How to See the United Boeing 747 in Downtown Seattle

A mega addition to the skyline is currently causing a storm in downtown Seattle.

Wedged between two buildings, the hulk of a giant Boeing 747-400 airliner has appeared, looming over the street and the walkway below.

A lot of work is going on to prepare this new attraction, but if you’re in the area maybe you’ll want to see it.

What’s the Story of Seattle’s Downtown 747?

Pugnaciouspete, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

The new WB1200 residential complex (formerly known as 1200 Stewart) has been under construction for a while, and features a range of luxury apartments and retail spaces.

The highlight of the next complex is the addition of a Boeing 747-400 fuselage between the two buildings, hovering over the walkway and retail space at street level.

The iconic humped nose of the aircraft juts out towards the street, and the stubs of the wings are inserted into each of the 48-storey tower blocks.

The aircraft, which previously flew with United Airlines as N178UA, will now be used as office space and a café, which means that – once complete – you can go inside and marvel at the aircraft’s interior.

A History of N178UA

This aircraft, N178UA, is a Boeing 747-422 with construction number 24385 and line number 820.

It was built at Paine Field, Everett, to the north of Seattle, in 1990 and first flew on 23 October that year.

Delivery then took place to United Airlines on 8 November 1990.

The aircraft went on to fly on the airline’s intercontinental network for the next 27 years before it was retired in October 2017.

It was one of 44 Boeing 747-400s the airline flew, and over the course of its time with United it wore four of the airline’s different liveries.

Photo: Matt Taylor

Photo: Shih Hsien Hsu

From the earlier ‘Saul Bass’ scheme of the 1980s, to the Battleship Grey scheme of the 1990s, the blue Tulip scheme of the early 2000s and the more recent globe scheme worn after United’s merger with Continental Airlines in 2010.

Photo: Aero Icarus

Following its retirement to Victorville’s Southern California Logistics Airport, the aircraft was used as a parts source before it was acquired for this new project in Seattle.

It was then stripped to bare metal, and disassembled into 39 parts so that the it could be transported to Seattle for its new role. It has recently been reassembled.

Whilst still under construction, the project is expected to be completed soon. You can see it hovering 4m above your head at the intersection of Stewart Street and Denny Way.