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Monday, August 25, 2008 01:06:26 PM

The New Studio!

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE AMAZING PHOTOGRAPHS OF RICK'S BOEING ON ITS FINAL FLIGHT

March 14, 2006

Rick gives his pal Mike Gallagher a checkout in engine start procedures inside the cockpit of his 727. Note that the seat covers are brand new. The wall in front of the cockpit will have one of Rick's murals painted on it that looks like the hangar area where he worked as a flight line mechanic for United Airlines at Los Angeles International Airport from 1968 to 1971.
 

February 23, 2005

January 19, 2006

Currently the final framing is being completed around our United Boeing 727-222A. You can see the stairs and bridge that lead from my new studio into our home on the left. The door in the basement (pink now) is four feet wide and leads to my research library and production studio for self-publishing my aviation art on canvas. The view on the right above is looking toward my new studio painting area. Ten feet of 727 wing tip will hang over my easel providing illumination for both regular lighting and special blacklights to create my Starlite paintings. The ceiling height next to the triangle diffused lighting window is almost 24 feet high. Large clearstory windows are above the main roof support beam which can be seen in the top right of the photos above and below.

The Captains seat fits too! The first photo above shows the massive building structure built around the aircraft. In the second photo James has digitally shown how it will look after the drywall is installed and I have been able to paint my Starlite murals on the walls and ceiling. Of course they will illuminate under blacklight in reduced room lighting giving the display an ethereal look.

I washed the aircraft last week but have not tried to polish out the paint or wax it yet. I tested a couple areas and it will shine up real nice. The thin stripes on the cheat line will need to be repainted but that will be a piece of cake. Also the stock United Airlines paint logos will also be restored to original condition. We are going to build a miniature set of airstairs that will mimic the standard boarding ramps used in the 1950s and early 1960s. They will be on easy to roll wheels and when not in use will park next to the studio stairs into our home or can be moved outside and stored next to the deck.

Installation of the electric wiring that will support all my special theatrical lighting for the display (at night in reduced lighting) is nearly completed. We have put in 14 dedicated 20 amp circuits to support all the track lighting, spot lights, and various special frequency blacklights. All of the lights will be on dimmer switches. The lights will be controlled from several different locations but the master control panel is going to be in my main studio area. A bank of 16 four foot blacklights for my studio easels will be installed in the left wing and wing tip also controlled from the same location. Also, four independently controlled ceiling fans will give excellent airflow. The environmental system is nearly completed now and has many special features including state of the art humidifier and a full time electronic air filter. It is the latest in heat exchanger technology and is rated at 90 percent efficiency. Special ducting brings the conditioned air into the fuselage cabin and all of the forward air flow systems inside the cockpit, lavatory, galley, and front cabin will be operational too.

As seen above this is how the exterior now appears before landscaping. The specially formulated stucco will be applied in color that matches our home. Final application will be delayed until weather conditions are ideal. Walls are six inches thick in most locations and over ten inches thick on the north side of the studio. Note that the rain gutters and the shingles have now been installed too. The insulation will be installed in a week or so after the framing has been inspected; building materials are still showing inside the structure. Billie has been giving prayers of thanks now that the 18 foot extra section of fuselage has been moved to the south side of our home. It will be enclosed as an operational shop and storage area.

The French doors are centered on the entry door of the 727 and measure 8 feet wide and 80 inches high for scale. The height of the front wall is over 13 feet. Also note several of the picture windows (and every other top clearstory window) can be opened for air circulation. Barely visible on the right wall is the entry door which is centered to the 727 fuselage center aisle. A yet to be built deck will give access to that entry door. The flat roof is also visible over the Boeing and on the opposite side of the roof pitch are large clearstory windows that scoop light from the west into the studio. All of the natural lighting works perfectly as designed for my artistic needs. My original sketches of this dream studio were first conceived over 30 years ago. When we started the final architectural design work with Mr. Al Feinstein in the summer of 2002 it was obvious that his talents are World Class. And our builder Mitch Christensen's work is totally First Cabin too!

