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RICK BROOME BOEING 727 STUDIO
DECEMBER 16, 2005
We have known our architect Al Feinstein for almost
thirty-five years. He is one of our dearest friends, very well known, highly
respected, and somewhat "famous" in this area. He is also one of the funniest
guys Billie and I have ever known! I call him my Brother. He and I have talked
about building my new studio for at least thirty years. All of this has evolved
from a reoccurring dream I started having in the early 1970s. To describe the
dream is easy. For Al to design what I "saw" (over and over again) was a real
challenge!
In my very vivid and visual dream what would always happen is that when people
came to visit me they entered my creative work area through a United Boeing 727
airliner. It was like the United jet was parked inside the studio. Then visitors
would walk down a set of boarding stairs into my very large studio; the size was
overwhelming. And I would also dream about seeing the studio from the outside
too. In that part I was always looking up at it because it was sitting on a
small hill. That part of the dream was frustrating. Although I could get right
to the bottom of the hill, I was never able to climb it to get to my studio!
Finally about five years ago I got up that hill in the dream! The feeling I had
in the dream was very spiritual. It was like Heaven to me! But it was so
overwhelming that all I could do was stand there and look at the studio with the
airliner parked inside. That part of the dream was always at night time. I
remember the ethereal lighting of the dream very well as I type today's journal
right now. Our latest construction photos will be posted on our website at
www.rickbroome.com over the weekend.
View from the 727 entry door into my new studio.
Note the hill on the other side of the big fork lift!
Finally, I took my ideas (and years of different
sketches I had made after having the reoccurring dream) to Al in the summer of
2002. He designed at least ten different buildings before we started getting
close to what I had "seen" in my dreams which kept occurring. And I kept adding
things to his designs as I would remember them from the dreams. We narrowed
things down going through at least another five iterations with the final
approval of his design accepted before Christmas over a year ago.
Several months were invested in making final decisions and visiting with
different contractors. We were very fortunate to select Mitch Christiansen as
our General Contractor. We developed a relationship with him that became better
with each meeting. The final plans were submitted to him for an estimate in
about January 2005. After that phase (and approval of his initial estimate) the
plans were then submitted to a very reputable local structural engineering firm.
They took several months to complete their end of the bargain and were totally
thorough in considering every angle. The final plans were submitted to COS City
Regional Building Authority for approval and issuance of the required building
permit. As I recall they were approved without a single change; our
architectural design and engineering was that good!
We had been searching for a suitable Boeing 727 for over two years. (In the
original design we were going to use a Fiberglas full size replica of just the
nose section of a United Boeing 727 in 1960s livery. We finally located a former
TWA three-holer and it appeared this was going to be the jet for the studio. It
should be noted that my search for a United 727 was unsuccessful. Unfortunately,
six months after we picked the former TWA 727-231 (N64323) and had a contract on
it some unknown issues caused that the owner to avoid signing our purchase
agreement for the entire airframe less engines. He is a huge Hillary Clinton
fan, friend, and supporter who owns five 727s and is donating one to Hillary for
her presidential run. I wondered if maybe he found out I created a painting for
President Bush?
We were very fortunate to purchase the former United
727-222A that is now sitting in my studio. This jet had always been my first
choice. Above photo by the late Frank Schaefer shows our 727 (N7266U) in her
delivery colors at DEN. The entire interior and exterior including the nose gear
with two brand new Michelins are in unbelievably great shape. I am only missing
a few items. This is an honest to God real dream come true! My airline career
was working as an A&P for United at LAX from 1968 to 1971. The rest of that
story as they say is history.
Ground was broken the day after the building permit was issued. We had a special
ground breaking ceremony that started on the clock at 2:22 in the afternoon and
was completed at 2:27. We shot film and digital video. The date was 7-27. This
is amazing and totally coincidental. I have been told that the word coincidence
means God's way of subtly being visible. Well, the dreams I have had are real.
We are building my new aviation art studio to match His plan; as revealed in
those amazing dreams ...
Blue Skies and Merry Christmas,
Rick
December 8, 2005
Courtesy of
avweb.com Business Newswire
Earlier, we hinted at an exception to our theme that this year's NBAA
extravaganza was an evolutionary one. Enter long-time industry veteran Linden
Blue. Blue, you may know, was in Beechcraft's left seat in 1983 when the
aforementioned Starship was born. He also served as general manager at Learjet
and was CEO of Learfan. While much has changed among the three Starship
players -- Rutan now is very focused on space while Beech is now deeply
immersed in the Raytheon empire and all but a handful of the 53 Starships ever
made have been grounded -- Blue's heart clearly is still in business aviation.
This year, he and his son Austin brought to Orlando news of their latest
innovation: a soon-to-be-flying full-scale prototype of an extremely
lightweight, all-composite Williams FJ33-powered jet called the Spectrum 33.
