Craig Platt gets a close look at the construction of Dreamliners and jumbo jets on Boeing's factory tour.
So this is what dreams are made of. Well, Dreamliners anyway.
I'm looking at a cutaway piece of fus
Craig Platt gets a close look at the construction of Dreamliners and jumbo jets on Boeing's factory tour.
So this is what dreams are made of. Well, Dreamliners anyway.
I'm looking at a cutaway piece of fuselage made of carbon fibre inside Boeing's 'Future of Flight' museum. The huge exhibit shows one of the many technological advancements of the plane manufacturer's new 787 Dreamliner jet, a revolutionary design that promises greener, cleaner, more fuel-efficient and more comfortable flight.
Dream world: inside the Boeing factory
A Boeing 787 Dreamliner under construction at Everett.
If it ever gets into service. The Dreamliner has been delayed, and delayed again, for the past few years due to technical problems and issues with some of the suppliers. But, from all reports, the first 787 will be delivered to launch customer All Nippon Airways this year.
But Boeing's 'Future of Flight' museum, at its factory in Everett just outside Seattle on the west coast of the United States, is not what we're here for. It is merely the entrée before we get a chance to experience the main meal: the Boeing factory itself.
Although Boeing's headquarters have been in Chicago since 2001, Everett is where the true heart of the legendary plane manufacturer can be found.
It's here that many of the company's aircraft are constructed, including the Dreamliner 787, the 777 and, the most famous of all Boeings, the 747 jumbo jet – the largest passenger jet in the world for almost 40 years, until the arrival of the Airbus A380 in 2007.
The company's founder, William Boeing, took an interest in air travel almost as soon as it became possible – he completed his degree in engineering in 1903, the same year the Wright brothers made their first flight. By 1910, Boeing had purchased an old shipyard in Seattle where he began building planes.
Boeing's first branch in Everett was created in 1943, but it was not until 1967 that the current factory opened, specifically designed for building the 747 jumbo. Since then, the factory has grown, and grown, to the point were it essentially IS the town.
Not surprising when you learn that Boeing employs more than 75,000 people in the state, the vast majority in Everett.
The size of the main factory building alone is mind boggling. All the production lines, each, of course, larger than an aircraft hangar, are contained in one enormous building. At 13 million cubic metres, it is the largest building in the world by volume.
Employees use bicycles or motorised carts to get around the huge space and a vast series of tunnels connect various parts of the plant.
Once we're kitted out with safety goggles, we head out on to the production floor of the 777 – a twin-aisle, two-engine jet used by Virgin Australia and Air New Zealand, among many others. There are several 777s on the floor in various phases of construction. We enter close to the end of the line, where a near-complete 777 is plastered with a large banner reading “The third 777 for Ethiopia Airlines”. Wit