Charles Lindbergh once said that he would trade just another ten year's of flying for an ordinary man's entire lifetime. I certainly repeat that mantra every day! Once I get moved into my new studio later this spring -- and get studio operations running smoothly -- I can promise that my production will be fantastic. And you will be excited to see all the new and exciting aviation art that I will be able to create here in my dream studio.

We currently have over 200 commissions and new paintings in progress for future completion. And I am backlogged several years on some of my popular Starlite original paintings. During the past 30 years I completed over 1500 new paintings and Starlites in my old 280 square foot studio. Now, with 2500 square feet of additional room, plus the wonderful lighting and space so much needed for my historical and worthy projects; there will soon be some wonderful new aviation art completed here! My new studio is a real honest dream that came true ...

God Bless!
Rick

December 30, 2005

Photos Showing Construction On December 29, 2005

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

Many of you have heard Rick talk about it...For years, he has been dreaming of getting a new studio.  That Dream came to Reality on 7/27/05.  Follow the progress of the studio here and through the photo gallery below...Use the arrows to move through the images.

STUDIO JOURNAL NOVEMBER 8, 2005

My old pal Michael Garman came by for a visit and a tour of the new studio construction ans especially our Boeing 727 on Saturday. ( http://www.michaelgarman.com/ ) Mike is one of the most famous of all modern American sculpture artists. And certainly the most prolific. When he set up shop in Colorado Springs in 1972 we did an art show together. And bonded for life.

I showed Mike the new studio design which includes secret passage ways, hidden doors, and the clever way we will gain access into my old studio. He commented that our architect Al Feinstein is a genus with the fantastic design. I agree. He is somewhat of an expert in all matters of construction and also commented about the fantastic job our builder Mitch Christiansen is doing on the project. I agree.

Mike then brought up a good question. "Why is it that men always have to have secret doors, hidden rooms, and tunnels and stuff like that?" Great question! We both ended up exploring that fact with a long philosophical conversation. We concluded that it must be a genetic thing that started and was programmed into our brains during the cave man days. It continued to be something that men have to do finally reaching it's ultimate in design and function during the building of such marvels as the Great Pyramids. From there our ancestors continued building hidden rooms and secret passageways in the great castles in Europe and of course the British Isles.'

We are the hunters!" Garman exclaimed. "And we need to have secret hideaways and secret rooms and special rooms to create in and even a secret place to hide in. We got to have secret passage ways to get into them too! We have to hide our booty! Men must have their secret hideaways! We must have them; it is our right of passage and a symbol of our success when we can have secret rooms. And we need places to hide."

He took a short breath and continued with eyes wide open: "The women-folk are the caretakers." he commented. "They took care of the men folk when we were advancing through the centuries that got us here. That was their job! In ancient times when Men were building their hiding places the women were bearing and raising our children. Why would they need to hide anything?"

Then our conversation evolved into Political Correctness (He's not) and Michael's philosophy on giving the women the vote ... and ... well ... I will be PC here. And not continue into all of his philosophy, historical meanderings, and artistic bent on life from this point on. He made his point. Secret rooms are good for Men. And even the Beech Boys recorded a song "In My Room" which told all the reasons why. Anyone who knows Mike knows he is a character! Suffice to say that Garman was happy to see that secret rooms, secret doors, and hidden passageways are integrated into my new studio design. He has four or five secret art studios hidden in his five story half a city block sized Michael Garman Galleries located right here in Old Colorado City. (Check out his website noted above.) Matter of fact, Michael is working on building a secret tunnel in his old place as I write. An escape route, he calls it.

Which brings up the subject of my old studio. In the original plan we were going to demolish this ancient but historic little room. A letter I received from dear friend (and brother) Mike Brooks (USAFA 99) noted all of the history that is contained in my very small 28 year old tiny 280 square foot studio. He wrote about the ambiance of the old place. Mentioned all the wonderful folks who had spent time here watching me paint including my best friend Apollo 15 Astronaut the late Jim Irwin. Even my old pal General Colin Powell loved to watch me create paintings out here. In fact the former Secretary of State shed some serious blood all over my Class of 1982 Thunderbird painting and my studio one night in November 1981. He smashed his head into my blacklight fixture and knocked it off it's support bleeding all over the class painting and the light too. Colin Powell's blood stains are still on that painting and splattered all over my 100 pound light fixture. The gash required stitches and he has a divot on his forehead to prove it.