Like the Starship, Blue and his team at Spectrum Aeronautical developed their
jet completely under the radar, this time at a facility in the Utah desert.
Seemingly well-financed and obviously determined to bring their project to
certification, they have built production tooling and used it to assemble the
first example of the '33. What's more, they strongly believe they have solved
the bugaboo of just about every all-composite airplane since (and including)
the Starship: weight. At NBAA, AVweb sat down with Linden and Austin
for an exclusive interview.
According to Blue (and a lot of others), the
reason most production all-composite aircraft failed to realize their twin
promise of strength and light weight is that manufacturers tried to assemble
the advanced materials using methods dating from the Great Depression.
"Composites can be seductive," Blue told us. "The devil is in the details;
putting them together is the problem." He calls this the "black aluminum"
approach: trying to assemble carbon-fiber composites, for example, using
methods designed for the too-familiar metal. In fact, the Starship program
failed when it was transferred from Rutan's hands to Beech's Wichita facility.
Beech "lost control of costs and weight," according to Blue, dooming the
Starship to its eventual fate. Instead, Blue says he has spent the last 20
years working on what he calls the "technology of manufacturing" all-composite
aircraft to overcome these "traditional assembly" methods. Proof of their
theories, Blue and his team maintain, can be found in the Spectrum 33's
numbers: Their empty airplane weighs roughly half the empty weight of a Cessna
Citation CJ2. One of the keys is the composite material itself, which is
dubbed "FibeX." The other key is something called "grid stiffening," which the
company says "describes a structural configuration that employs stiffeners or
ribs in a pattern which distributes loads widely throughout a given
structure." Spectrum says this type of manufacturing is the main difference
between its method and the honeycomb core stiffening common in almost all
other aircraft composite construction.
The thing that was so exciting about the Starship was not just its
all-composite construction. Instead, the whole deal was radical departure: a
canard, twin pusher turboprops, tipsails instead of a conventional vertical
stabilizer. By contrast, the Spectrum 33 is not at all radical from a
distance. It more resembles an unnatural pairing of a baby Learjet with a
straight-wing-and-wingletted Citation than a Starship. And that relative
simplicity is one reason Blue says he "will be upset if it doesn't fly by the
end of 2005." What Spectrum believes it has achieved is "the right combination
of proprietary processes and designs to build significantly better and more
economical advanced composites aircraft." Allied with Rocky Mountain
Composites, Spectrum says it has developed new techniques -- "disruptive
technologies" -- enabling lighter and more fuel-efficient airplanes out of
advanced composites. Blue and his crew have offered up some exciting numbers
for the eight-passenger jet.
Designed to serve the personal transportation,
air-taxi, fractional, charter and special use aircraft markets, the Spectrum
33 -- it's named after the Williams engines powering it -- is slated to have a
projected selling price of $3.65 million (2005 dollars), be flown by a single
pilot and seat up to nine passengers. It will feature a high-speed cruise of
415 KTAS, a useful load of 3,865 lbs. and a payload of 2,000 lbs. With a
projected maximum gross takeoff weight of 7,300 lbs, the airplane is slated to
weigh only 3,435 lbs empty. By contrast, a Cessna Citation CJ2+ has a typical
empty weight more than the Spectrum's gross: 7,695 lbs; its MGTOW is
12,500 lbs. Of course, all of the Spectrum's numbers are very preliminary. The
company says it expects FAA certification in the 2007/2008 timeframe. And, no,
you can't buy one right now -- Spectrum says it is not accepting orders or
deposits. Which is probably a good thing, since a lot has to happen before the
company meets its goals, not least of which is that first flight. Will it
happen? Blue's been around the block a time or two, and his team seems
well-financed, confident and very determined. That they have designed and
built a prototype in total secrecy is a plus. But, it's not 1983 any more. And
that could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending.
November 17, 2005
This photo was shot at sunset on November 16, 2005. Note sunset
reflecting in
the upper story bedroom window. The floor area was cleaned and leveled in
preparation for the concrete arrival. Four huge concrete trucks were required
to supply all the mud which arrived just after sunrise and took a crew of 7 hard
working concrete guys most of the day to pour and smooth out to level.
The concrete pad was poured earlier and it was great to see the
area around the bird finally cleaned up. Framing will start next week. We are
really excited!. I am doing about ten or twenty walk around inspections on the
Boeing everyday now. Somehow this whole make a dream come true project has
turned into a magic carpet ride / time machine for me. I know it is only part of
a 727 but for me (when I am checking it out) this Boeing is surreal and very
much alive. I seem to be blocking everything out except the airplane and my
memories.
