SEATTLE — A Boeing 787 is ready for a test flight this Seafair weekend.
Well, sort of anyway.
When hydroplanes hit the water Friday to start the weekend of racing that will culminate in Sunday’s Chevrolet Cup, a boat called the U-787 Salute the Seafair will be on Lake Washington.
Boeing and Ellstrom Manufacturing — the company behind the U-1 Miss Elam Plus — have partnered to create a boat that will run on a combination of jet fuel and a biofuel comprised of babassu nut and coconut oils, the first in the sport’s history to run on biofuel.
Erick Ellstrom said the idea of an environmentally friendly hydroplane was suggested by Scott Carson, the president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, during a dinner last summer.
“About a year ago we were at dinner, and Mr. Carson says, ‘I would like to be green,’” Ellstrom explained. “And I looked at him and wasn’t quite sure what he was talking about. Later I learned that he wanted to develop a biofuel designed to run in unlimited hydroplanes and parallel that program with the engines that they fly in the air. So we spent the better part of the year along with the Boeing Corporation designing and building gas turbines that would run successfully on biofuel.”
The boat, which will run on a fuel made by Imperium Renewables, is the team’s backup boat to the U-1 Miss Elam Plus and will run in exhibition heats this weekend, but not compete in Sunday’s races.
Adding even more intrigue to the Boeing boat is the man who will be in the cockpit; none other than hydro racing legend Chip Hanauer. Hanauer, who has 61 unlimited hydroplane victories in his career, including seven in Seattle, has been retired since 1999. He agreed to get back on the water to pilot the Boeing boat.
“I’m here to announce that I will be the test pilot on the 787 when it flies,” Hanauer joked at a press conference Tuesday. “The naysayers are going to say that I have no experience flying. It can’t be that hard.”
Hanauer tested the Boeing boat on Lake Washington early this month, and after getting comfortable in a hydroplane again, he’s ready for a Seafair comeback of sorts.
“I was really nervous getting into the boat,” he said of his early July test run. “Coming up on plane, it felt really foreign, I felt like a fish out of water. Then I went up to the I-90 Bridge turn, and all of a sudden all of the smells and sounds and everything felt natural. But for about two minutes there, the self doubt was creeping in.”
As Hanauer and Ellstrom are quick to point out, Boeing and hydroplane racing isn’t a new partnership. Boeing mechanics, engineers and test pilots have helped shape the sport since it came to Seattle in 1951. Bill Boeing, Jr. even owned a boat, the Miss Wahoo. This weekend’s races, however, will give Boeing a more pronounced presence thanks to the U-787.
“People forget that Boeing has been a part of Seafair since the beginning,” Hanauer said. “Having Boeing visibly involved is a good thing.”
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