THIS IS THE VIEW OF THE 727 GALLEY DOOR AS SEEN FROM MY OLD STUDIO
THIS DOOR WILL BE A SECRET ENTRANCE TO ENTER THE ORIGINAL STUDIO

"Think about the thousands of cadets and their parent's who had toured my studio!", Brooks wrote. It was a convincing letter. The old studio stays! I created over 1700 new original paintings and commissioned Starlites in this old studio. And now it is soon to be a secret hideaway. As seen in the photo above the galley door on our United 727 will also be the secret entrance to my old studio. All we need to do is take out the window and open up the wall a little and the galley door will swing into this old haunt. And I will certainly keep the old place going strong. It will stay pretty much the way it is now. Sans all the messes caused by a critical shortage of space ...

Rick Broome
Studio Logs and Journals
November 8, 2005

Rick, Mitch and Dennis go over the plans

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Rick, Mitch and Dennis go over the plans

Studio Construction October 31, 2005
Final Approach!

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

NEW STATE OF THE ART BOEING 727 STUDIO & AVIATION MUSEUM  

I have been sketching and dreaming about building a new studio, gallery and my own personal aviation museum for decades.  I cannot believe it myself but we just started construction of the ultimate in power for an aviation art studio!  This photo below shows our builder Mitch Christiansen, Billie and me as we broke ground to build our new studio on 7 - 27 - 05 at 2:27 in the afternoon.  How about how those numbers worked out!  

Here are the latest details on the project.  We started working with local architect Al Feinstein in late 02 when I presented my dreams and he began to design.  I wanted an obvious aeronautical theme but most important for me as an artist was the way that we captured and scooped light into the structure.  The final design accomplishes all design requirements.  Feinstein brought in a great team of structural engineers.  All of them are Air Force Academy graduates and we have a winning design.  Then we were fortunate to attract the interest of a very qualified commercial builder who normally wouldn't even consider a project for less than a million dollars.    

The entire new structure is simple and totally aviation.  The original design was too large although it did feature a full size fiberglass replica of the nose of a Boeing 707 on the gallery wall.  This was something I kept having reoccurring dreams about.  I suppose it goes back to my youth and my personal roots in aviation.  To me the Boeing 727 display we will have is a tribute to all the great folks who helped me get started with my career in aviation almost forty-five years ago. 

There will be three foot high "clearstory" windows at the top of the back of the studio located at ceiling height.  These are located about even with the flat roof that will be built over the Boeing once it is placed inside the studio.  The purpose of these windows is to scoop light from the west side of the studio.  The entire studio and gallery area facing the lake will be very large and energy efficient thermal glass picture windows.  A double French door with side vents will be located in the center of the structure with direct walk out to our wildlife sanctuary.  The design is very large and open.  Four ceiling fans will help circulate the air and the new environmental systems are totally independent from our home.  

Above the Boeing will be a 15 x 45 foot flat roof that is designed to support a full deck.  That will come later and be reached from a door on our third floor.  We are also shooting film and digital video everyday to totally document the construction process.  Even with all of this going on I am still able to create my paintings at least ten hours out of every day.  I have several years’ worth of commissioned paintings on the books.  Many are very exciting historical paintings.  Plus I am creating at least one new painting every month for box tops for the fantastic die cast model airliner company Gemini Jets. 

The section which goes inside the studio will be cut from the back-end while it is still on the special trailer which has been custom built to move 727s.  The cut off section left aft of what goes in the studio (estimated to be about 15 feet) will be put on the south side of our home and serve as a new shop and storage area.  We will close off both ends and put a large double wide door in one end and a smaller standard size door on the other end of this most unique storage device. 

