spouse to a Boeing employee. “This is the extreme high end of high technology and it’s really a test case,” Lott said. “At museums, you go to look and read a lot; here, you get engaged. Museums are watching to see how it works. It’s a different kind of trend in the museum world. It makes sense— museums keeping up with what’s happening in the rest of our lives.” By far, Above and Beyond’s most popular exhibit offering was Full Throttle, a simulator station that enables participants to design and pilot an airplane. A standing touch screen is used to accomplish the former task; 18 Boein g Frontie rs a flight-deck seat and accompanying controls are responsible for the latter. On Boeing Family Day, the station carried long lines at all times. A teenage Britney Gonzalez, whose father, Miguel, is a Boeing Human Resources director for government operations, intends to be an engineer someday. Full Throttle helped steer her more in that direction. “I’m definitely not going to be a pilot, but it was meaningful to fly a plane, especially after picking out your plane and deciding what to do so it flies,” she said. Added her father: “I thought this would be a very good experience for her.” Boeing aerospace engineer Kim Kolb and his wife, Maggie, watched approvingly as their teenage daughter, Julia, and young son, Joe, took their turns at the busy Full Throttle station. A week earlier, Julia had expressed a strong desire to be a writer, but now it was an engineer, following her design and flight exhibit experience, according to her mother. “It takes you straight up and you get to spot things along the way—it’s real,” Julia said enthusiastically of the simulator. “There’s a space port in it and I’d like to see that happen in
Frontiers September 2015 Issue
To see the actual publication please follow the link above