The oldest flying Boeing in the world - restored Boeing 40

These photos have been making the email rounds, so thought I'd share them here:

"This is as it should be -- passengers in closed cabin, pilot in open cockpit so he will stay awake. The airplane is in Spokane, WA and is the oldest flying Boeing in the world."



After 8 years of repair and rebuilding, and 8,000 hours of toil, the Boeing 40C rolled out last winter as a finished airplane, but it took a few weeks for the snow to melt before it was taken out of the hangar. Project personnel received the Standard Airworthiness Certificate from the FAA and completed the engine pre-oil and fuel flow tests for the first of the taxi tests.



Facts about the Boeing 40 project:
221 1/2 gallons of dope/reducer and 120 yards of 102 ceconite fabric.
12 gallons of poly urethane paint for the sheet metal.
The wings have 33,000 individual parts in them.
The airplane weighs 4080 lbs empty and has a gross weight of 6075 lbs..
It is 34 ft long and 13 feet tall with a wing span of 44 1/2 feet.
Wing loading is 10 lbs per sq ft and power loading is 10 Pounds per HP.. It should cruise at 115 mph using 28 GPH, and 32 GPH at 120 mph. It carries 120 gallons of fuel in three tanks.
350 two-inch brushes were used to apply 6 gallons of West Systems epoxy, and 181 rolls of paper towels were used for cleanup.
A total of 62 volunteers worked on the project to some degree, 21 of whom performed a significant amount of work, and nine of them worked on the plane continuously throughout the 8-year project.