To get the Boeing into the studio will require a huge crane to lift the jet off the trailer, hoist it over our home and then lower it onto the special elevated pad.  I think the engineer told us that the crane must be rated for at least 300,000 pounds because the boom has to be extended a very long distance.  We have already bid this out and contracted for the entire crane operation.  We will have to hire off duty police officers with marked patrol cars to keep a safety zone around the operation.  It might be necessary to barricade Old Broadmoor Road during this operation which will be a real hassle with the City.  Safety is paramount, however and certainly this will attract a lot of attention.   

When the jet is disassembled for transport here the belly will be cut off at floor beam level to just forward of the passenger loading door.  Forward of that the entire front fifteen feet (from the radar nose tip aft) will be intact.  This will be suspended over a 14 x 20 foot extension to our basement.  Clear safety glass (or Plexiglas) will allow view into this area; far more eye appealing than having wooden or wrought iron baluster rails set at 4 inch intervals.  I plan some trick Starlite work around the lower basement level studio space so that at night there will be an ethereal view to the display that will look real.  Well, actually the Boeing 727 is real! 

This photo shows excavation has been completed for the new basement area.  
The nose of our Boeing 727 will hang over this room at landing gear height.   

I will be able to keep my old studio going while all this construction is going on too.  At this time I plan to have the jet painted in classic 1960s United Airlines colors just like the jets I worked on to put myself through college.  It is coincidental that this 727 rolled off the assembly line one number ahead of a United 727-222 that was delivered new to UAL when I was an A&P.  Our new Boeing was registered N7247U and I worked on this jet when it was brand new.  We had to do a Change Order Authorization (COA) on the thrust reversers and had the jet for two nights in our hangar at LAX.  I kept duplicates of some of my work cards from this job.  I also did several paintings of this same United jet in 1969 and 1970.  At that time my paintings were selling quite well in the UAL crew lounges at LAX and SFO.  I thought it cool that the FAA registration of this airliner had both 72 and 47 together and thus these numbers bore significance to the new delivery 727s and brand new 747s in our fleet. 

This is the paint scheme that will be on our 727 

As you can tell by this very long letter I am extremely excited and enthused over this lifelong dream coming true!  I have started a painting of this exact 727 as it appeared when delivered new to TWA in 1969.  We will publish the painting and truly hope that our efforts will be inspirational to folks interested in aviation history.  I take serious my job of working hard in documenting the wonder of flight.  This is in true appreciation for everyone who has helped to make my dreams come true. 

This will be the third time I have had a real aircraft as a part of my aviation art studio.  My First aviation art studio was in the fuselage of the Beechcraft Model AT-11, as seen below.  Photo was taken during assembly with Walter and Olivia Ann Beech overseeing their company production line.  Photo taken during World War II in the Beechcraft factory located in Wichita, Kansas.

I purchased this section from Bill Duff Aircraft in Denver who also transported and installed this aircraft fuselage in my Littleton backyard in March 1963. I credit my next door neighbor, hero of heroes, and great friend Vic Buettell for all that he did to encourage my flying dreams to come true when I was a teenager.   

I purchased the complete nose section of the United Airlines DC-7 simulator I had logged time in when I was a youngster in 1974.  It was installed next to my studio window in my art studio here in Colorado Springs and was an amazing attraction.  Pilots would fly to see the DC-7, my studio and to commission paintings from all over the United States.  When we built our home here in the Broadmoor in 1976 we were unable to design a way to incorporate the DC-7 into my studio.  It is now parked in a salvage yard in Denver.   

The former United DC-7 being
 Installed next to my old studio. 

Now we are seeing a thirty year dream come true!  Including the Boeing 727 as an integral part of my new studio it is indeed exciting too.  Because this dream --and indeed my entire life as an aviation artist -- is a true reflection of all the wonderful people who have allowed me to be a part of their lives.  For this I am truly thankful... 

Rick Broome

Colorado Springs
7 -27 - 05

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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED