Boeing’s First Flight

The B&W Bluebill flew from here in 1916

The Roanoke Street Mini Park is one of almost 150 “street ends” in Seattle that sometimes look like private spaces but are really public rights-of-way that provide access to local shorelines. This tiny, well-tended wedge of a green space is one of the gems. Tucked into a neighborhood of waterfront homes and condos, the mini park has two shaded benches and a pleasing peekaboo view of houseboats, seaplanes, and watercraft on Lake Union.

Easy to miss on the low wall along the park’s stone walkway is a bronze plaque noting, “From this site, Boeing launched its first airplane, the B&W, in 1916.” The plane was a two-wing floatplane built by William E. Boeing, then a timber executive, avid yachtsman, and budding aviation enthusiast, with his friend and fellow flying fan, U.S. Naval officer Conrad Westervelt. (Thus the “B&W” in the name.) Both men had ridden in Martin seaplanes (Boeing owned one), and together they set out to make an airplane that was better.

Their first plane, the B&W Bluebill (Model 1) had a wood skeleton, wire bracing, and a lacquered cloth covering. Parts for the plane were manufactured at Boeing’s Red Barn (now a historic aerospace site) and then brought to Lake Union to be assembled in a specially built boathouse.

The B&W Bluebill took its first test flight on June 15, 1916 over Lake Union, with Boeing in the pilot’s seat. Another test flight took place two weeks later, and a second B&W plane, the Mallard, flew from the same spot in November 1916. Boeing tried but failed to sell those first B&W planes and the designs to the US Navy. But he later sold both the Bluebill and the Mallard to the New Zealand Flying School, which used the planes for training and airmail deliveries. Those two planes are long gone, but a replica of the B&W built in 1966 for the Boeing Company’s 50th anniversary can be spotted at Seattle’s Museum of Flight.