Twenty years ago I had pushed the throttle open on this same runway, runway 35 at Manchester airport. I had just passed my checkride with a 35-year-old Piper Cherokee. The plane was 35 years old back then. It seemed like the whole industry was that old. Part of my checkride with Charlie was an oral examination aviation and exhibit knowledge of navigation. Charlie was a slight old man with a patch over one eye. Not quite the drill sergeant image that I had imagined. However Charlie had the power off the FAA at his disposal. So it was with him that had to exhibit my proficiency as a pilot. I had studied volumes in preparation for this day. So when Charlie asked what would happen if I had a complete electrical failure in the air, I replied magnetos. Magnetos went out with the Model T ford in the automotive industry, magnetos went out with the crank phone in the telecommunication industry. Magnetos kept my plane in the air. Charlie and I spent the next hour talking about magnetos. I passed my checkride.

    The following year I passed my instrument written exam, At the time it was considered a joke. Why learn about tube powered VOR; Navigation was almost as old. Compared with cars any thing having anything to do with planes had an extra zero on the price tag, They also seemed ten times as unreliable. The General Aviation industry was ripe for a technical evolution.

    The computer age was upon us then. I had learned to fly using Microsoft flight Simulator, a $50 computer program that could realistically simulate flight. Along with the GPS people were writing programs to run laptops and palm pilots in the cockpit. Homebuilders began hooking autopilots to the GPS. Industry started to do the same. Any instrument bought back then would soon be obsolete. Many different highway in the sky systems were being developed. The homebuilders were leading the way into the new millennium. The FAA recognized this and allowed an open and lightly regulated market to start within light aircraft industry with the new sport pilot regulations.

     I had sat at home wishing I had a plane when I looked at an inexpensive electronic level. How hard would it be to convert it to an autopilot I wondered. Five years later I had converted an old laptop into a glass cockpit on my own homebuilt. I had built myself a plane in the basement that could fly from airport to airport all by itself. I would be along for the ride, and to make sure nothing went wrong. It was during this time that I started flying for profit. Not much money to be made. But one could earn a few dollars flying planes and teaching others to fly.

     Toyota had started to build a light plane. Nissan shortly followed them. BMW was also talking about light aircraft manufacture. How could they not build a plane? The BMW roundel badge is that of an aircraft propeller. Fueled by the success of some small independent manufactures the big boys had begun to jump into the game. After all planes are so much simpler than an automobile. An engine and a propeller, with no transmission or drive train, add some small occasionally used wheels, with no sophisticated suspension systems.  The control system uses just a few moving flaps.

     Toyota used hydro-molded aluminum that was friction welded together for the fuselage. The dash was the first curved flat panel display. Something that not even the airlines had. The air-cooled diesel engine was a marvel of simplicity. The plane was simple, sophisticated and elegant. A standard design that was evolutionary and revolutionary at the same time. Nissan went with a futuristic composite construction. A snazzy canard that looked like it would go faster than the speed of sound, powered by a water-cooled low led four-stroke turbo engine it was slightly quieter and faster than the Toyota. It was also slightly less efficient. Nissan used composite and glass fiber fuselage that was cured in a huge autoclave oven that could hold 12 planes. That was also their daily production. The Toyota plant as constructed could ramp up to five thousand units a year. These were small planes. Two seat toys. Sold like jet skies or snowmobiles. They were also powerfully seductive. At 50 thousand dollars they sold well. They also created a demand for the unobtainable four seaters.

    The FAA did not want to certify a longer-range four-seat class of plane. At least not right away. The old style highly regulated plane still filled the role. What was needed was a transport plane with the attributes of the sport plane. Boeing wanted to have this market along with BMW. Although very happy with my homebuilt I thought that the product that was soon to come would be something that I would sign on a dotted line for. The high-end personnel jets would still rule the skies. They had a lot of clout with the FAA; they would not go away. Boeing although the leading airline manufacturer saw the small plane replacing the airliner, as the car replaced the train. So they wanted in the market. real bad. BMW still could not figure what it wanted to do. The FAA took several years to come up with regulations. They would have to appease a global market with the regulations. The result was both political and practical.

    I saw becoming a pilot as my day job. I was willing to take a timeshare in one of the new aircraft when it came out. Boeing came out with a plane similar to the Toyota in construction. The first versions would be from 6 to 12 seats. BMW finally teamed up with Airbus industries to produce a composite 8 seat. I was a little surprised to see no four seaters. I figured that this must have been a step to appease Cessna and Piper along with the newer Cirrus and Lancair.

     The Airbus BMW was a radical twin jet canard. A very fast plane. It was limited to runways over 3000 feet. However the Boeing could easily accommodate runways of 2000 feet. It was also more fuel efficient with a single turbo prop.  The homebuilders were more creative. And they also had the best planes. But there was no competing with the larger manufactures for value. Navigation became largely aircraft dependent with the advent of airborne broadband. All aircraft were transmitting GPS location at that time. Landing and takeoffs had to be communicated with ground. Other than that most other old rules were ignored, (except low level speed and noise) It was sort of like the wild west except for everybody was exceedingly polite. I wanted a new Boeing ten seater. Efficient, quiet and environmentally friendly. Plus it could land at my home airport. Some folks liked the Airbus BMW because of the twin engine safety margin. The redundancy of the twin was appealing, however the turbo prop had a proven failure rate of one in ten million hours. Plus it had a glide rate that would put it within range of an airport 89 of the time in airspace 10,000 feet above ground level. With a little planing I would never be out of range of an airport. A very simple program to run with the navigation system. Anywhere east of the Mississippi would be only a few hours away.

     The cost of the new Boeing 8 was set at a half million dollars. This was about my total net worth. So in spite of my age I managed financing. I received build number 924. Although most people thought that the eight from the Boeing 8 meant the average capacity, what it really meant was the projected build rate. A maximum of eight per day. I was hopping to get mine within the year.

     I was content to fly around in my pounded aluminum homebuilt. I had done several avionic upgrades. I had also replaced the engine with a highly efficient turbo diesel. I could fly anywhere east of the Mississippi with one tank of fuel, under six hours. All my flights were direct, uncomanded by air traffic control. The only people that used air traffic control were the airlines. You could imagine my surprise when I interviewed with Boeing and they offered me a job. The FAA had recently dropped the age restriction on airline pilots. The airlines suddenly preferred the over 60 pilot. Boeing was contracted to provide pilots to the two major airlines. During my last avionics upgrade I had used what I had thought to be the Boeing model to plan my panel. In an interesting twist of fate Boeing had upgraded the cockpits of their airliners to a similar free flight design. I already knew how to fly their new plane. This is how I came to push the throttles on a 777 on my way to Europe.

I guess I should go pound rivets

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