Home Miscellaneous Spotting Catching up with the Boeing prototype aircraft

Catching up with the Boeing prototype aircraft

by Matt Falcus

Recently we put together a post charting the various prototype aircraft produced for each Airbus type. It proved popular, so next in line is the Boeing prototype aircraft.

The prototype model is the first of the type to fly, and will later be joined by other examples to help achieve flight certification.

Following this, the prototype will often either be kept for future testing and modification, delivered to an airline customer, sent to a museum or stored and ultimately scrapped.

 

Boeing 707 (original 367-80)

707 prototypeN70700. Preserved at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA (alongside Washington Dulles Airport).

Boeing 707-100

Crashed 17 September 1965.

Boeing 717

N717XA. Scrapped at Long Beach, CA. Parts may still exist.

Boeing 720

Scrapped in 1982.

Boeing 727-100

727 Prototype Boeing Field

N7001U was preserved at Everett Paine Field, but on 2nd March 2016 undertook its final flight as it positioned to the nearby Boeing Field in Seattle for display at the Museum of Flight.

Boeing 727-200

Scrapped in 2003.

Boeing 737-100

737-100 prototype

N515NA. Preserved at Museum of Flight, Boeing Field, Seattle, WA.

Boeing 737-200

Scrapped in 2013.

Boeing 737-300

Scrapped in 2006.

Boeing 737-400

N406US. Withdrawn from use and being broken up at Tucson, AZ. May be gone already.

Boeing 737-500

Scrapped in 2013

Boeing 737-600

737-600 prototype

LN-RRO. Active with SAS.

Boeing 737-700


© Marco Dotti
N707SA. Active with Southwest Airlines.

Boeing 737-800

737-800 prototype

TC-SNY. Active with SunExpress.

Boeing 737-900

737-900 prototype N302AS

N302AS. Active with Alaska Airlines.

Boeing 747-100

747 prototype

N7470. Preserved at the Museum of Flight, Boeing Field, Seattle, WA.

Boeing 747-200B

Scrapped in 2003

Boeing 747-300

Scrapped in 2010.

Boeing 747-400

N661US Delta Boeing 747-400 prototype

N661US. Recently retired at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, GA. Will be preserved at Delta Flight Museum.

Boeing 747SP

Scrapped in 1999.

Boeing 747-8i

FlightAware Photo
Photo Courtesy of FlightAware.com

9K-GAA. Active with Kuwait Government.

Boeing 747-8 Freighter

LX-VCA 747-8 prototype

LX-VCA. Active with Cargolux.

Boeing 757-200

757-200 prototype

N757A. Active as a testbed with Boeing. Usually at Boeing Field, Seattle, WA.

Boeing 757-300

757-300 prototype

Julian Herzog [GFDL or CC BY 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

D-ABOA. Active with Condor.

Boeing 767-200

Scrapped in 2006.

Boeing 767-300

JA8236. Scrapped, but cockpit retained with Scroggins Aviation for movie work.

Boeing 767-400

767-400 prototype

By Curimedia | P H O T O G R A P H Y [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

N825MH. Active with Delta Air Lines.

Boeing 777-200

777-200 prototype

By Aldo Bidini [GFDL 1.2, GFDL 1.2 or GFDL 1.2], via Wikimedia Commons

B-HNL. Preserved at Pima Air & Space Museum, Tucson (from September 2018)

Boeing 777-300

777-300 prototype

By Kentaro Iemoto from Tokyo, Japan [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

B-HNE. Active with Cathay Pacific.

Boeing 787-8

787 Museum of Flight

One of the prototype 787s, N787BX / ZA003 is now on display at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, alongside the original 737 and 747.

 

N787BA. Preserved at Nagoya Chubu Centrair Airport, Japan.

N787EX Pima Air and Space Museum

N787EX / ZA002 is at the Pima Air & Space Museum, Tucson, AZ.

N7874

N7874, the fourth prototype aircraft, is used as a demonstrator at Seattle Boeing Field, but is likely to be converted to a BBJ and sold off.

Boeing 787-9


© Nathen Sieben
ZK-NZC. Active with Air New Zealand.

 

 

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13 comments

Lennart Berns September 22, 2015 - 3:54 pm

Fine job you´ve done! Interesting, indeed. Did´t know SAS was still flying first 737-600.

Reply
w.p.howley September 22, 2015 - 4:08 pm

All these planes are very intresting but there are other plane makers in the world where do they put these.i go to Manchester a lot.but I in goingto Heathrow soon I will see some bigger aircrafed there.

Reply
Matt Falcus September 22, 2015 - 4:12 pm

Don’t worry, I’ll be covering some other manufacturers soon, like Embraer, Lockheed, McDonnell Douglas etc

Reply
Doug Scroggins April 25, 2016 - 1:31 am

Hi Matt,

I like what you are doing with keeping track of the 1st aircraft in your feature “Catching up with the Boeing prototype aircraft” I would like to send you a photo of the B-767, ex-JAL, JA8236 cn 23215 to post on your site.
We recently just painted it this week for a upcoming project.

Cheers, Doug

Reply
Matt Falcus April 25, 2016 - 11:09 am

Hi Doug, thanks for the comment. Please do send me the picture – mattfalcus@hotmail.com
Thanks!

Reply
Rees Shuman May 23, 2016 - 12:53 am

nice article, though one mistake, the prototype for the 787 is at Boeing Field. It is currently being used as a test aircraft for new green technologies.

Museum of Flight docent,
Rees Shuman

Reply
Matt Falcus May 23, 2016 - 8:07 am

Hi Rees, thanks for your comment! All three prototype 787s are in different locations, so I’ve changed the article to reflect that. The one in Seattle is the 3rd prototype, whilst the original is in Nagoya, Japan. The 2nd prototype is in Tucson, AZ.

Reply
Rees Shuman May 25, 2016 - 6:04 pm

no, I know that the 3rd prototype is at our museum, I mean the first prototype is also at Boeing Field. Its being used as a eco demonstrator.

Reply
Matt Falcus May 26, 2016 - 8:50 am

Ahh ok, you’re right! Will update the post. Thanks for letting me know!

Reply
Cathay Pacific Donates the First Boeing 777 to Pima Air & Space Museum - Airport Spotting Blog September 18, 2018 - 3:32 pm

[…] [Catching Up With the Boeing Prototypes – Where the First Aircraft Are Located Now] […]

Reply
Lynley Quedley October 13, 2018 - 8:45 pm

Hi there,

How about adding the 747-400 ER that only Qantas have (6 of them). VH-OEE, EF, EG, EH, EI & EJ. These are all GE CF6 powered aircraft.

Kind regards,

Lynley

Reply
Matt Falcus October 14, 2018 - 3:54 pm

Thanks Lynley!

Reply
Anon November 13, 2019 - 3:04 pm

ZA004 is active still but also not going to be sold to no one once done.

Reply

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