The photo below doesn't show that we have the exact perfect measurement for the
wheels to be on the ground. We will crank them down after the concrete floor has
reached tensile strength and then put the gear doors in place. Right now they
are held in place by the worm gear drive gear cranking system. A massive chain
is double wrapped for backup. We got a pair of brand new $2500.00 Michelin
radials on the nose wheels that have one landing on them. They will clean up to
show room condition.
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They are perfect and show no weather checking or any
discrepancies what so ever. When the jet was in storage they were rotated once a
month and kept covered too so they are in first cabin air show condition. I will
need to do a little cleaning here and there as the dust and sand from Mojave got
on the grease fittings; it is just a little dirty. The gear was brand new in
1998 and should look great once it is cleaned up.
Not sure how we will handle the stairs going into the cabin. For building code
they have to be permanent COS City Code government standard grade. Once the
final building inspection has been signed off then we will come in and install
the plumbing into the lav and galley as well as the cold water drinking
fountain. You can see the white PVC pipe stubbed in below just aft of the PAX
loading door. Also, if we can figure a way to devise a set of rolling stairs
then James and I will build them. I think it would be cool to be able to roll
them to the jet and away for different display conditions.
Got the new concrete poured this morning and it is setting up
just fine. And it looks great!
In fact it looks like a big ice skating rink right now since it is still wet and
glossy. Or there are those who might envision a nice basketball court going in;
tennis nuts would visualize a great court. But for me this is the United
Airlines hangar I worked out of at LAX. We are on a good roll now. Additional
building materials and structural wood has been ordered for delivery on Monday.
Then the carpenters will be rounded up and put together with their nails and
hammers ...
Rick Broome
November 17, 2005
November 7, 2005
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY LEN!
November 7, 2005 was the 35th anniversary of the late Braniff
Airways Captain Len Morgan getting checked out in the 747. Len passed away in
his sleep earlier this year. He and I met when I was a teenager and over the
next forty years he was like a father and a brother to me. I flew jump seat on
our United Airlines Boeing 747 registered N4713U when Len flew his check ride
and almost every year I would send him an anniversary card or note. And I
probably called Len at least 20 out of the past 35 years. I never needed an
excuse to call and it was always fun to talk to Len on November seventh; as the
years moved on. Some years he didn't want a reminder. It was truly a gift from
God -- and a wonderful blessing -- that I got to ride jump seat on that flight.
And of course I will never forget it.
I sure miss you pal. I am certain that your Spirit is truly
enjoying all the construction going on around this place. I have almost
completed my inventory of parts and cleaning of the interior of my Boeing. I am
finding a lot of interesting stuff in all kinds of hidden places. And everyday I
go out and pretend I am getting the jet ready for flight just like I did when I
turned wrenches for United over 35 years ago.
I know you are here from time to time Len. I can feel it in my heart. As a
matter of fact, when I checked the cockpit switches in my 727 last night, before
shutting down the lights, I noticed that the "No Smoking" switch had been turned
off. That is very interesting. Because I had moved it to the on position when I
played pilot earlier yesterday and went to work ...
Every now and then a man comes along that stands out above all
the rest. He doesn't shine because he asks for it or seeks the attention. In
fact, it is quite the contrary. He stands out because he exudes goodness and
decency.
Len Morgan was one of those individuals that embodied integrity and honesty. He
taught by example, not by lecture, and his devotion to aviation was unrivaled.
After graduating from high school he enlisted for pilot training in the Royal
Canadian Air Force and arrived in England a week after the Pearl Harbor attack.
He transferred to the United States Army Air Forces in Egypt and flew Air
Transport Command routes in Africa and the Middle East. Upon returning to the
States in 1943, he was an instructor at Reno Army Air Base. Following the war he
served with the 123rd Fighter Group, Kentucky Air National Guard.
In 1949 he began a 33-year career with Braniff International Airways at Dallas,
Texas, during which time he flew domestic and international routes as well as on
military charters to the Far East during the Vietnam War. He retired on the
B747, his favorite airplane.
Morgan wrote hundreds of articles on aviation topics, authored and/or published
more than 30 books, and was a contributing editor of FLYING magazine for 20
years.
His fellow pilots, friends and readers considered Len Morgan a tremendous credit
to aviation. Numerous pilots contribute their decision to enter the aviation
world to him and the hundreds of letters following his death spoke volumes about
this kind and gentle man.
Len Morgan was not only my hero, he was my father.
Len Morgan
1922 - 2005
October 31, 2005
We are building a fantastic 2500 square foot aviation art studio
and gallery for me. Plans for this dream studio were actually sketched almost
thirty years ago. The former United Airlines Boeing 727 sits on a special
elevated mounting platform at the back of my new painting studio. It will be a
working display.
