Sunday, April 14, 2013

Boeing Everett Factory

We took a tour of the Boeing Everett Factory.  It's amazing we've never done that before, after working for Boeing so many years and living in Washington for so long.  It was a 60 mile drive way up past Seattle.

You can the front of the factory here.  It's the largest building in the world in volume.  The footprint covers 1.9 million square feet.  One amazing fact, there is no air conditioning or heating in the building.  It gets enough heat from the machinery in operation and the lighting and the people inside. And if it gets too hot they just open the doors.    We had to take our coats off inside and it was really cold outside this morning.

Here are some of the finished planes parked outside.  Inside the factory we got to see the factory lines for the 767s, the 777s, the jumbo 747s, and the new 787 Dreamliners made out of composites instead of aluminum.

Here's Jacquelyn in front of a Rolls Royce engine at the visitors center.  There's only three engine makers, Rolls Royce, GE, and Pratt & Whitney.

Me by one of the wheels on the landing gear.  They seem so small for such large planes.  Some pick up trucks have bigger wheels.

This is the other side of the engine.  We had a good time together.