Contact: Sandy Ward, Marketing Director
Office (425)438-8100
Fax (425)265-9808
sandy@futureofflight.org
Date: July 1, 2005

Backgrounder on the Future of Flight & Boeing Tour

The new Future of Flight & Boeing Tour will open as a unique interpretive facility designed to let visitors experience the marvel of commercial jet aviation and production. From interactive exhibits — design your own plane. — to the only tour of a commercial jet assembly plant in North America, the Future of Flight will add a major visitor attraction to Western Washington. It is anticipated to draw more than 200,000 visitors per year — compared to the approximately 100,000 annual visitors who now visit the current Boeing Tour Center — and generate an additional $3.5 million annually of tourism spending in Snohomish County.

Currently under construction at Paine Field in Everett, the 73,000-square-foot facility will feature:

• 28,000-square-foot Aviation Gallery with interactive exhibits and displays
• 9,000-square-foot, rooftop observation deck overlooking Paine Field
• new tour center for the nearby plant in which Boeing assembles its 747, 767, 777 and soon 787 airplanes
• conference space for 250 people; special event space for groups of up to 700 people
• aviation education programs for children K-12th grade
• 240-seat theater
• 125-seat restaurant
• Future of Flight Store and Boeing Store

The $23 million Future of Flight will contain interactive exhibits and displays designed to provide visitors with an understanding and appreciation of technology as applied to the science of flight. For example, visitors can design their own jet and then pick up a print of it in the Future of Flight Store to take home. They can try out the next generation of in-flight entertainment systems, touch the high-tech "skin" of the new Boeing 787 and learn how technology and aviation can serve as change agents to connect people and cultures across the globe.

The Aviation Center also creates a new, much larger educational facility for visitors to gather before taking a shuttle bus to tour the nearby Boeing commercial jet assembly plant. When the Aviation Center opens, the Boeing Tour will expand to seven days a week — instead of the current weekday-only schedule. The tour itself will not change — visitors will continue to walk through the largest building in the world by volume to view the amazing assembly of Boeing jets and learn how "all the pieces come together."

The lead architectural firm for the Future of Flight and Boeing Tour is Freiheit & Ho of Bellevue and the design architect is Krei Architecture of Seattle.

An adjacent development is the new Hilton Garden Inn, a 102-room hotel also under construction and due to open this October. Designed for both business travelers and families, it will feature suites with high-speed Internet access and secure remote printing, 4,000 square-feet of flexible, high-tech meeting space, 24-hour business center, work-out facility, indoor swimming pool and whirlpool, on-site guest laundry and full-service restaurant with catering capability for the Aviation Center.

The Future of Flight is located in the northwest corner of Paine Field at the intersection of 84th St. and Paine Field Blvd.

For more information, visit www.futureofflight.org.

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