My jet is almost brand new inside. It served its entire career with United and
had a major “D Check” overhaul in 1998. This gave the venerable airliner a new
lease on life and she could have soldiered on for at least another twenty years.
At that time The United Airlines Heavy Maintenance facility in San Francisco
completely stripped out the airliner and rebuilt almost every piece of the jet.
It even got a brand new interior which was only about three years old when
United was forced to store the airliner as a result of the terrorist attacks on
America on 9-11.
My jet flew its retirement flight in December of 2001. Even all of the passenger
windows are brand new. Not a scratch on them. There is really no wear inside the
cabin either. I can report that the highest of standards in aircraft maintenance
that I experienced as a flight line mechanic for United from 1968-1971 were
still working when our jet was overhauled.
I plan to make the Boeing into a working display. However, rather than install
First Class passenger seats back inside the cabin my son James and I are
following the design of the Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) for the interior design.
This will give us a fantastic area to enjoy relaxing or watching the plasma
television rather than having five dull looking rows of static and nonfunctional
First Class airline seating.
Photo shows interior of a Boeing Business Jet. (Not Actual
interior of Our B727)
Our plan is to make the interior of the airliner a great place to
entertain. I have always been good at creating "mood lighting" and plan a
theatrical approach to the illumination of the interior. The overhead luggage
bins are almost brand new. They will stay along with their respective light
fixtures and other standard features.
Inside the cockpit everything is almost totally complete including the flight
engineer’s panel. I will need to get a few instruments and perhaps a fake radar
screen. All 5 cockpit seats are positioned just like they were after its
retirement flight. Even though they are used the cost was $2500.00 per chair. At
some time in the future I plan to get all the cockpit lighting to work. For the
short term, however, I am going to change out the 28 volt 400 cycle fluorescent
fixtures with good old 110 volt stuff to keep the cost down and provide some
interior illumination. The power transformer to convert 110 volt, 60 cycle
household power to 28 volt 400 cycle aircraft power has a list price of $3800.00
plus installation.
James sitting in the Captains seat
The lavatory will be fully functional. Again it is easy to change
out the light fixtures in the lavatory to household power. And the galley will
be converted to a more standard type like you see on the Boeing Business Jet.
James and I have looked at a lot of photos of recent BBJs and there are some
great examples to follow in converting the galley. Of course it will have a
bigger refrigerator freezer combo, a microwave, coffee maker and a bar type sink
installed plus some nice cabinets. I plan to keep as much of the stock United
furnishings as possible since they are in such great shape.
The entire nose section of the 727 was left uncut from just behind the passenger
loading door. Once the new basement concrete floor has been poured and finished
we will lower the nose wheels and they will sit on the floor. The tires look
brand new. As the airplane sits right now the nose gear is held up off the
basement floor with some stout steel chains. The structural support is designed
to accept the entire weight and load of the fuselage so the nose gear is not
required to take any of the loads. I am on the lookout for a set of authentic
wheel chalks.
Outside the seven starboard cabin windows there is about two feet
of space to the inside wall of the studio. I plan to paint two different
Starlite murals to be hung outside the windows. One will be an in-flight night
scene with clouds and landscape featuring thousands of twinkling lights coming
from miniature communities as seen from 37,000 feet under a full moon at night.
The other scene will be an authentic view of the ramp at an airport. Off in the
distance I plan to paint the old hangar facilities at LAX just like they
appeared when I was a flight line mechanic for United Airlines.
There is a fellow who lives outside Seattle who has invented an
integrated program that works in cooperation with Microsoft Flight Simulator
2004. He has worked out all of the design parameters to allow the cockpit to be
a fully functional flight simulator. Working in conjunction with the Boeing 727
add on software program he hooks up servo’s to all of the flight controls, trim,
thrust levers and other applied switches such that the cockpit can be
certificated as a Class A flight training simulator device.
At some time in the future I will commission him to come and turn our 727 into
just such a beast. The system even uses a projection television device so that
you can actually have a complete visual scene outside the cockpit windows. In
the short term, however, I will get a new CPU and put it on the floor at the
observer’s station in the cockpit and place the keyboard and a flat screen
monitor on the small observers table on the port aft side of the cockpit. This
will allow me to actually get the true and authentic sounds of the 727 routed
through an amplifier with a number of speakers placed against the bottom of the
floor of the cockpit and cabin. When in operation we should be able to have
surround sound audio effects in operation at all times reflecting all flight
regimes from ground idle to high altitude cruise.
Of course now that you have read all about my plans for my new 727 it should be
obvious that this former airliner is now a big toy for me to play inside. And
also it will be a great display. But most of all during the days and nights when
I am at work in my studio as an aviation artist I can gaze at the Boeing and
have fond memories of all the wonderful people whom have made it possible for my
dreams to come true …
Rick Broome
November 3, 2005
STUDIO 727
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