Boeing retiree Richard Brown and son Steve access the Boeing home page to view the first live Internet broadcast of the first flight of a Boeing plane.

Right there,

on the screen!

757-300 takes off

over the Internet, too

By Mark Ziegler
Boeing News

The first 757-300 streaked north with a thunderous roar along the Renton Field runway and lifted off into the blue skies above Lake Washington.

Witnessing the event on a computer screen in his Bellevue, Wash., home was Boeing retiree Richard Brown -- thanks to the first live Internet broadcast of a Boeing airplane's first flight.

Like thousands around the world, Brown, a former engineering research and development manager, accessed the broadcast through the Boeing home page, which he had visited earlier to download software allowing him to view the event.

"It's terrific that they can do something like a live demonstration of a flight," said Brown, whose son Mark is a Boeing manager in Everett. "They can do so much now."

There was no commentary; a camera on the west side of Renton Field focused on the plane before and during takeoff, taking in the sights and sounds of the beginning of the first flight.

Replays of the broadcast were available to those visiting the Boeing home page. The next day, a shorter, edited version of the entire first flight, shot by different crews and featuring additional footage of the plane in flight over the Olympic Mountains and returning to Boeing Field, was made available through the same web site.

During the first flight, more than 3,000 users 'hit' the broadcast, with nearly 8,000 viewing the replays later that day.

Though this first live broadcast was simple in nature, many people worked on the complex task of bringing the event to Internet viewers, including computing, information systems, multimedia, video and public relations groups and organizations in Commercial Airplane Group and Shared Services Group, as well as the Corporate Web team and an outside vendor, RealNetworks.