before disappearing from sight.

A fixture in Wichita since 1927, Boeing once employed as many as 40,000 people here. It was a vital center of military production during World War II, building trainers and the B-29 Superfortress and helping the city become known as the Air Capital of the World.

Before Thursday’s departure, Boeing employees completed maintenance on the white and blue aircraft for the Air Force. The modified Boeing 747 was undergoing final test flights and preparations for delivery, according to information from the Air Force.

~snip~

Boeing announced in January 2012 that it was closing its Wichita defense plant and moving engineering and project management duties to Oklahoma City; modification, maintenance and repair work to San Antonio, and tanker work to the Puget Sound area of Washington state.

[KT2000]

1. that's is too bad

it looks like they are not so concerned about separating military from commercial now. My dad was project engineer on the tankers and their predecessors. Forty years ago he took early retirement because they sent all the tanker work to Wichita and he didn't want to move. Now it is coming back home. Life is funny.

I'm sorry for Wichita- its history runs deep with Boeing.